Opensky

I have mentioned Opensky in several posts so let me take a minute to tell you exactly what it is. It’s a website where “experts” (although I’m not sure how they determine who an expert is) handpick products and items that they love and offer them at sometimes slightly discounted prices. These “experts” can be anything from celebrities telling you about the facial cleanser they use or a celebrity chef telling you which frying pan they use or a celebrity stylist or fashion designer touting the laurels of a brand or item of clothing. They have a wide range of products from electronics, to food items, to jewelry, picked out by a wide range of people. Molly Sims, Kristen Cavalleri, Dr. Phil’s wife, and Bobby Flay are just a few of the recognizable people who list things, along with a bunch of people I don’t know. Now the idea behind this caught my attention. You assume these products are good since experts in their field use them. If some celebrity with perfect skin is recommending this great anti-aging moisturizer that she has used for years, I’m going to tend to believe that it works. If some guy who has a cooking show is saying that this certain brand of frying pan heats more evenly and lasts longer than any other one, I’m going to believe him. You also accumulate points with every purchase that you make and depending on the amount of points you have, you get credits towards your purchases. You receive 10 points per $1 that you spend (and 20 points per dollar for Must Haves), 50 points for every item that you “love” (sort of the equivalent of liking something on Facebook) and there are other various rewards such as inviting a friend and sharing a product on Facebook. Right now I’m at Aqua level and I get a $10 credit twice a month.

Now all of this sounds great but there are some cons. First of all, the credits you get need to be on a minimum of $50. Like I have said before, I hate it when they do that to me. That tends to make me impulse buy things that I don’t need just to get the credit because I feel like I’ve thrown away $10 otherwise. If I can find something useful that I might have bought anyway then its worth it. The next con is the price. Most of these products are very pricey. Its true that some of them are discounted, but not by that much. I haven’t really found much that was worthwhile. I also don’t like the organization of the website. Its organized by categories and subcategories but then its just all thrown together. You can sort by price but you still have to kind of browse through everything to see what’s there. I would prefer sub-subcategories to further narrow down what I’m looking for. And my last and final gripe is the availability of items. They have a certain number of most items. So you go and find something you like but you don’t need it right now or you don’t have the money right now. When you go back to look for it, its probably gone. There are a limited number of everything and then its gone.

So is this worth it? Not really. Since I’m already going to get my credits and stuff I’ll probably keep at least looking around for some stuff and maybe it will give me an idea of things I might like so I can see if I can find it cheaper. And of course, just because some miracle skin cream works for Alicia Silverstone, it might not necessarily work for me.