BTW: PS3 and XBOX360 only in my home.....paid retail price for both and got them on release day. No pre-order and no camping out. How? My industry contacts. Sucks to be a woman, huh?

girlygoo

crackofdawn

taylorich

Aesteval

SSJPabs

Like I did.

JamesBenjamin

FalseSaint

no time? meh, they are lazy thats why.

cherrybomb

I blew my money on a PSP too, haven't received it yet (bought it online) but I looked through the game lists and found a ton of stuff I want to play on it, so I am sure I will enjoy it to the fullest extent. The games are also nice and cheap with the majority being 19.99 and under which means I will actually be able to afford to keep up with games on the system once the initial investment is made.

The money I blew on this was also ebay profits, however I don't sell Wii's I sell toys mostly from my personal collection that I don't want anymore, and I always get thank you's as well for offering the items for sale.

SaraAB87

cherrybomb

d3ath_fly

I *loved* the reference to the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Made my day.

Chew13acca

GoIdie

Just because someone resells a Wii doesn't mean they're greedy, although in most cases, that is the case. Perhaps I am the exception. I sold the two Wii's for the exact price I paid for three, so the only profit I made was the Wii itself.

And I also got thank yous from both of the buyers. One, a lady with three kids who would have rather paid 3 times the amount that she did than be out with the "great unwashed" in lines, and the other person who had been trying for a Wii for 2 months, and had not been able to get one at retail.

And for the Starbucks story poster above...get real. Water sustains life. Nintendo Wiis don't. That's the most ridiculous argument I have ever heard.

taylorich

Complain all you want, but there's people out there who really don't mind paying the extra money for their child.

Callidux

yashichi8bit

To parents who can't get Wiis: You're not trying hard enough. You honestly only have to go to a store around 5/6 on a Sunday morning. If you can't do that, then how much do you really want the Wii? You can't complain about not getting one if you can't even wake up early.

Seriously people, don't feel bad for parents who are complaining. It really isn't that hard to legitimately get a Wii.

Doomstink

wage

Spojax

Keen314

Cholly

Shame, there are people like in Flynn's story that are genuinely wanting a Wii but can't get one, then there's douchenozzles trying to rip folks off. I guess if people will buy it, though...

edb87

"Sensor bar and console stand included too?? What a deal!"

zigx

Aesteval

rockett1

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

The above comment is very wrong. The NPD said the Wii sold around 1million Wiis in November. There should be more Wiis in Decemember but lets used 1 million as an example. Which means Nintendo can provide 250,000 wiis in 1 week. So lets assume this past Sunday there were 250k wiis available and 13.5k went to ebay.
So around 18% of the Sunday stock went to ebay scalpers while 82% got their Wii. That 18% (13.5k) is a small number and it doesn't drive up ebay prices as much as you think. Gamespot CEO said nintendo could have sold up to 3x as much. Meaning there are maybe 4 million people in the USA looking for a Wii.
Your theory is that only around 13,500 people are looking for a Wii. Again Nintendo should provide around 1.5+ million Wiis in December but the demand can be twice or higher.

blitz64

radink

Wake up. Gasp, it's 8 AM, I wanted to be at 7 to venture across the street and wait for a Wii. I hustle over there by 8:30. There's a Best Buy and Target in the same shopping center here. I see angry Christmas mom's screaming. I know I'm pretty screwed. I feebily ask a couple clerks, who confirm my suspicions that the Wii's are gone. Gone at Best Buy and Target. Probably until after Christmas.

Well, goddammit, I want a Christmas present for myself. I have holiday money to blow. So I do. I blow it on a PSP Slim Star Wars package with Final Fantasy Tactics and Silent Hill. Which I am thoroughly enjoying. Sorry Nintendo. I'll get the Wii eventually, but maybe when I can just casually walk into a store and buy one..not fight off hoarding Christmas mom's who are mad that 360 games won't work on a Wii.

Amnesiac85

ruslander

Their can't be 13,500 people that want a Wii that badly, right? Who's to blame? Nintendo, eBay sellers, or people willing to overpay? Good old consumerism and the economic scale of our society.

Algebraic Penguins

crewwolfy

rockett1

thing is people are paying over retail because they are bidding over retail, i seen prices set at 250 and get inflated to 300+. Dont say they're scalping when its the morons who are bidding over retail to get the piece of crap.

rockett1

I guess greed is human nature, even during the holidays.

kyosen

Bravo.

Tuxy79

n2Depth

Me: Holy hell, you still have Wiis?

Stocker: Yup. Want one? *thrusts a Wii into my hands*

Merry Christmas to me.

Scooter

giovonti

And eBay really should have a policy on scalping, which is illegal in most communities. They have policies on many other things which are much more arbitrary. I guess they make a lot of money off those seller fees for scalpers.

sxp151, the happy-headed nose

wisconsinista

When I purchased my 360 on launch day the Best Buy manager would not let me walk out of the store with my console (only core left), game, HDD and wireless controller unless I agreed to purchase the extended warranty. When I refused he said that I was going to sell it on eBay and that was against their store policy so he could not sell it to me. I had to wait an extra 30 minutes to get approval to buy a product because I did not want a warranty from Best Buy. eBay pricing is bad, but some things are far, far worse.

As long as the demand for a Wii remains this high, you can expect everyone to try and make a little cash on the misery of others.

Hiero Glyph

KidU

I just made two separate points and can't remember how I planned to tie them together. I guess it can all be packaged and put into the "Greed Sucks" column.

Sloopydrew

Which means, they'll be lucky to break even after eBay and PayPal fees.

Queasy

Kaemon

jayntampa

radink

goombakiller

DELETED

radink

DELETED

Gouki4u

ffmusicdj

Add in 13,500 scalpers, though, and now you have 27,000 people vying for 13,500 consoles. What do you think is going to happen to prices?

Scalpers cause artificial price inflation. They're not simply taking advantage of demand.

badasscat

radink

What about the people who "really want a Wii" but cant get one because there's an army of creepy wierdos with no job, life, human deceny scoops them all while they're working to feed their familes.

SAGA

SAGA

Detre

Wow! I'm guessing this wasn't sarcasm. Way to generalize that we all have no common sense!

Shannon1177

semanticantics

I second the general sentiment that people just need to stop rewarding this behavior. As long as the behavior earns the sellers a financial reward, they will keep doing this. I also won't be shocked if more than one person gets a "wii" from eBay that is just the plastic shell, or worse, inside the box.

I do think GS will go to the minimum effort to prevent their raincheck Wiis from ended up in the hands of eBay sellers, by limiting people to one per sales district (I was told by more than one GS manager prior to the Wii's initial launch they would do this), so that will help a bit, but there is only so much they can do.

DaiMacculate

/sarcasm

EnigmaNemesis

J_Sensei

"+14 games!!"

lol

Madeira

NotAZombie

I was going to use the Rose Bowl as an example over the Super Bowl, but then I saw you were a Notre Dame fan. My bad.

Foggynotion

I'm sure Nintendo don't mind. They have a way to lock in customers with that 'rain check' promotion anyway.

Mongoosekun

The Super Bowl is 30 minutes away from me this year, and there is no way in HELL I would pay even close to what they're charging. It's ridiculous. Same for concert tickets. I guess I just think too logically about things, I'm sorry for that.

It is a free market society, and blah blah blah. I don't need an education on economics. But if you're someone who can sit there and justify things like this, then you just remember that the next time something comes around that you want and it's ridiculously overpriced.

mva5580

Pound my tom-tom

nxp3

God Hand BrynnFlynn

Ballaboy311

Foggynotion

ruslander

geekgrrl

Mezodon

I seriously laugh and shake my head in disbelief when I see these IDIOTS paying over MSRP for anything online. I don't care if it's Wii, 360, PS3, Tickle Me Elmo, I don't give a damn what it is.

Seriously you are a MORON if you're paying over MSRP for anything like this. Grow up.

mva5580

Let these fuckers buy twelve Wiis, then eat it when they can't sell the damn things.

Insomnia Bob

This is what I'm worried about with the 'raincheck' system we're implementing soon. I'm hoping the GameStops in my district are going to do a kind of background check amongst all the stores to try and inhibit multiple purchasers like those eBay scalpers. Maybe taking down drivers licenses or something, or addresses. I just hate to have to tell people we don't have any because some Power Seller eBayer bought them all.

God Hand BrynnFlynn

And yes its very crappy that fleabay even exists currently in its monopolistic state along with its charge all paysucker.

Edpsx

Madeira

Shteve

Easy solution to this: Consumers need to stop being idiots and so obsessed with "the big thing."

Demand slows down. Relax. If you think your kids Christmas/Life is going to be ruined because he gets a Nintendo Wii in February rather than December, then you're a big part of the problem.

mva5580

Is that a deliberate pun?

Cildar

voteccow

tetracycloide

SkutSkut