I have never managed to perfect the technique of making the perfect soft boiled egg until I tried one of these a few years ago. I found one through another app, ordered it, paid about $7 for it, and made the first, perfect soft boiled egg of my life using it. Unfortunately, over time (about 2 1/2 to 3 years) it faded until I could no longer read it, so it went into the trash. And since then I've been stumbling my way through attempting to perfect my soft boiled egg technique, without success. Finally, it struck me that Amazon probably sold these little treasures, so I ran over to check. Sure enough, there was my little egg helper! AND I could get a set of 5 of these treasures for less than the cost of 2 of the original ones! Do I have to say I jumped on that deal? They arrived quickly, and were exactly the same as my first little "red egg". And I have been enjoying perfectly cooked soft boiled eggs every morning since they arrived! Now, one thing you have to remember when using these is that every single egg is a slightly different size and shape. And you DO have to take that into consideration when using these! In my case, I use extra large eggs. So if I were to remove my egg from the boiling water as soon as the "line" reached the soft boil mark, I would have an extremely undercooked egg. So for my eggs, I have to allow it to cook until it almost reached the second line. And depending on the size of that extra large egg, I might cook it it a tiny bit more in either direction. So yes, they do take some trial and error to get that perfect egg. But once you work with them for a bit, you can make every egg exactly the way you want it, every single time! Thank goodness, even after not having a "red egg" for a few years, I didn't lose my touch, so all of my eggs have come out exactly the way I like them. And so will yours, but it might take a few tries until you perfect your technique and cooking times. But I HIGHLY recommend these cute little egg helpers, for me, it's the only way to make the absolutely perfect soft boiled egg every single time! And with the 5 pack, I know I'll be making perfect eggs for years and years... and years! VERY happy with this purchase! 2 thumbs up from me, wish I had more thumbs!