Buying a copy of Wii Fit, for me, is likely to be impossible next week. Aside from a heavy workload forcing me to pay attention to my Xbox 360, a colossal retailer screw-up is likely to result in anywhere from 1/4 to 1/3 of the Wii Fits intended for my area ending up on e-bay. I'm going to present this story to you guys basically as an anatomy of how units of hot Nintendo products meant for retail end up in the hands of scalpers en masse.
The story began, as so many do, in a GameStop. After spending a tiring evening shopping for a dress to wear to a cousin's wedding, I stopped by the larger of the two local GameStops to pick up a copy of Crosswords DS to keep me amused over the weekend.
My parents were with me, and they've been dieting and working out lately. My mother's lost something like 20 pounds, and my father's going on 40. When they saw the Wii Fit boxes hanging on display in the store, they got interested, proving Nintendo's marketing plans with this one are likely to succeed. The clerk was quick to chat them up while he checked me out, but when my dad asked about buying one, the clerk was forced to change his tune.
"Sorry, we've already sold through our first shipment. We were set to get eighty, and two guys walked in and pre-ordered forty each."
There was lots of cursing back and forth about GameStop's Wii Certificate program, more commonly known as the Rain Check program. Did it work? Was it lousy? Was it a scam?
Online retail monitor site I4U suggests that while it was arguably lousy, the alternative is much lousier. If you didn't get a Wii Certificate back in December, you probably won't get a Wii now without paying above MSRP or buying an expensive bundle.
Checking several Wii finder services and the online inventories of retailers, there is still no Wii console available at the standard price of $249. If the Wii is in stock then it is in an expensive bundle. 3rd party offers on Amazon and the eBay prices for the Wii are now under $400, which is a bit of an improvement over the Holiday season.
A Wii raincheck would be handy now, we actually advised against it back in December. Did you get one? If yes, please email me, if you got your $250 Wii on Friday. Update: I got some feedback of readers that got a Wii Raincheck and the deal was even much better than thought. Reader Jo N. got his Wii already 2 hours!! after he purchased the Raincheck at a GameStop store. Reader Ross D. got his on January 4th.
Check out the Amazon feedback for the Psyclone Wii Remote Charging Station. It's pages of stories about Wii remotes left in overnight, to emerge from the station hot to the touch and inoperable. It seems the Psyclone doesn't stop charging remotes once the batteries are full, causing heat damage.
Psyclone's webpage offers a disclaimer that just sort of hints at the full extent of the problem.
WARNING - Rechargeable batteries left unattended in the recharge unit for an extended period of time may cause the batteries and/or unit to overheat. If the Wii (TM) remote doesn't charge properly or begins to heat up, please stop the charge process and contact our customer service line to prevent further damage.
Psyclone offers to replace damaged Wii remotes, but cut out the middleman and just don't buy their product to begin with. If you want a Wii remote charging station, go with Nyko's
.
Kotaku got an interesting tip about where to go to find a post-Christmas Wii if you didn't throw down for a Wii Certificate at GameStop. Apparently the Costco retail has a huge stockpile of them that they're releasing as part of a $344.99 retailer bundle. This isn't a bad bundle, though: it contains a spare Wii remote and nunchuk, which you'd have to buy anyway, and a copy of Big Brain Academy, which is one of the better Wii "casual play" titles.
Of course, there's no telling if there are any bundles left as of this writing. If you do happen to have a local Costco, check it out and let us know what's up with the bundles in the comments, okay?
I4U tracks the prices of the Nintendo Wii from online, largely third-party dealers, and comes to a shocking conclusion: the hottest of consoles has somehow gotten more expensive than it was last year.
The lowest price on the Amazon 3rd party Wii offers is $548.00. We at least are able to beat that price and our shipping fee is also lower. I really would rather be able to offer the Wii console for the $249.99 price Nintendo has set for it.
With Wii-hunting fiercer than ever, a few more Wii-hunting tips to complement our Wii Shopping Guide are waiting for you behind the cut.
Here's the first of our two Holiday Gift Games lists for 2007. The goal of these lists is to put together a collection of the ten bestest games to give as a gift for someone who owns a particular system... in this case, the almighty Nintendo DS. This list assumes a situation where you want to buy a game for a special someone who hasn't told you exactly which titles they want. That means the focus here is on titles with simple gameplay and universal appeal that anyone could easily play, and that most people are sure to like.
This entry is really meant as a companion to our upcoming Ten Best DS Game Gifts and Ten Best Wii Game Gift lists, but you may also find it interesting or useful even if you don't end up buying games off of either list. Basically, it's just some pointers on how to go about buying games for different types of gamers so you get big smiles on Christmas morning instead of confused frowns. It also explains how most gamers fit into one of three basic categories, and how to use that knowledge to simplify the process of gift-giving.
Happy Thanksgiving, people! My dinner went over pretty well, and the rest of the night was all Big Brain Academy and Mario Galaxy. Now it's all gearing up for Black Friday shopping.
Incidentally, this means that if you tried to buy a Wii earlier in the week, you might have been screwed. Apparently in some regions lots of big box retailers and GameStops have been sitting on their supplies. They'll probably evaporate in an hour or two once stores open up later today. You may have unusually good chances of snagging a Wii if you get out when stores open.
Also, as a follow-up to an earlier post about buying the Nintendo DS, it turns out those Zelda and Nintendogs bundles are both officially confirmed and not exclusive to Sears. When I head out to join the national commerce frenzy later today, I'm probably going to see if I can track one down myself.
It's all over the news this year-- nobody has Wiis. Nobody, anywhere. You should give up now and just buy one of those inferior consoles with better graphics and approximately 3,237 interchangeable shooting and action titles that demand the full use of all 23 buttons on the controller.
Really? You don't want to?
Then you'd better be preared to out-think and out-gun the Wii-seeking enemy. If you want to buy a Wii this Christmas, you'll need to plan ahead, avoid impulse buys, and above all else, avoid running out of chances to pick up a Wii at its MSRP, $249.99. If you end up buying from a third party on e-bay or Amazon, expect to end up paying roughly double that... but there's no reason why you should.
For more gift ideas, also check out the GamePro Family Gift Guide, GamePro's Best Holiday Games You Never Heard Of, the 2007 GamePro Holiday Guide, and GameGirls Holiday Shopping Tips! Happy Shopping!
Some people have been suspicious that the Wii shortage that's plagued the country since the system's hectic launch has all been manufactured by unscrupulous types hoping to make money. Whether the conspiracy concerns Nintendo, electronics, or employers setting up e-Bay scams depends on which version of the urban legend you're hearing.
The Consumerist has posted some eyewitness evidence of a party with a monetary interest-- in this case, a Best Buy store-- setting up a false scarcity of Wiis. Be sure to check out the comments for this post, too, which are full of anecdotes of similar antics at Best Buys in other locations (and some obvious urban legends).
It's hard to have much of an opinion with just one account like this, but you may want to keep your eyes peeled for scams like this at your local Best Buy (or, really, any local retailer that claims to be selling their last Wii). I don't know whether this is legal or not, but it is undeniably sleazy. I can't say I'd want to buy anything from a store I caught using this nonsense to sell a product that hardly needs more hype.
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