The least secretive clearance sale in internet history is about to start tomorrow and by now every user of any video game website has their lists printed out in hopes of scoring the improbable haul of cheap games at Best Buy tomorrow.
But just how likely are you to score big when the doors swing open tomorrow? Mrs. Shipwreck and I headed to our local Best Buy today to check on the state of the sale. Our plan was to pre-buy a couple of games that we had seen the night before in hopes that we could beat the rush and get a price adjustment on the items at a later date. Well, we arrived about 10 minutes after opening today and we were not the only ones to have this plan (or the lists of games in hand).
Immediately upon arriving in the games department, we spot another customer in the Xbox aisle pushing a cart with around 10-15 games already stacked up and inquiring as to whether they had King Kong for Xbox 360 (they did not). Now knowing that my chances of cheap Xbox and Xbox 360 games were slim to nil, I hurried to the PSP section and relievedly grabbed the last copy of Ultimate Ghosts n' Goblins. There was still hope, as I was obviously the first to hit anything past the Microsoft aisle.
I quickly handed the list of highlighted PS2 games to the Mrs. and hurried to the Gamecube section to see if they had any Mario Party 7's. No dice... in fact, the Gamecube selection was very small to begin with, so I moved on to Gameboy Advance and DS. My eyes lit up as I grabbed for Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and after some digging I found Harvest Moon DS. Other than that, just about all the other games on the list had been long sold out.
About this time, my wife had finished with the PS2 section with Chronicles of Narnia and Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 in hand. She then took the PSP list and headed off while I decided to go see if cart guy had left anything in Xbox land. He was still looking through the Xbox games and I could see he was grabbing multiple copies of everything on the shelves. By this time, he probably had around 20 games in his cart and I quickly grabbed a copy of King of Fighters: Neowave while it was still on the shelf. As I reached past him, we exchanged some pleasantries and he asked me if that game was on the list that I had. I told him that it was and he proceeded to pick up a copy and then turned the corner to head to the PS2 aisle.
I finished flipping through the Xbox games knowing that there would be little chance of anything remaining (I was correct). The same was true with the 360 section: nada. Mrs. Shipwreck struck out in the PSP department as well, but we decided to just double check through some of the sections again to make sure we didn't miss anything.
Mrs. Shipwreck found some of those bargain "Christmas wrapped" games along the back wall and we picked up a couple of those as I thought they might be included in the sale. She also found a copy of Monster House for the Game Boy Advance which we bought as it looked like it might be fun. After that we were ready to leave as I was happy with the few games that I was able to find. I noticed by this time, cart guy had somewhere between 25-30 games in his cart including the PS2 and PSP games that I had passed on.
Overall, I ended up spending around $250 for 13 games. I can't even imagine what that other guy's bill was going to look like.
So, how are your chances tomorrow? Probably not very good if my local experience is any indication. Most games on the list have been out of stock for weeks and I have to imagine that with how quickly the word on this sale spread, that a lot of people went out to buy games today in hopes of getting the prices adjusted tomorrow. Now, there are certainly deals left to be had out there, but expect a lot of competition for very few games. I'd expect there to be multiple people waiting in the parking lot when Best Buy opens tomorrow and it only takes one "cart guy" to wipe an entire store clean.
Well, the best I can tell you is good luck tomorrow and may the cheapness be with you.
UPDATE (2/26/07):
Well, I just got back from a different Best Buy and here's the latest of my tale. I arrived around 10 minutes after they opened and I decided to do some shopping before getting my purchases from the previous day adjusted. There were already 2 other guys there that had about 10 games in their hands, so I knew there wasn't going to be much left.
I saw a friendly Best Buy employee that I had spoke with on previous visits and he knew why I was there. I asked if they had any of the 360 games and he told me that they hadn't carried any of them for months. I knew this was true, but was hoping for a random King Kong siting. I thanked him and proceeded to look through the Xbox section and I picked up a few random games (the price cards had all been updated to the new prices).
I then proceeded through the rest of the sections and grabbed some more odds and ends including Astonishia Story for $1.99 which I didn't remember seeing on the list.
After I had made my initial pass, I started talking to the employee again and he pointed out some more games and items that had dropped in price. One of these was the Xport for the 360 which I picked up for $29.99.
After all was said and done, I purchased the following:
Xport - $29.99
187: Ride or Die - $1.99
Dinotopia - $1.99
Marc Ecko's Getting Up - $1.99
Painkiller: Hell Wars - $9.99
SNK Vs. Capcom SVK Chaos - $1.99
Astonishia Story x2 $1.99
Animaniacs $4.99
WWE Day of Reckoning 2 $1.99
I then took that bag of goodies back out to my car and brought yesterday's purchases back into Best Buy. I returned the Dragon Ball Z game that I had mistakingly bought and then proceeded to have customer service check the rest of the games that I had bought for price drops.
It was quickly apparent that the "Christmas wrapped" games that I had assumed were on sale were ringing up full price, so I went ahead and returned those as well. I was able to get the price adjusted on the rest of the games without any problems. So from my previous haul, I left the store with the following:
King of Fighters Neowave - $4.99
Ultimate Ghosts n' Goblins - $4.99
Harvest Moon DS - $9.99
Chronicles of Narnia - $4.99
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories - $1.99
Monster House - $4.99
So in total I picked up 15 games for $61 before tax and the Xport for $30 although I'm not 100% sure that I will end up keeping the Xport.
Good luck to all today!
But just how likely are you to score big when the doors swing open tomorrow? Mrs. Shipwreck and I headed to our local Best Buy today to check on the state of the sale. Our plan was to pre-buy a couple of games that we had seen the night before in hopes that we could beat the rush and get a price adjustment on the items at a later date. Well, we arrived about 10 minutes after opening today and we were not the only ones to have this plan (or the lists of games in hand).
Immediately upon arriving in the games department, we spot another customer in the Xbox aisle pushing a cart with around 10-15 games already stacked up and inquiring as to whether they had King Kong for Xbox 360 (they did not). Now knowing that my chances of cheap Xbox and Xbox 360 games were slim to nil, I hurried to the PSP section and relievedly grabbed the last copy of Ultimate Ghosts n' Goblins. There was still hope, as I was obviously the first to hit anything past the Microsoft aisle.
I quickly handed the list of highlighted PS2 games to the Mrs. and hurried to the Gamecube section to see if they had any Mario Party 7's. No dice... in fact, the Gamecube selection was very small to begin with, so I moved on to Gameboy Advance and DS. My eyes lit up as I grabbed for Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and after some digging I found Harvest Moon DS. Other than that, just about all the other games on the list had been long sold out.
About this time, my wife had finished with the PS2 section with Chronicles of Narnia and Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 in hand. She then took the PSP list and headed off while I decided to go see if cart guy had left anything in Xbox land. He was still looking through the Xbox games and I could see he was grabbing multiple copies of everything on the shelves. By this time, he probably had around 20 games in his cart and I quickly grabbed a copy of King of Fighters: Neowave while it was still on the shelf. As I reached past him, we exchanged some pleasantries and he asked me if that game was on the list that I had. I told him that it was and he proceeded to pick up a copy and then turned the corner to head to the PS2 aisle.
I finished flipping through the Xbox games knowing that there would be little chance of anything remaining (I was correct). The same was true with the 360 section: nada. Mrs. Shipwreck struck out in the PSP department as well, but we decided to just double check through some of the sections again to make sure we didn't miss anything.
Mrs. Shipwreck found some of those bargain "Christmas wrapped" games along the back wall and we picked up a couple of those as I thought they might be included in the sale. She also found a copy of Monster House for the Game Boy Advance which we bought as it looked like it might be fun. After that we were ready to leave as I was happy with the few games that I was able to find. I noticed by this time, cart guy had somewhere between 25-30 games in his cart including the PS2 and PSP games that I had passed on.
Overall, I ended up spending around $250 for 13 games. I can't even imagine what that other guy's bill was going to look like.
So, how are your chances tomorrow? Probably not very good if my local experience is any indication. Most games on the list have been out of stock for weeks and I have to imagine that with how quickly the word on this sale spread, that a lot of people went out to buy games today in hopes of getting the prices adjusted tomorrow. Now, there are certainly deals left to be had out there, but expect a lot of competition for very few games. I'd expect there to be multiple people waiting in the parking lot when Best Buy opens tomorrow and it only takes one "cart guy" to wipe an entire store clean.
Well, the best I can tell you is good luck tomorrow and may the cheapness be with you.
UPDATE (2/26/07):
Well, I just got back from a different Best Buy and here's the latest of my tale. I arrived around 10 minutes after they opened and I decided to do some shopping before getting my purchases from the previous day adjusted. There were already 2 other guys there that had about 10 games in their hands, so I knew there wasn't going to be much left.
I saw a friendly Best Buy employee that I had spoke with on previous visits and he knew why I was there. I asked if they had any of the 360 games and he told me that they hadn't carried any of them for months. I knew this was true, but was hoping for a random King Kong siting. I thanked him and proceeded to look through the Xbox section and I picked up a few random games (the price cards had all been updated to the new prices).
I then proceeded through the rest of the sections and grabbed some more odds and ends including Astonishia Story for $1.99 which I didn't remember seeing on the list.
After I had made my initial pass, I started talking to the employee again and he pointed out some more games and items that had dropped in price. One of these was the Xport for the 360 which I picked up for $29.99.
After all was said and done, I purchased the following:
Xport - $29.99
187: Ride or Die - $1.99
Dinotopia - $1.99
Marc Ecko's Getting Up - $1.99
Painkiller: Hell Wars - $9.99
SNK Vs. Capcom SVK Chaos - $1.99
Astonishia Story x2 $1.99
Animaniacs $4.99
WWE Day of Reckoning 2 $1.99
I then took that bag of goodies back out to my car and brought yesterday's purchases back into Best Buy. I returned the Dragon Ball Z game that I had mistakingly bought and then proceeded to have customer service check the rest of the games that I had bought for price drops.
It was quickly apparent that the "Christmas wrapped" games that I had assumed were on sale were ringing up full price, so I went ahead and returned those as well. I was able to get the price adjusted on the rest of the games without any problems. So from my previous haul, I left the store with the following:
King of Fighters Neowave - $4.99
Ultimate Ghosts n' Goblins - $4.99
Harvest Moon DS - $9.99
Chronicles of Narnia - $4.99
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories - $1.99
Monster House - $4.99
So in total I picked up 15 games for $61 before tax and the Xport for $30 although I'm not 100% sure that I will end up keeping the Xport.
Good luck to all today!
