Decided to take a quick drive around the neighborhood to see if there was any chance of grabbing a Wii.
First Stop - WalMart, where I arrived just in time to watch employees walking Wiis out to their cars. A couple were cool enough to take their name tags off on the way out. Break time!
Second Stop - There’s a Gamestop in the same strip mall. Right around 30 people were waiting in line.
Third Stop - Drove by Target and I was shocked. 70+ people waiting in line.
I thought driving by Costco, but I know they don’t open until morning.
I have a strange feeling that people saw/read/heard all the PS3 + ebay = $$$ and are hoping to grab the brass ring made of money with the Wii. Are ebay prices starting to climb from $400?
Anyway, good luck to all you folks hoping for Day One purchases. I think the Wii might benefit from the PS3 madness. Curious to see how quickly the market saturates.
I don’t know why. PS3 sales on Ebay stabilized at around $1200 yesterday which was OK for me who waited an hour at Gamestop but a very crappy return for someone who waited for days in line at BestBuy or Target.
Good luck with CostCo - I drove by one near me this morning (after my attempts failed), and managed to catch a couple employees on a smoke break. Although they barely new what a Wii was, they didn’t seem to think they were selling it today.
I’m still going to try the one near me, but I don’t have my hopes up.
There are definitely scalpers among the legitimate purchasers. Hopefully Nintendo will put more in stores on Tuesday/Wednesday this week, thus making them all look like fools. I would be very surprised if there aren’t Wiis on the shelf on Friday for the biggest shopping day of the year.
Also, there’s a desperate-ish sign hanging on the Gamestop saying “We have Xbox 360 in stock!”
Just from the makeup of the lines I saw while driving around today, I would imagine that the number of scalpers to gamers is much less than either the 360 or PS3 launch.
With that said, I imagine that the scalpers will make a much healthier profit on the Wii than the PS3 simply because of the number of people caught blindsided by the incorrect “oh, you’ll be able to walk into a store later that day and get one” meme, as well as the fact that while they waited in line, they probably didn’t wait anywhere near as long as with the PS3.
Wait for christmas? I would think people would be more desperate to get one if you sold it about a week before christmas, I dont think Sony’s going to release that many between now and then.
Wii has been getting on virtually every “best gift of 2006” list in mainstream mags and shows. I wouldn’t be surprised if the thing is very hard to find throughout 2006, like the N64 was. Of course, that didn’t do the N64 a whole lot of good in the long run.
edit: craigslist around me has people posting them for $600-$800. round 2 for scalpers. :(
Got mine, as I mentioned in another Wii thread. I arrived at Target about 7:30 this morning and got a line pass for #42 out of 42. I was the very last guy to get one at that store. I wonder how hard it would be to find one elsewhere. I also wonder how many of those 150 people or so I saw at the GameStop in the mall didn’t get one.
After seeing 10 year old’s walking around with high end cell phones or PSP’s, I fully believe there are parents who will easily spend that much money to spoil there kids these days.
There was one scalper asking 100 USD for a “guaranteed” ticket at Circuit City across the parking lot. We were at CompUSA (to find out 20 minutes later that they had exactly zero units in), and nobody took him up on it.
Figure I’ll be checking the stores every day this week.
Yeah, I think the PS3 mania really boosted the number of campers/scalpers.
Went out this morning about an hour before Best Buy opening and there were at least 100 people in line. The nearby Target had just opened and they handed out tickets for the 60 they had in stock. Across the parking lot at TRU there were about 80 waiting. One lady in the TRU line said her husband was over in the Best Buy line. He had gotten a ticket, she was trying to get another at TRU.
Actually, I got my Wii from CostCo this morning. In the email they sent out, they said a select few were carrying them. After a fruitless search of shopping malls this morning, I went there as a last resort. #20 in line for 48 units - I would say I lucked out.
I was #31 out of 30 at my first Target when they handed out tickets at 7am. No exaggeration. Guy ahead of me was “that guy” who got the last one, then the kindly but acne-riddled security guard told me sorry and asked the rest of the line to disperse. So close it stung.
Three more stores, and 4 hours of line-waiting total, I got my Wii from a distant Circuit City that opened at 10am.
