Wii availability question

sociopharm02

sociopharm02

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When is the Wii going to be available to just go into a store and buy? Are we looking at months or ?? I am looking at getting one but they are impossible to find and i am not a big fan of waiting hours on end in line for one as i have a couple of small kids which makes it not a realistic option. Why doesn't Nintendo just crank up the production and flood the market with them?
 
Call your local wal-mart.

Ask them how many they have available for tomorow.

Mine has 5 and it's a first come first serve basis. Liking my chances.. lol
 
Up here in VT, our local Best Buy got about 12 in this weekend and they were already gone.

I stopped in on Friday and checked out the Wii section...a bunch of games, some accessories (including third-party component cables) but no Wiis. They did have like eight PS3s sitting on the shelves.

I would guess that you'll start to see the Wii on shelves as early as the end of February but that might be a little optomistic. It's probably more likely that you'll be able to readily find one in stores starting in April.

These things are selling like mad right now. If you absolutely don't need to play Elebits / Wii-Zelda right now, I would almost suggest holding off until the middle of this year.
 
Man... It might not be till March that you'll be able to find these things with any ease. I continue to be amazed and delighted by the popular response.
 
I've got a simple method; when you stop seeing new "when can I get a Wii?" posts on forums every other day, then you know they're in stock everywhere.

Before you call me a dick, keep in mind that it's working so far.
 
It seems to be getting easier with every shipment, but it will probably be sometime in march before they are consistently on store shelves.
 
Yeah, a month ago, people were saying now would be the time. Now it's become March. March will become April, April will become May, May will become...??? It's difficult to predict when the occasion you and a lot of other people want will come about. It should have already happened, but for whatever reason, it isn't. If you have to have the Wii between now and that time (whenever it is) I'd go one of two routes:

It goes against the grain of CAG, but eBay is looking better. A quick look at the completed auctions page showed a lot of auctions for Wiis (in box, new, everything you'd get if you got it from the store) ending at $320-340 plus shipping ranging from $20-40. This is subject to change, since there'll be at least 10 more completed Wii auctions within the next 10 minutes, but you get the general idea of where prices are going.
If you can't wait in line, then you may have luck anticipating some of the smaller shipments at local stores. This, of course, depends on your work schedule, but if you can get some solid info (or if you happen to see a UPS/FedEx/DHL truck parked outside a place) then you can walk in and grab a Wii as soon as they hit the shelves.
 
If you can't wait in line ask a friend or relative to buy it for you. I had to wait in line for 2 hours, but it was a lot better than constantly being told that no wiis were in stock.
 
If you have Target stores near you and can get there during the day use Itrackr.com. That was how I got my original Wii back at the beginning of the month (got a second last weekend at BB, used my GC and Reward's Certificates to knock the price down, then returned the original).

I trackr has been 100% on "target" (no pun intended) for shipments in my area. As long as they don't do another ad hold for awhile (Itrackr was worthless last week b/c of the stores holding for 1/21) you should be in good shape.
 
[quote name='Pi573']Yeah, a month ago, people were saying now would be the time. Now it's become March. March will become April, April will become May, May will become...??? It's difficult to predict when the occasion you and a lot of other people want will come about. It should have already happened, but for whatever reason, it isn't. [/QUOTE]

Very true. But from the boards here and else where it seems like the lines at Wal-mart this week weren't nearly as bad, and there were lots of people that found them an hour or two after opening.

So it is getting better. Demand is getting more satisfied with each shipment, and it isn't going to spike up anytime soon with no killer apps on the horizon until after June (Metroid now not coming until June or later from the latest reports).
 
That's right you still can't walk in and buy a Wii but the lines were WAY shorter on the 21st for the latest release. When I was waiting at BB there were zero people waiting at 9:00AM and only 10 waiting at 10:00AM when they opened. I don't know if that was partially due to the weather but judging by other CAG reports it seemed to be like that in many places.

Also ebay final selling prices are steadily falling so that's another indication that they are much more available.
 
Yeah here in Wallingford, CT there weren't many people waiting at midnight at Wal-Mart for the Wii at all, and the next morning there was another shipment of 10 wiis which were gone over the next few hours.

I think Nintendo is starting to pump these things out, and the demand is alot less. But with Tax Refund season who knows when these things will become readily avaible... April maybe?
 
keep in mind xbox 360 was hard to find till like March.. and the Wii is at a lower price point and seems to appeal to a larger market.. so idk u may be waiting for awhile. I got 2 Wiis by complete luck.. so keep your fingers crossed if anything.
 
At this point, I'm wondering if Nintendo isn't throttling the distribution of Wiis a bit to extend the "WII SOLD OUT" story. The unexpected launch sales were a long time ago, so it isn't like Nintendo hasn't had time to respond. And as the components of the Wii are supposedly easy to come by, I would think they could bump manufacturing pretty easily to meet demand. So either they've got unforeseen distribution problems or they're not respecting retailers' demands for more Wiis.

I don't know, I'm just wondering aloud. It looks like this will continue on through February, though.
 
I cant believe when checking itracker it still says

"National Availability: 2%"I would buy one if I could just walk in and pick one up, but I am sure by the time that comes around I will have spent my money in other areas(such as 360 games), causing me to wait even longer.
 
I remember before the launch we were all thinking we could just walk into a store either on launch or within a few days after and pick up a wii. Boy were we wrong.

And although I've only played wii sports and a little excite truck so far (just got the wii recently), I think it's fun, but I don't see why it's creating such a buying frenzy. Unless my remote isn't calibrated correctly, the control seems a little screwy and frustrating at times. I don't see how they will be able to create a huge number of games that work well with it. I was playing it the other day and started craving to use a regular controller and play gears of war instead. I haven't had a chance to throw a wii party yet (is the multiplayer the main draw?), but the single player experience so far doesn't seem like it would warrant such a sellout. Are zelda and trauma center why people like it so much? (I've also got them sitting here unplayed).

Don't go bashing me for criticizing it, because I'm a Nintendo fanboy at heart and I admit I haven't played it for more than a few hours, but so far it's not living up to the hype for me.
 
Scottman, Zelda and Elebits are excellent games that make great use of the controller (especially Elebits).

Anyway, was just commenting in the Fry's deal thread that my Fry's had 69 of them in today - it was a bundle with Elebits, Super Monkey Ball, and Super Swing Golf for $400. That's not a bad selection of games. I didn't care for SMB and was going to pick up Super Swing Golf when it got cheaper (but got it today since some people took the bundle games and traded them in to the nearby Gamecrazy which is running 20% off used games right now!). But for people who have been looking a lot or don't want to wait in lines Sunday mornings, or whatever, that's not a bad deal. I figure the games are worth $100 realistically, so you are paying $50 more than you should, not too bad.

This bundle would have sold out in minutes in December and pretty quickly even a few weeks ago. It took ALL day to sell them today - I was there at 8:30 PM and they said they sold the last one 20 minutes before. So that is definitely a sign that things are slowing down, but there's obviously a lot of interest still in the Wii.

My kids spend hours just messing around with the Mii characters (not even a game!). It is a fun system, no doubt about it. Now I have a new game to play (Super Swing Golf). I hope it is worth the $27.99 in GC credit I spent on this (new, still sealed, still with Fry's price tag on it :lol:) "used" copy I bought!
 
[quote name='dothog']At this point, I'm wondering if Nintendo isn't throttling the distribution of Wiis a bit to extend the "WII SOLD OUT" story. The unexpected launch sales were a long time ago, so it isn't like Nintendo hasn't had time to respond. And as the components of the Wii are supposedly easy to come by, I would think they could bump manufacturing pretty easily to meet demand. So either they've got unforeseen distribution problems or they're not respecting retailers' demands for more Wiis.[/quote]

I hear what you're saying. I don't think it's likely, though.

Every time I go to Target (or wherever) and I see the electronics cases with games and no systems (for both PS3 and Wii) I think "there's a lot of software that isn't selling because people don't have the machines to play them".

Throttling the systems creates more demand, but retailers are sitting on stuff they can't sell, which tends to make them cranky. Plus, while it brings people into stores more often then they would normally go, they make shorter trips and go to competitors more, too.

If I had to speculate, I'd guess that while Wiis are generally easy to make, there's some limiting factor that can't be cranked out as fast as the rest.

That, or Nintendo undercalculated demand and just didn't make enough. The total lack of DS Lites would tend to support this.
 
[quote name='blandstalker']

Throttling the systems creates more demand, but retailers are sitting on stuff they can't sell, which tends to make them cranky. Plus, while it brings people into stores more often then they would normally go, they make shorter trips and go to competitors more, too.

If I had to speculate, I'd guess that while Wiis are generally easy to make, there's some limiting factor that can't be cranked out as fast as the rest.

That, or Nintendo undercalculated demand and just didn't make enough. The total lack of DS Lites would tend to support this.[/quote]

If Nintendo were to create or expand the current Wii factories it would cost millions of dollars and since system demand should level out in a couple of months it wouldn't really be worth it. Also you have to factor in that the Wii was launched not only in Japan and America but Europe also, seven hundred thousand units sold in Europe in Decemeber afterall.

http://www.i4u.com/article7673.html
 
i was at sears today with the wife, passed by the games section to see if they had anything cheap... 2 wii systems sitting in the case getting no love.
 
I'm going to guess that we'll see supply meet demand here in the very near future. I've noticed a lot of commercials for the Wii in the past week (especially on Fox), I can't imagine that Nintendo would be increasing their advertising that much if they weren't expecting the system to be readily available very soon.
 
[quote name='rlse9']I'm going to guess that we'll see supply meet demand here in the very near future. I've noticed a lot of commercials for the Wii in the past week (especially on Fox), I can't imagine that Nintendo would be increasing their advertising that much if they weren't expecting the system to be readily available very soon.[/quote]

I don't know Sony used a crapload of advertising during the holiday season when PS3's were impossible to find. I even received a glossy fold out brochure deal (it was pretty fancy and had to cost a pretty penny if they mass mailed them). I wanted to call them and say "Hey I might fuck ing buy one if I could fuck ing find one!!!"
 
Yeah, but the people at Sony are dumb. And the reason I think it isn't because they are advertising, but because they really hadn't been advertising very much and all of a sudden I'm seeing Wii commercials every day. I wouldn't think they'd be advertising that much during a relatively dead time of the year unless they expected systems to be available.

Now that I think about it, Sony might not be that dumb (at least in this case). While there might not have been systems available, their advertising was probably more aimed at trying to convince people to not buy a 360 or Wii as it was to get people to buy a PS3. They knew the PS3 would sell out quick and thought advertising would help prevent people from going "oh well I can't get a PS3 I'll just get a 360 instead".
 
Well my friend got the wii and I had surgery the other day so my friends raised money to buy me a wii, my mom and I insisted that they donate it to duke childrens hospital cause they have helped me with sinus stuff. So my mom says she will buy me a wii to cheer me up from the surgery, we go to walmart(I dont live in a big town) and they are fresh out of wii's. So I ask the guy when they will be getting them. He said that the last shipment was 2 weeks ago(wtf?) and he doesnt know when they will be getting them.

I guess I will be making alot of calls to my local wal-mart :roll:

By the way im new \\:D/
 
[quote name='squirrel007']Well my friend got the wii and I had surgery the other day so my friends raised money to buy me a wii, my mom and I insisted that they donate it to duke childrens hospital cause they have helped me with sinus stuff. So my mom says she will buy me a wii to cheer me up from the surgery, we go to walmart(I dont live in a big town) and they are fresh out of wii's. So I ask the guy when they will be getting them. He said that the last shipment was 2 weeks ago(wtf?) and he doesnt know when they will be getting them.

I guess I will be making alot of calls to my local wal-mart :roll:

By the way im new \\:D/[/quote]

Is Wally World the only retailer in town that carries them? If you have any Targets or Circuit Cities I suggest using Itrackr.com to watch for them. That's how I got mine. Also it looks like from what I've been reading elsewhere TRU and CC will have the Wii in the Sunday ads for next week (2/11).

Also welcome aboard!
 
[quote name='Chitown021']Is Wally World the only retailer in town that carries them? If you have any Targets or Circuit Cities I suggest using Itrackr.com to watch for them. That's how I got mine. Also it looks like from what I've been reading elsewhere TRU and CC will have the Wii in the Sunday ads for next week (2/11).

Also welcome aboard![/quote]

Sadly walmart is the only major retailer... we do have a sears but I have no idea if they carry video games. We also have a kmart but its the worst excuse for a store ever XD. They still have ps1's for full retail price...

However I am using a tracker to try and be notified asap when an online retailer carrys them! I hope to get my Wii soon, cant wait!
 
Good luck I hope you find one soon. Keep an eye out for Amazon to carry them. You get free shipping and no tax! Watch out for the on-line bundles they suck unless they actually contain games you want or the store will allow returns.
 
[quote name='Chitown021']Good luck I hope you find one soon. Keep an eye out for Amazon to carry them. You get free shipping and no tax! Watch out for the on-line bundles they suck unless they actually contain games you want or the store will allow returns.[/quote]

I hate sites that force bundles :( Cause all I really want for now is the console, an extra controller and zelda. All I need now.
 
From Speedy's ad post in the deals forum, Circuit City and Target have them in the ad for the 11th (next Sunday) and there's as rumor that Toy's R Us will have a ton of them that day as well.
 
[quote name='squirrel007']Sadly walmart is the only major retailer... we do have a sears but I have no idea if they carry video games. We also have a kmart but its the worst excuse for a store ever XD. They still have ps1's for full retail price...

However I am using a tracker to try and be notified asap when an online retailer carrys them! I hope to get my Wii soon, cant wait![/QUOTE]


Especially if the PS1's you are referring to are the system/screen combos - RUN to your K-Mart, ignore the sticker price, and have them ring you up for all of them. Proceed to Ebay. Donate proceeds to charity, Wii funds, chosen1s...
 
[quote name='chosen1s']Especially if the PS1's you are referring to are the system/screen combos - RUN to your K-Mart, ignore the sticker price, and have them ring you up for all of them. Proceed to Ebay. Donate proceeds to charity, Wii funds, chosen1s...[/quote]

They are 0.0 but I dont see why anyone would want one.
 
Itrackr is showing Wii's at a couple of Targets near me. I wonder if they're actually putting them out for sale or if it's stock for the upcoming ad...
 
[quote name='Chitown021']Itrackr is showing Wii's at a couple of Targets near me. I wonder if they're actually putting them out for sale or if it's stock for the upcoming ad...[/quote]

I hope I will be able to locate one on or before this sunday... :(
 
[quote name='Chitown021']Itrackr is showing Wii's at a couple of Targets near me. I wonder if they're actually putting them out for sale or if it's stock for the upcoming ad...[/QUOTE]

I just called one of the Target's here that ITrackr claims to have them. The obviously Suddafed drowned kid on the line said that they don't have any and that the next shipment is this upcoming Sunday.

I must say that even I'm getting tired of this whole Sunday launch shit. Just sell the damn systems when they come in. I'm tired of playing these stupid games.
 
[quote name='Chitown021']Itrackr is showing Wii's at a couple of Targets near me. I wonder if they're actually putting them out for sale or if it's stock for the upcoming ad...[/quote]

Probably holding them until Sunday, like they did last time, if they are not on the shelves by tommorow morning, they are holding them
 
[quote name='Demolition Man']I must say that even I'm getting tired of this whole Sunday launch shit. Just sell the damn systems when they come in. I'm tired of playing these stupid games.[/QUOTE]

You and me BOTH. Sell em when they come in, don't play the stupid "We don't have any, try Sunday!" game. It's old, it's played out. Just give me my Goddamn Wii already, enough of this camping BS.
 
GameCrazy stores got two in today, but the majority of stores are still trying to fulfill their wishlist orders
 
I don't know if other places are like the Gamestop where I found mine, but if they are don't even bother calling. While one of the clerks was ringing me up, another clerk answered the phone (this clerk didn't know I was getting a Wii) and he told the person on the phone that they didn't have any Wiis. I assume this is because they can't hold them, so for the sake of their sanity they just tell callers that they don't have any. But it is worthwhile to ask while at the store since they don't seem to advertise they have them.
 
I've seen a few Wii's here and there.
Still can find Wiimotes though.

Frys had a ton of Wiimotes and Classic Controllers, but they were 10 bucks more than they're supposed to be, until I saw that they're Japanese.
 
[quote name='hinkbert']I don't know if other places are like the Gamestop where I found mine, but if they are don't even bother calling. While one of the clerks was ringing me up, another clerk answered the phone (this clerk didn't know I was getting a Wii) and he told the person on the phone that they didn't have any Wii's. I assume this is because they can't hold them, so for the sake of their sanity they just tell callers that they don't have any. But it is worthwhile to ask while at the store since they don't seem to advertise they have them.[/quote]


It's worth a shot to ask but even that can be an adventure. When I got my system in early January I went to the Target near me within 10 minutes of the itrackr alert. When I got there I went straight for the electronics case. It was empty but I thought there was no way they had already sold (unless they got 2). I asked the kid at the counter and he told me they didn't have any and hadn't for awhile. Within 5 minutes another guy came over to the counter and asked (I later learned he got the Itrackr alert on his phone). He asked for a manager and the manager denied having the systems. Finally as we were about to leave the manager came back to electronics with a Wii in hand and gave it to the other guy. I asked for one and they brought a cart up from the back with the remaining 5 units they had.

I knew the damn things were there before most of the employees did! It was wild. Later that day I went to another Target and had the same thing happen. I asked, they said no, I screwed around playing the PS3 demo, and about 30 minutes later they asked me "Were you looking for a Wii?" (picked one up for a friend who couldn't get off work that day).
 
They are in the Target ad the 11th, and we got an email in our district yesterday that all stock of Wiis and DS Lites are to be held until then. So line up a little early, and hopefully get your hands on one.
 
[quote name='halfbent']They are in the Target ad the 11th, and we got an email in our district yesterday that all stock of Wiis and DS Lites are to be held until then. So line up a little early, and hopefully get your hands on one.[/QUOTE]


How early do you think? Like 4am or is 6-7am still okay?
 
Just got back from my local CC and they had 3 Wii units sitting on the shelf with the Wii games. A few people looked at them, but nobody seemed to actually want to buy them...

Ogden, UT location for any in the area that are interested.
 
I'm betting (and this is totally YMMV) this Sunday you shouldn't need to get up super early or camp all night to get a Wii. Many areas you can probably arrive an hour or two early and still be able to snag a Wii. A couple weeks ago when CC, BB, and Target had them I went 1 1/2 hours early and there was nobody waiting in line at my store (went to BB b/c I had a $90 GC and $30 worth of Rewards Certificates to use). The store opened at 10:00AM. I got there at about 8:30AM and the lot was empty. Ran to Wally World across the street to run some errands (wife wanted me to pick up a few groceries while I was out). When I was done I went back over to BB at 9:00AM and there was one truck waiting. By 9:30AM there were about 5 of us in the parking lot. The first person got out of their car at 9:45AM so we lined up. Doors opened at 10:00AM with about 10 people in line. They still had around 10 units sitting on the shelves when I left the store.


I wonder if the stores are going to do the ticket handout again this weekend?
 
[quote name='Requiem']How early do you think? Like 4am or is 6-7am still okay?[/QUOTE]
6-7am should still be OK, maybe even little bit later
 
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