SomethingStore.com, based in New York, which can be anything and the recipients only find out what it is when they receive it.

With a simple and suiting tag line “Surprise Yourself” the site promises nothing but ’something’ and explains “Your something may be a cool gadget, rare book, table game, handmade necklace, reverse clock, box of gourmet chocolates, set of shiny shower curtains, a popular video game, a big-box retailer gift card, the latest version of a software, or even a set of kitchen knives…”

The founder, Sami Bay, 30, says he is big believer in the power of the web in enabling what may seem like bizarre or obscure ideas to turn into real success stories. After watching interesting ideas such as Woot, MillionDollarHomepage, and One Red Paperclip flourish on the Net, he came up with his own.

He says when he mentioned his idea to friends and colleagues, not surprisingly, some of them were skeptical: “People will think you will just send them some unwanted, useless stuff; it won’t work”. He says he answered them “SomethingStore will always deliver value to the customers, because that’s the only way it will get people buy again and tell their friends which is lifeblood of our business. So it serves our interest to deliver value to the customers and to send them desirable, cool and fun ‘somethings’ “.