Well, first every box is worth $4- $5, automatically depending on how many items you get since you get $1 for every review.
Birchbox is working with a variety of cosmetic warehouses, those cosmetic warehouses are the ones who determine the size of the samples. Birchbox is merely doing what they said they are doing, putting it in your hands. If you don't like the price of those products, then perhaps this program isn't meant for you.
As for duds, I really feel a lot of that has more to do with the fact that the products being sampled are high end and come with a high end price tag which is simply not something one is willing to pay. I can understand that, I am both happy and sad I got the Malibu FIX cream last month. It retails for $125 a bottle but I also know that my sample packet is going to last awhile which means the full size product is also going to last awhile.
I'm not sure how to fix this issue but the most common one, I believe, is people's expectation levels. They are, put bluntly, set way too high.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
pinktergal 
Obviously I'd like my box to be worth at least $10. My main desire is to have products I'd like to own or try. A $100 cream I can't use, for example, is of less value to me than a $10 mascara. My box this box is #1, and other than the lipstick which MIGHT be an okay color, none of the other items are of interest or value to me, regardless of monetary worth.
I think most of us feel the same about this. I'm not nearly as concerned about the $ value of the box, as my need for or interest in the items.
I'd rather have a $13 box of stuff I like than a $45 box of duds. Of course everyone's idea of a dud or a lust is different. That's why I think BB needs to refine its beauty profiles because so many of us feel we got duds. Also the discrepancy between some of the sample sizes is quite glaring.
