What is a crapvendor?

What is a crapvendor? Joel has used the phrase a couple of times to a degree of bafflement, not least from crapvendors themselves. Please update your dictionaries:

Crapvendor
–noun

1. A retail dealer in crap, especially wholesale consumer electronic crap from Asia.
2. Archaic. A physical outlet that sells such items.

[Origin: 1275-1325; middle English crappevendour, from Medieval Latin crappa, Anglo-Norman vendeur]

“It happened one day that a very beautiful woman went to the crapvendor to purchase an acrylic LED remote caddy, and in order to make it fit, he was obliged to look at her gadgets, which were so finely shaped that he felt his eye take an undue pleasure in viewing them.” – The Travels of Marco Polo, 1298

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10 Responses to What is a crapvendor?

  1. CraziestGadgetsdotcom says:

    i’ll expect to see this in the next Webster’s edition.

  2. Enochrewt says:

    Do any of you get the Hong Kong wholesale catalogs? 500 pages of crapware goodness mailed to you like bi-weekly. They smell funny too.

  3. Rob Beschizza says:

    I do not!

    And the more I think about it, the harder it is for me to decide if I want to.

  4. Enochrewt says:

    ehh, for every one good gadget you find in them there’s 100 that are absolute trash, but you probably knew that. Still you find some cool things in them (like RC toys!) Unfortunately you have to buy in 100 lots most of the time.

    If you want to check out the stuff these catalogs contain, the motherload of crapware is here: http://www.made-in-china.com

  5. Rob Beschizza says:

    My good man, alibaba.com

  6. Enochrewt says:

    Wooo! 5 times the number of cheap RC toys!

  7. Viadd says:

    Go to dealextreme.com for eye-popping deals. Green laser pointers for less than $1/mW, guaranteed free of safety features.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Is this a derivation of poopsmith from homestarrunner.com?

  9. eustace says:

    The word should also apply to OEMs that load their systems with crapware.

  10. cha0tic says:

    Bastards! I’ll be wasting loads of time trawling through the crap available on all those links. Thanks ;)

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