I got ripped off buying knockoff jack o' lanterns but it's ok!

Sooooo back in October 2024, I was flipping through the firehose of Halloween merch called "October-on-Instagram" when my thumb stopped on the below images.

Photos:  Instagram.

Looking at the round-eyed lit up jack o' lantern on the left I swooned.  It's a plastic, handheld, light up, tap light, battery-powered, jack o' lantern.  It came in two different faces, but the round-eyed one had just the right amount of cute and scary that I wanted.  Needed, really.  

I had to have it.  

Photo:  Instagram

The ad screamed in orange "50% OFF TODAY!"  

Oh god, there's a deadline. (Yes, I know that most of the deadlines are artificial.  I wasn't thinking straight.  There were spooky pumpkins to buy.)  Clicking about, it turned out the actual price was pretty steep:  I think it was ~$30.  EACH.   

"That's.... that's too much.  That's dumb."  I said.

Also:  the website from the original posting looked shady.  

Yep.  That's dumb.  Not doing that.

So, assuming it was a cheap product from overseas, I did some internet searching.  Some reverse image searching.  Some keyword searching.  And I eventually wound up at Temu (My conscience again:  "Yeah, because TEMU is SO much less shady."  Tsk.)

ANYWAY, Temu had a set of two for $15.  A steal!  (My conscience:  "Yeah, a steal alright.  You had YOUR money stolen.  Haw haw!").  My conscience does not suffer fools gladly.

But here's the weird part.  

The FIRST photo on the listing had the same design jack o' lantern as the one on Instagram with the round eyes. 

But the following 8 photos were of a DIFFERENT light up jack o' lantern set entirely.  

To quote The Shawshank Redemption, "Hope... is a dangerous thing."  

And my conscience tried to tell me "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is."

But I wasn't listening to my conscience.  I was listening to my lizard brain.  And Lizard Brain wanted a light up jack o' lantern light.

Click.  

Buy.  

I'll take this second to say, yes, I knew it was a gamble.  But a $15 gamble was worth it to me.

A week later the cardboard boxes show up and low and behold THEY WERE THE WRONG JACK O' LANTERNS.  (My conscience:  "Is this really a story?  Were you really surprised?")

No, I was not surprised.

I was let down.  But not even that much.  Because what I GOT now seems so much better.

I got two light up, handheld jack o' lanterns.  But they were different --and better-- in lots of great ways.

1). Each jack o' lantern has the two different faces on both the front and back.  So if you want both your pumpkins to have a wide-eyed smile, you just turn them to face that way.  If you want them to have the evil eyes, you spin 'em that way.  You want a Jekyll & Hyde sort of Good Cop / Bad Cop thing, you face one one way and the other the other way.  

So, in a way, I have 4 jack o' lanterns for less than the price of the two in the other ad.  That's a win.

2). My jacks come with ropes so they can be hung.  Other jack o' lanterns?  They don't got dat.

Hang 'em from the ceiling.  Hang 'em in your tent.  Hang 'em from your Halloween Tree.  BUT YOU CAN HANG THEM.

WIN!

Author's photo showing adjustable mouth.

3).  I can adjust the size of the mouth, and therefore how much light they give off, just by pulling them open.  To turn them off, I just push them all the way closed.  Click.  Out.  None of this 'tapping.'  Win!

4).  They have a rechargeable battery pack in each with a USB-C port. WIN!  I am so tired of buying new tech and finding out that it does NOT have USB-C forcing me to either travel with another cord or adapter instead of one plug to rule them all.  

Those original pumpkins I wanted?  No rechargeable battery packs.  I'd be swapping out double or triple As which amps the price up with every battery change.   WIN!

5). Mine are smaller, more compact.  This doesn't seem like that big a deal but when I brought them to a recent makeshift outdoor movie screening, they easily stowed in a bag, having collapsed into a palm size.  I really appreciated that and though the (I'm guessing) softball-sized other pumpkins are still small, mine I would actually classify as 'travel sized.'  WIN!

Photo:  Lowe's.

I'm writing this post now because having just been in Lowe's Halloween section, what do I see at the front of the store but a VERSION of the jack o' lanterns I have.  They're by "EverBrite" and only cost $6.98 each.  That's pennies less than what I paid 2 years ago, BUT they're not as good as mine.  

They only have ONE face, AND NO TRIANGLE NOSE.  Heck I've got TWO DIFFERENT noses to choose from.  Get your no-nose outta here.

They also take batteries.  Not a rechargeable port in sight.  

They have black ropes, and mine is a color-matching orange rope.  I think that's a win because the string seems more camouflaged and/or a part of the pumpkin.  

And the Lowe's ones have that obtrusive white logo on the front.  (Mine are cleeeeeean pumpkin-orange.)

In the end, what I did was dumb.  That was a dumb purchase.

However, two years later I'm still using mine.  

They charge right up.  They bright right up.  

And they're sitting on my desk as I write this now.  

WIN!