SensiBox Subscription Box : Mixed Bag, Unbeatable Value

So we’re going to do our “miscellaneous” category some justice today and check out a SensiBox. SensiBox comes from Spiced UP of Manchester, NH. CrateJoy lists their subscription as low as $31 per box for a 12-month subscription, or $39 for just one box. Thus, our question is: Does the box have good value?

Some of you may be a bit skeptical of this whole subscription box system. Why buy a pig-in-a-poke when you can buy the items separately? But I must say, the SensiBox does impress me as having a market. Let’s unpack this!

Pros

• Items add up well over box price!
• Good value
• Balanced and prudent selection
• Great presentation

Cons

• Maybe not all items would be the kind of thing you’d buy individually
• Box contained some very niche items

Recommendations: I have to say, SensiBox is showing a lot of effort here. My mild suggestion is to aim towards more practical, general use items.

SensiBox Judged by its Contents

In the video, I break down each item and find out its separate price, or the price of a reasonable equivalent. The Spirit Bear Pipe alone sells for $49.99 at Smoke Cartel. So, even if you paid the single-box price, you’re about ten bucks ahead and if you’re a 12-month subscriber, you’re ahead twenty bucks. The pipe comes in a little canvas bag which I didn’t figure into the price, but could be handy for stashing your smoke session kit.

Adding up all the prices we figured for each item in the box came to $78.42! At the $39 rate that’s still double the box price and at the $31 rate it’s a savings of $47.42.

So in terms of raw dollars-and-cents value, the SensiBox is almost too good to be true. However, it is one thing to compare prices and another to honestly look at each item’s practical value.

Spirit Bear Pipe | $49.99

It’s a ceramic pipe with a bowl and a carb hole, with a bear. It does make an artistic statement and has a presence on your shelf, it’s just not necessarily everyone’s dream pipe. It has a design to it like it was excavated from ancient archaeology, and the whole thing is a pea soup green color. It’s more on the conversation piece side than a daily smoker pipe, but still nice enough.

Wooden Sneak-a-Toke Pipe | $17.00

There is no branding on this item, but it’s a typical discreet pocket pipe. We found an equivalent one for $17.00. This has a sliding cover over the bowl, and is big enough for a 1-2 hit. Nothing too thrilling, but let’s face it, who here hasn’t lost their original sneak-a-toke? Take this with you to the park and relive some teenage memories.

Raven Magick Hemp Wick | $1.95

I still haven’t opened this. It’s a hemp wick used for slow burning, for things like lighting joints without getting a puff of lighter fluid. I see where you can also string it through a blunt just to encourage even burning. On the one hand, maybe you’ll never use it. On the other hand, part of the reason you’d subscribe to this box is to discover oddball doodads like this.

Hyatt’s Palm Leaf Rolls | $1.99

These are blunt wraps. They come in a 2-pack in a tube with a wooden tool used to pack them down. These are nice and practical. You can hardly go wrong with blunt wraps.

Smojo Screen | $4.99

This is still baffling me. That tiny metal piece is the whole thing. There’s a tutorial on how to use it; you stuff it into the neck of a pipe bowl. That tutorial is from Daily High Club, so apparently the Smojo Screen is making the rounds among all the gift boxes. So I guess I’ll try that sometime. Still, $5 for a pipe filter? UPDATE Later (also following up the point on YouTube) I tried the Smojo in a pipe and went a few rounds with it, and by golly it does work. It works just like a pipe screen, but it lasts longer, makes cleanup way easier, and is likely to save you money on individual screens in the long run. I’m a believer!

Book of Magic Rolling Papers | $1.99

Pretty much obligatory. These seem to be decent quality papers, super thin, made of rice paper.

Silver Screens | $1.00

Also pretty obligatory, these are regular replaceable round mesh screens, a set of five.

SensiBox Seems a Top-Rate Subscription

Naturally, there are some hit and misses here. But you have to remember, they can’t just ship you pot. They can only ship accessories. The thing with subscription boxes is, you might never find “just what I always wanted” out of one, but it would also be a challenge to pack such a box. How would you pack a subscription box for stoners?

Myself, I would swap some of the more arcane items for mundane necessities:

• Isopropyl, since I go through the stuff by the gallon cleaning my rigs
• Batteries for vape cartridges – They are small and cheap enough to fit in there
• Cleaning brushes, qtips, alcohol wipes
• Refillable torches
• Glass rigs, adapters, spare bowls

Looking back over other SensiBox offerings of month’s past, I can see where a few such items have been included to show they do think that way, and the boxes likely stay at the same value level.

If You Like Subscription Boxes, You’ll Love SensiBox

The gamer in me always thinks of these as “loot crates.” Subscription boxes may not be the ideal product for everybody, but they are attractive to a certain niche market. Either you’re a new stoner just starting out who wants to build up supplies as a one-stop, or a deep hobbyist who wants to keep up with the latest stuff. If you have a wide circle of stoner friends, a SensiBox subscription means you’ll always have a spare pipe to lend out.

Subscription boxes have to pull off this delicate balancing act of having high enough value without raising the price too much, and I say SensiBox handles the task with imagination.

Readers, share your experience with SensiBox or other subscription boxes for stoners, here in the comments or in our forum.