House rules — The Sample Shelf

Shelf A–C D–H I–M N–R S–Z Off the shelf How this works Shipping House rules

The rules

Rule	In practice
One per household	If a brand says it, we repeat it and we mean it. Brands that get hammered by repeat requests close their offers, and then nobody gets one.
No bylines	Nothing here is an article, so nothing here is signed. It is a list of where forms are and what they ask for.
No brand can buy a slot	There is no rate card, and there is no submission address. Brands that write to us are told the same thing.
Dates, not adjectives	Every listing carries the date it went up and the date the section was last walked. “New” and “hot” mean nothing.
Removals stay visible	Dead listings move to off the shelf with the reason, and sit there for two months before being deleted.

Why it looks like this

The shelf is a table because it is a table. Everything worth knowing about a sample is a short fact — what it is, what the form wants, whether it is still there — and short facts belong in columns you can scan, not in paragraphs with a photograph on top.

The shelf has been kept since 2022. It started as a text file shared among four people who were tired of sample blogs that were mostly expired offers with a sign-up box on top, and the shape has not changed much since.

What we will not add

Sweepstakes and prize draws. Different thing entirely.
Trial subscriptions, however free the first month is.
Anything requiring an app install.
Points-for-samples schemes, which are shopping with extra steps.

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