How soon before I can walk into a store and buy a Nintendo Wii?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve decided that I want a Wii, and now that the big pre-Christmas insanity is over, I’m ready to purchase one.

Despite all of the hullabaloo that Nintendo trumped up about how they were going to ship 1 million+ Wiis before Christmas, and unlike the PS3 you’d “be able to walk into your local store and pick up one before Christmas” rather than resorting to camping out or paying internet speculators, the Wii is as scarce as the PS3 right now. Both in stores and online, even the perhiperals are completely out of stock.

So when will the Wiis be readily available? I just want to go pick one up at Target or Best Buy without having to deal with waiting for a shipment to come in or camping out in any way - or I’d like to just order one from Amazon or whatever.

So, what’s the word?

2

Much of it depends on where you live. Some stores get bigger allocations than others, and local demand varies.

3

Well, sure. But what I mean is how soon will it be before Nintendo is regularly manufacturing and shipping Wiis to the point where there is no longer an artificial demand for them?

4

There’s nothing “artificial” about it. Nintendo’s pumping out as many Wiis as they can (and in fact, the Wii’s launch quantity is one of the largest in history), yet it doesn’t yet meet the demand.

5

Some stores here in the central Connecticut area now have some, still low stock but if you call around you will find one…a week ago you could not find one on any shelf…

6

While it’s true that both consoles are typically sold out/unavailable in stores, I think it’s inaccurate to say the Wii is more scarce than the PS3. December sales figures don’t seem to be available yet, but as of the end of November, Nintendo had sold 476,140 of the Wii, while Sony had only sold 196,580 Playstation 3s. I’m pretty sure that trend was set to continue into December due in part to manufacturing delays for the PS3.

Source: Sony sells less than 200,000 PS3 units in November - Dec. 8, 2006

7

If people are actually buying (for whatever reason), then demand is true. If they are buying in hopes of future profit, well, that’s just plain 'ol speculation. However, now that kids have their Christmas money, demand can rise again, which again can cause specualtion. I was in Chicago the last couple of days and I saw a PS3 at, I want to say Target, though it might have been Best Buy.

8

I think what’s being referred to is that because supplies are so scarce and there are people willing to pay extra speculators are buying up all unbought Wiis to sell for a higher price. If it we’re the only people buying Wiis the people that want a Wii of their own people like me and the OP could possibly already have one by now.

I would guess that with Christmas past the main impulse for people to pay extra is past and most people who were willing to pay extra have already done so. Soon the speculators will find that they are no longer able to sell their Wiis for profit will be attempting to return them to stores and the stores will begin to fill up with them. Amazon.com still offers nothing less then $700. I bet it will happen fast. I’ll guess the first week of January.

9

Nintendo in recent years (N64 and Gamecube) have made money from the consoles sold as well as the games, so they’ll be pumping out consoles ASAP. Just in case anyway thinks they’re holding back to speculate in any way.

10

You could try Wii Seeker.

11

March.

Best case senario.

from

http://money.cnn.com/2006/12/22/technology/video_game_consoles.reut/index.htm?section=money_topstories

and

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2077225,00.asp

and others.

I Heard that my best buy was getting Wii on Sunday 12/17 at open, 8am. I figured I could get there at 6 and be fine.
I went at 1:30 ish, was 19th-20th in line, My Best buy had 24.

I stayed in line, and got one. I even turned down someone willing to pay $500 for my unit on the way out. If it was triple, (750) maybe, but then, they didnt wait the 7 hours or so.

12

I walked into Target today for some batteries, and swung through the electronics department to look for Wiis, just like I’ve done every time I’ve gone to Target for the past couple weeks. I don’t want a Wii enough to stand in line or pay more than list price, but I figure I can check Target when I go there.

To my utmost surprise, there were 2 of them in the display case. Mr. Athena and I decided to think about it for a minute - I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the money or not. While we were vacillating, the Target guy came and opened the case and pulled out one for another customer. That did it, I grabbed the last one.

I guess they got 20 in this morning by special UPS truck (not the standard Target delivery) and they’d been out just a couple hours when I wandered by.

13

Hmm, I guess it also depends on where you live. In Hawaii (with I believe a higher then normal gamer percentage) it seems like all deliveries are UPS and can come at any time.

I talked with Walmart and heard that every time a shipment comes in (25 to 30) all the employees calls their friends to come and pick one up. I was told if I wasn’t in the store when a shipment came in I wasn’t going to get one. At GameStop they said they get 2 to 3 at a time and they go immediately. They said they even have guys just hanging around the store all day waiting for a shipment.

On the plus side I’ve been watching the price on Amazon drop by about $50 every 15 hours as people realize they aren’t going to get their super mark-up and try to lure the few remaining people who will over pay into finally go for it.

14

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I think Wii can volley this over into IMHO.

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