Apple Japan is once again offering "Lucky Bags" for sale to customers for the 2007 New Year. These Lucky Bags (Fukubukuro) appear to be a common retail custom in Japan for the New Year.
Fukubukuro is a Japanese New Year's Day custom where merchants make grab bags filled with unknown random contents and sell them for a substantial discount, usually 50% or more of the list price of the items contained within. The low prices are usually done to attract customers to shop at that store during the new year.
Unlike previous years, Apple Japan is offering a limited number of bags to online customers. The online sales are limited to only 10 bags a day (limit 1 per customer) for the 20 days between December 7th and December 26th.
These Lucky Bags cost 52,500 (~ US$450) but promise to have contents worth 110,000 (~ US $940) in audio related products. Apple has previously offered this promotion in Japan (photos from 2006) and even once at the opening of the San Francisco Apple Store.
The $250 Lucky Bag at San Francisco Apple Store Opening (2004) offered the following contents: iLife, Keynote, .Mac subscription, 10% discount card, Bluetooth Adapter, Wireless Mouse, Wireless Keyboard, and either Airport Extreme, iPod Mini or iPod 20GB.
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