Spooky Box Club is a UK based company which supplies mystery boxes on a subscription or single purchase basis. The contents are gothic, witchy, or otherwise spookily-themed, and the topic changes each month. Items from the boxes can be purchased seperately from their website, but they are much more expensive.

I think I first heard about Spooky Box Club when I watched someone's unboxing video on YouTube. They are primarily a subscription service: you order and pay for each box a few months in advance. In the early days it seems they included mass-produced, 3rd party items. Over time - they are currently taking orders for box 63 - they have managed to populate the boxes with wholly unique items they have designed and had custom made.

Looking at the Spooky Box Club website, there are lots of things I would like to buy, even at their higher individual prices. I have been tempted to sign up for a box or two, but I generally dislike the uncertainty of mystery boxes, rather than being excited by them. Instead, I'm keeping an eye on eBay and Depop to grab my coveted items when they are listed, and continuing to watch unboxing videos to narrow down the exact boxes or things I am after. I have ordered some items directly from SBC and I'll get the rest from their website one day, if they don't pop up on those resale sites.

If I had been subscribing, Dark Dreams (box 55) is one I'd have adored. It was pretty near perfect for me, and I was very lucky to get one as-new on eBay recently. It contained:

• A Spirits At Rest Cushion Cover, a heart-shaped velour cover in black and white with a ghost design
• A Do Not Disturb Ghost Door Hanger, a rubbery ghost-shaped door sign
• A Sleeping Batty Eye Mask, a bat shaped satiny eye mask
• A Ghost Stories Bookmark, a rubbery bookmark
• A Restful Rooibos Tea Sampler, loose tea with sugar shapes - stars, moons and ghosts
• A Carpe Noctem Enamel Pin, black and silver - means 'seize the night'
• Swizzels Rainbow Drops, sugared puffed maize and rice sweets
• A printed list of the box's contents

I probably won't use the eye mask, but everything else is ideal. I really, really wanted the cushion cover and door hanger the moment I saw them; I'm a bit obsessed with cute ghosts at the moment. The pin is just my style, I needed a new bookmark, and I love Rainbow Drops and tea. The tea is wonderful and doesn't need milk. I used about a teaspoon of tea per cup, so I think you can easily brew ten or more cups from the quantity supplied. I'll certainly try to get Rooibos tea in my future grocery shopping.

If I knew every box was going to be as good a match for me, I'd sign up. However, I know I'm awfully picky, and it was probably a fluke that this box had so many items I thought were fabulous. Most others I've seen unboxed are still very good, but they contain two or three things that I'd never pick for myself. The jewellery, for example, would often be wasted on me - I already have too much - and the pin designs don't always appeal to me. I love the funereal art ones and the monochrome ones are great, but I'm not really keen on multicoloured pins.

That said, the items are of high quality and thoughtfully designed - you can see how many I've amassed now - and, if you're a fan of surprises, the box subscription model is undoubtedly good value at £21 + p&p. I might still take a chance on one-off box pre-orders if the theme sounds promising. I was torn about preordering box 62: Cemetery Creeps, and I've considered buying the past box: A Ghoul's Work Is Never Done (box 49).

The images below show the contents of the Dark Dreams box, plus Spooky Box Club necklaces, pins and other miscellaneous bits I have collected individually (the pins also appear in my Gothic Pins article).