Want a Wii for Christmas? Get in Line.
Nintendo is warning would-be gamers that, if they want a Wii before the end of the year, they might just have to fight for it -- or pay too much on eBay. Nintendo is promising to ship an extra 3.5 million consoles to retailers around the world before the end of the year to try to keep up with demand. They've already shipped nearly 14 million this year, and still, a year after the console's release, seeing one on store shelves is a rarity.
This rarity is largely driven by the console's amazing popularity with non-gamers, like mothers and senior citizens, who have been scooping up the consoles by the truckload. Plus, being about $100-$150 cheaper than the competition hasn't hurt either. These factors have helped the system to quickly leap to the number one spot in the current console race despite launching a year later than Microsoft's Xbox 360.
However, at least part of this supposed rarity is manufactured, with accusations of retailers hiding supply and using that manufactured scarcity to drive demand. As demand goes higher, so too will those eBay prices. A quick scan this morning shows the consoles selling for around $350, $100 higher than retail. Again, this for a gadget that launched last year. To avoid paying that premium, start calling retailers now, find out when they typically get Wii shipments, and get there early.
Real early.
From BBC News
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
al @ Nov 14th 2007 12:16PM
oh my god let's run around like chickens with no heads, The sky is falling. It's nothing but marketing, it's wii's turn.Always in time for christmas, strange no.
meeeeee @ Nov 14th 2007 12:26PM
I got mine...I need to go get another one and sell it the week before Christmas...at this rate the profit I make will pay for Christmas!!!
COOL @ Nov 14th 2007 3:19PM
I got me wii too. its loads o fun. get it before they're all gone!!
Lisa @ Nov 14th 2007 4:42PM
I don't feel sorry for anyone that waits until the last minute to purchase an item that has been considered hard to find. I purchased mine a month ago. Why wait until the last minute?
Candy @ Nov 14th 2007 6:49PM
Some of us are not last minute shoppers. I for one have all my shopping done except for this stupid game that I can not find anywhere.
Bee @ Nov 14th 2007 7:23PM
I JUST got a Wii less then 5 days ago!Its lots of fun,but the games are expensive!the my sims game costs 50$!!!!It's lots of fun even though it leaves you sore for 2 days after your 1st time playing!!!
nelle grubsnig @ Nov 14th 2007 10:43PM
my son won his on behavior points 4 months ago, I spent 5 days scouring the city of Chicago and suburbs for one, making several phone calls in the process. I finally found one 10 minutes after a shipment of 3 came into a gamestoppers and saved my life! PLEASE note - this was NOT any time NEAR the holidays!
Dyan @ Nov 14th 2007 11:50PM
I hate crowds and do most of my shopping online and try to shop throughout the year.
I love Best Buy and buy from them online. I recently discovered a site where you can shop at stores including Best Buy, the Gap, Dell, Champion, all sorts of travel places, major dept stores....and over 1000 stores and get back a percentage on what you buy...from about 5% to about 55%. You just shop at these sites like you regularly do and you get CASH back. I wait for sales on the sites and then I get my percentage back.. it is great. There is no cost to join and you don't have to buy anything.
tkilljoyx202 @ Nov 14th 2007 11:52PM
I work for Best Buy in NH. Where I work we usually get them every three sundays. On those sundays that we have them we usually get about 45-60 of them and we open at 10 usually. By the time it is 1-2 in the afternoon they are all gone. It is kinda ridiculous I think because there is like 3 good games for the Wii. And I think that people are just buying it because parents see it as a cheaper things for their kids. I am 17 and if my parents bought me that i would just sell it on ebay. As for the best buy caught faking wii supplies i dont really care as i just work their for the money and dont plan to make a career out of Best Buy.
Lee @ Nov 15th 2007 1:22PM
I bought stock in Nintendo a little over a year ago and it has taken off like wild fire. I also purchased one after Christmas last year. Nintendo keep up the good work! Cha Ching!!!!
deb pembroke pines fl @ Nov 15th 2007 1:39PM
I bought one around May of this year. Within 2 weeks, my sister bought one, then her boss bought one, my daughters best friend begged her mother to buy one, I bought one for my daughter to take to college (she wasn't taking mine) and we bought another one for a christmas gift. Thats 6 that were purchased with in 2 to 4 weeks. And I agree is this game is both OLD and YOUNG. It so well worth waiting for it. I never thought I would enjoy playing video games. My 71 yr old mother loves it. She claims it is her exercise for the day.
Krystal @ Nov 15th 2007 1:41PM
My Boyfriend got me a wii for valentines day. Then i got an xbox 360 and haven't touched the wii since. it's boring and has nothing but kiddy games. it's fun with groups of people, but they have no real games.
Monica @ Nov 15th 2007 1:47PM
you should be the one selling this or in this case telling the customers No we do not have any and no we do not know when or if we will get any in!!!
Bridget @ Nov 15th 2007 1:50PM
Best buy in Owings Mills, Maryland had 12 left last night about 20 minutes before store closed.
Kate @ Nov 15th 2007 1:51PM
I would love for everyone to stop buying them until at least February.. imagine how overcrowded the stores would be and how cheap it would be.. now that would be a bargain!
aajj1144 @ Nov 15th 2007 1:59PM
Man oh man, this is great. I'll do what i did last year wih the 360 and buy the wii now and then around Christmas I'll sell it for 100 or more over its market price. Last year I got the xbox 360, sold it on eBay for $650 and then bought another 360 and still had money left over to spend on games :)
James @ Nov 15th 2007 2:26PM
Wow. Game Info(I think that was them, magazine rack at work I browse every now and then) did a study of Game Console Power and guess what? XBOX, PSP, XBOX 360, PS3, all have more power then the Wii! That's right, PSP and Xbox, a last gen and a hand held, beat the Wii! There is nothing next gen about it! Also...
33% of all 360's are busted. Microsoft had to extend warrentys because of this.
11% of all Wii's are busted. How you can tell when they are so horrible(Gaming only, on about 2 games that look good and only a few GC games work on it) IDK
.2%, that is LESS THEN 1% OF PS3s have problems. So far all my PS2 and PS1 games have worked on it, has the most features, the most power, and plays BluRay. For a Spidey fan this was a must!(Sand Man in HD is so frakking beautiful it makes you cry, well, tear up a little)
So, buy 2-3 Wii's until one doesn't break, plus a new TV(3.2million recall on Wiistraps because they kept breaking and the Wiimote smashed TVs, windows, noses) or 2-3 Xbox 360s, even more expensive if you buy the Pro with HDMI connection and HD DVD player, or 1 PS3. So, what is the cheaper console now?
Also, Wii and 360 have no way to transfer files from old games. PS3? A 7dollar piece of plastic I got from Sony website let me save hundreds of hours of stuff from my Madden, Final Fantasy, and other games.
Yadira021881 @ Nov 15th 2007 2:30PM
I've been calling everywhere like mad for a week solid and they were all sold out. A man at Sears laughed in my face when I asked him if they had one. I need to call back and laugh in his face. I got one at Wal-Mart yesterday. It's good to have connections at Wal-Mart. I got the last one.
Stabetha @ Nov 15th 2007 2:31PM
I got my Wii at the start of the summer (we'd been looking for once since they came out ! ). The only reason we ended up with one was b/c I have a friend who works at EB games & he gave the inside details on when they would get the next shipment. We showed up like an hour after they got them & got the 2nd last one ! I
Dee @ Nov 15th 2007 2:36PM
FYI everyone............ Try Conn's. I found mine at Conn's and they had plenty.