What's really striking is how these videos underscore the onslaught of stuff, the acquisition and disposable nature of stuff, and the fact that sometimes just getting a bunch of stuff that's so cheaply made it's not worth trying to resell piece by piece makes these YouTubers feel like they're getting away with something. (I also think that in effect, these people have discovered the dollar store and could get a similar effect by going into a dollar store with their eyes closed and just taking home the first 50 things they ran into.) //

There was a guy who summed this up in one video so perfectly that I wrote down his comment immediately. He had just found, among his "tech" stuff, a package of 100 interoffice mail envelopes. Just ... interoffice mail envelopes, in there with the doggie camera and the filthy earbuds. He didn't need them, didn't want them, knew immediately he would throw them away, but he was still really impressed that he'd gotten such great value. He said: "No use for these, unfortunately, but damn!"