10 Gifts for Geeks for $10 or Less

With Christ­mas right around the cor­ner, I thought it would be fun (and hope­fully help­ful) to put together a list of inex­pen­sive gift ideas for geeks, all for under $10. (And I’m not going to cheat and men­tion $10 gift cards, either!)

Pocket LED Flashlight

“May it be a light to you in dark places…”

Every geek needs a good flash­light, and even bet­ter if it fits in our pocket!  Great for wran­gling with hard-to-see com­puter con­nec­tions or ven­tur­ing behind our A/V sys­tems to con­nect new gear, a bright LED flash­light is a must-have.  X-treme Geek sells a nice mini LED flash­light for just $9.99.

Bat­ter­ies

Geek Power-Ups

If there is one uni­ver­sal truth, it’s that geeks can ALWAYS use more bat­ter­ies.  Between our wire­less key­boards, wire­less mouses, dig­i­tal cam­eras, wire­less game con­trollers, A/V remotes, Nin­tendo DSs, PSPs, laser point­ers, giz­mos, gadgets–wait, what was I say­ing?  Oh right: MOAR BATTERIES!  You can’t go wrong giv­ing geeks a nice big pack of AA or AAA bat­ter­ies.  A tad imper­sonal, but extremely prac­ti­cal and def­i­nitely appreciated–particularly dur­ing those moments we real­ize our bat­tery sup­ply is crit­i­cally low and we dread thought of actu­ally get­ting up to change the channel.

Sharpies

For Your Sharpie Fetish

We love our Sharpies.  They’re great for every­thing from label­ing the lat­est disc of pirated legally down­load­able soft­ware you burned to Sharpie-ing per­verse things all over your friend’s face when he falls asleep drunk on your couch. (Don’t ask.)  From Ultra Fine Points to Sharpie Minis to good ‘ol Orig­i­nal, there’s a Sharpie prod­uct in a wide range of col­ors for every geek’s Sharpie fetish.

Bliz­zard Authenticator

I CAN HAZ SECURITY?

Over 11 mil­lion peo­ple play World of War­craft.  Odds are you know at least one of them, and have no idea what to get them for Christ­mas.  The Bliz­zard Authen­ti­ca­tor is a must-have acces­sory for any­one that plays WoW.  It pro­tects their account from key­log­gers, tro­jans, and other mali­cious attacks.  It’s a great gift and for just $6.50, it’s also super inexpensive.

Mole­sk­ine Pocket Journals

Low-tech pro­duc­tiv­ity app!

The “leg­endary note­book used for the past two cen­turies” (if you believe their mar­ket­ing bull), Mole­sk­ine brand note­books are a favorite low-tech vice of writ­ers, artists, and geeks to cer­e­mo­ni­ously com­mit our thoughts and sketches to paper.  Though the full-size note­books are a bit pricey, you can score a pack of 3 cashier pocket Mole­sk­ines for about $8, blank or lined.  These pocket-sized jour­nals are per­fect for keep­ing in your pocket (shocker) to make quick lists or reg­is­ter ran­dom ideas on the fly.

Dice Set

Roll to see if you have a life…

For the D&D nerds, Magic play­ers, and board game geeks on your list, a set of shiny new dice makes for a very thought­ful and use­ful gift.  What’s your geek’s favorite color?  Odds are you can find a cool-looking set of dice to match.  Board Game Cen­tral has a great selec­tion of 6-sided and d20 dice sets all for under $10.

Caf­feine

Energy in a can!

Whether it’s in the form of cof­fee, chai tea, energy drinks, or soda, most of us geeks require an end­less sup­ply of caf­feine to help us through our late night cod­ing projects, marathon gam­ing ses­sions, and the abysmal work day that fol­lows.  Though cases of the really good stuff like Bawls and Jolt are on the pricey side, for less than $10 you can still give your geek a smaller-serving caf­feinated shot in the arm.  How about gift­ing a sam­pler of 20 oz. energy drinks, or a trio of cof­fees or teas?   Also try Pacific Chai, Mon­ster Energy, and there’s always Red Bull.

Comic Books

Mmm…new comic smell!

Comic books have evolved so much over the years, it’s per­haps more appro­pri­ate to think of them as read­able works of art than the hum­ble col­or­ful dis­trac­tions they used to be.  As the qual­ity has gone up, so has the price, but you can still walk into any comic shop and pick up some great new issues with that glo­ri­ous new comic smell for less than $10.  And with so many dif­fer­ent titles to choose from, you’re sure to find some­thing for every­one.  Who knows, you might even get your geek hooked on an awe­some new series.  There’s also manga for the Japanophile on your list.

Thinker Toys

FACT: Play­ing with toys helps you get work done.

Between writ­ing, brain­storm­ing, trou­bleshoot­ing, or fig­ur­ing out why our damn pro­gram isn’t work­ing, geeks need some kind of imme­di­ate stress reliever/creativity spark by our side.  Give your geek some inex­pen­sive “thinker toys” for his or her desk.  Try some Silly Putty, Play Doh, Koosh balls, or per­haps a “thinky Slinky”?  Or go for the clas­sic Rubik’s Cube (though it may cause more stress than it alle­vi­ates).  Any­thing goes, as long as it’s small, mildly enter­tain­ing, and keeps our hands and minds momen­tar­ily busy.

Com­puter Clean­ing Products

Handy for remov­ing yesterday’s lunch from your keyboard.

Geeks love their com­put­ers and gad­gets but it can be a nev­erend­ing bat­tle to keep them clean.  Crumbs in the key­board, fin­ger­prints on the lap­top screen; these are our per­pet­ual annoy­ances.  Which is why any geek can appre­ci­ate a lit­tle help to keep our LCD mon­i­tors and iPhone touch­screens sparkly clean.  Sta­ples sells a nice lit­tle key­board brush for less than $5 and a mini screen cleaner for under $10.

Hope I’ve given you some good ideas for the geeks on your Christ­mas shop­ping list!