@idledebonair: According to her sweetpea12's profile pic, she is right because she is a girl.

Ken

Ditto sweetpea12, I called ahead and they acted as if they'd never heard of a such thing as not having a Wii in stock. Phone: 646-459-0800

idledebonair

Sorry to repost but also you might want to look for sellers on Ebay that are close to you so you can forgoe shipping fee's.

xquizx

If you're not picky you can snag a USED one on Ebay for real cheap. I bought my niece and nephew a used Wii for $220 with shipping, plus it came with an extra controller, nunchuck and downloaded games.

xquizx

Nintendo World
10 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

They get Wii Shipments in every 2-3 days. Call ahead though just to check. Got my Wii no problem

sweetpea12

There's a small town 20 minutes away with a Wal Mart that tends to have these new toys without a huge demand for them. Whenever I want one of the new high-demand items I call them up first.

EchoD

One other tip that worked for me back in March - go to a store that's a little out of the way, like on the outskirts of a metro area. Not one in the middle of nowhere, where it's the only one around for miles, but one at the fringes of an area with several more prominent stores of the same kind. In my case, it was the "hidden" target 20 minutes northwest of central Austin. And yeah, even then, you have to go in the middle of the night on a Sunday.

Oh, but is it ever worth it. :)

Ian

I was fortunate enough to get my Wii the week after it came out (or unfortunate, if you consider the fact that on opening night I was the first person to go home empty-handed). Basically, I called up Gamestop on Sunday morning (I had been calling every day), and they said they had a few in stock. So I hurried up there and managed to snag one.

Location is a major factor. I'm away at college right now in a small town, and I know that the Wal-Mart here had Halo 3 the entire week after it came out.

Kikuichimonji

@davebg5: Hey davebg5, any chance you'd be willing to offload your extra Rock Band to a needy fellow New Yorker? I've been looking everywhere for the special edition, but haven't had any luck. If yours is still sealed in the box and for the xbox 360, I'll be happy to give you cash or PayPal you!

lizochka22

I tried all of these methods. The way I found mine was through the Gamestop Back Door Method outlined here:
[brentevans.blogspot.com]

cfaslave

In the great northwest Circuit City holds the Wii in the back and only brings them out upon request so if you don't see any try asking one of the sales reps.

shanks79

As a former Target employee I can confirm this. We used to get Wii's in on Wednesday's but would hold about 5 for Sunday morning for when the ad came out. Its a shady practice but it happens all over the country.

jimforcy

I've pretty much given up on scoring a wii before Christmas. I'm hoping that they'll be a bit easier to come by between Christmas and New Year's.

brianwahl

i agree about checking the smaller stores. i looked online but never got lucky. that is, i was never watching the availability charts within 5 mins of wiis becoming available. i also went to all the big boxes in the area (houston), but to no avail. after a couple frustrating weeks, i saw that game crazy (those video game stores attached to hollywood video) sent a flyer with wiis, and sure enough, they had em in stock. if only finals would finish so i could actually play it.

hookem

VPN - yes, that would have been very cool.

\m/

binaryspiral

carpetbagger?

Anyways, I scored a Wii and Guitar Hero III for Wii in the past week and a half. I used the online alerting services to tell me when they went on sale and if I happened to be at a computer, which my fat ass is for a living, then I ordered.

Wiialerts got me the Wii
[www.wiialerts.com]

Wiialerts can call your cellphone, which might give you a head start over those waiting for an email alert. Wiialerts doesn't track Guitar Hero III, but Nowinstock does.

[www.nowinstock.net]

Nowinstock only does email but it was good enough for me to get Guitar Hero III.

I started looking a week and a half ago. I ordered the Wii from Amazon last Friday and Guitar Hero from Red Octane (the manufacturer) today. I'm not glued to the computer waiting to snag these units so I can resell them. I'm just an ordinary schlub who found out late that Santa was supposed to bring a Wii.

So try the alerting services and see if you can order online. It worked for me and could save you cold Sunday waiting in line.

Myron

aww, I read the headline as "Score Rock Band for Wii this Christmas".

That would have been awesome too.

VPS

Similar to others... We were away from home visiting family, who live in a small-town place that doesn't have a lot of intellectuals or technophiles per capita, and found them idling on the shelf at the WalMart.

Rock Band was in comparison really easy to get, which we did fairly late on release day.

krom

Try looking at places the average shopper might not look. For example, I periodically see 10-20 Wiis (whenever they get a shipment) at my local Costco. They usually last several days before completely disappearing. And I got Rock Band at Sam's Club (for $150!) at about 7:00pm on release day, and they still had a few left.

Franklin Comes Alive!

I just asked my local gamestore when they got a shipment in and went that day

imrcly

I called five stores the evening before the Wii launch to see if they had any ticket system in place. They all said that it would be first come, first serve that morning. They all LIED. Tickets were being given out as I was calling.

I hate retail.

RRRansom

Try Toys R Us or other stores like that too. They often get shipments on Sundays but people always try Best Buy and other electronics stores first. I called up the store on Saturday to confirm their circular, then waited in line for a little more than an hour before the store opened. I got a Wii in May.

Vanvi

If you're in the NYC area the Toys 'R Us in Times Sq is your best bet to get a Wii. I've gotten two of them there on two separate occasions. Every time I go there they have Wii's stacked to the ceiling.

Rock Band was a little tougher. I couldn't track one down at any big box stores, so I tried the Best Buy website. They had them in stock and I received it a few days later. Of course, I just found out that I can get one for $130 from work, so I'll either be returning the one I got or selling it.

davebg5

I used the same strategy, but only had to use it once because I first checked with a smaller, less popular store (in my case, ShopKo) rather than the big boxes that EVERYONE flocks to for such items. I called once, they had 7 in stock, I swung by many hours later and got the 2nd to last one they had. Wii's rock!

rachaeljean

I used [itrackr.com] when I got mine last year. They SMS'd me when my Target got them in stock; I jumped in the car, drove there, and got the last one...

pmhesse

Wired doesn't get it... I got my Wii last week, here's how: [binaryspiral.com]

I wasn't going to publish this before I could prove it worked. Well, it did - and I got the $250 Wii on Amazon, not the overpriced bundles from Wally World.

binaryspiral

When I tried finding a Wii over the summer, I went to about 10 different big box and game stores. None of the employees had any information on when the next shipments would arrive, so it took me and a friend almost a month to find one by calling each of the ten stores every morning.

Mayde

I got mine last year the week before Thanksgiving by looking at the WallyWorld flyer ahead of time. Be sure to check for any fine print in the flyer. I showed up at WalMart at 7 AM on Sunday, but was told that they flyer said there would be Wiis on TUESDAY. I gladly showed up on TUESDAY at 6:45 AM (our local WallyWorld wasn't opening up until 7 AM anyway due to Katrina), and there were 26 people in a line outside, with a sign stating they had 30 Wiis.

Been happily playing it ever since :)

ChrisC1234

@sweetpea12:

I generally agree with this, but you currently (as of last week) have to wait in line from approximately 5 am to get one when they open at 8. I work virtually next door, and they told me they get daily shipments, but people start lining up the night before or very early in the morning. And they definitely did not have any in stock when I stopped by.

alerievay

@lilparker780: Not sure where you're looking...I got mine on Black Friday, regular price.

CaffeinatedSquint

I have been looking for a Wii. I heard that it is supposed to cost $250 but most places I have tried are selling it for twice as much. Maybe it is for the demand maybe? Perhaps, it is price gouging. I think I can patiently wait until next year when people aren't going to want it so much.

lilparker780

I wrote some scripts to scour Craigslists for the Wii -

[shameless website promotion]
[jaxed.com]
[/shameless website promotion]

jaxed

We purchase our Wii last year at Costco. This year we had a friend looking for a Wii - so we entered as many win a wii, or win a chance to buy a wii contests we could find. We scored on a decent bundle from J&R...

We Wii!

WhatThe...

I just scored a second wii to put under the tree this year at a grocery store of all places. They even gave me a $25.00 gift certificate for buying it there. I guess they sold out as soon as they arrived, but my GF knows a girl that works there and had mentioned that I was looking for one. Guess I lucked out.

Polluted

I picked up Rockband at Costco with no problems.

I've also bought about 10 Wiis at Toys R Us on sunday mornings. Selling them for $400 each on craigslist is easy money

privatejoker75

I got mine on November 19, 2006, and it was the last time I saw one in stores.

MrFuzzypaws

I called around looking for Rock Band the day it came out only to find out it had sold at Midnight the night before. My brother happened to be in Best Buy and asked the guy when their next shipment was coming. He said it would arrive in five minutes. He hung around and bought some other stuff and then picked one off the pallet that they hauled into the store. He called me and I came over and picked it up. Sometimes a little good luck can be all you need.

jplumey

@binaryspiral: Seems too much of a hassle for something that will eventually be easy to get. Find a place that will just let you preorder. I did that when I got my Nikon D200 which was in short supply for a while.

Buran

Wanna know how I did it? I waited all night in freezing cold Nebraska temperatures to get my Wii on release day last year. I can honestly say without any reservation that it sucked, but that it was absolutely worth it.

crypticgeek

So you did a whole post that said "call the stores", "ask", and "go to the stores when they advertise them". Can I get a resounding DUH on this?

KidU

@jimforcy: I wouldn't really call holding Wiis for the Sunday ad a 'shady practice'. I'm a current Target employee, and it seems to make perfect sense to me. If we got 40 Wiis in on Wednesday, and put them all out on the shelf immediately, then we wouldn't have any when the ad came out on Sunday. Then, people would storm the store saying "OMFG THE WII WAS IN YOUR AD WHY DON'T YOU HAS ANY!??"

I guess it could be argued that it's 'shady' from a corporate standpoint, but the ad circular gets the word out quicker than word-of-mouth, dont'chaknow.

Back on topic, the routine is pretty much call and go in when they're in the ad. Tempted as you may be, however, to call before the store opens, often (or at least at my store) we won't tell you anything if you call before opening, even if we're putting the Wiis on the shelf as we speak.

tavaryn

I got Rock Band by checking the Walmart site for stores in my area with them in stock. Then called each store to see if they really had them. I found 3 stores with in 10 miles of my house that had them but non of them had them on the floor. You had to ask for it and they had to go to the back room to get it for you.

jvette

I have an extra rock band for ps3, bought it for my cousin who ended up buying his own, I hate ebay, and dont feel right selling it for thousands of extra dollars, any suggestions of how to get my money back without a receipt?

jesselacey

Find a Gamestop/EB store that's right by a large college campus, i.e. in an area where most of their local business will be absent over holiday weekends or right around Christmas. This method is most effective, for example, on Black Friday since hardly any students will be around yet the store will certainly stock many extra units for that "big shopping day" anyway. Sure enough, I easily picked up a Wii for a friend (EB Games at Telegraph and Bancroft in Berkeley) on Nov. 23 this year and I didn't even bother to arrive until many hours after the store had opened. The streets were deserted. They had actually sold maybe 10 that day so far already, but they still had like 20 units when I arrived. I imagine there may be similar situations once the students are gone again following finals (call ahead).

Mischaraka

Your best bet is to avoid places like Walmark and Worstbuy and instead for to the places that no-one shops.

I got my Wii last year, when they were *REALLY* hard to come by calling sears. They had more then enough in stock, so thats how I got mines.

NEVER EVER EVER BUY OFF EBAY OR CRAIGSLIST. You're just supporting assholes who buy up consoles just to make a buck.

As for RockBand, well a guy i know is dating a girl who is a store manager at a local game store, so he was cool enough to get me the hook up.

balls187

@jesselacey: The day after Christmas at Wal-Mart, if the box is still sealed.

Or Craigslist, you can ask for $200 without seeming like a scalper and get it real quick. Think of it as storage fees, from what I hear the box is the size of a small car. Make sure you say "CASH ONLY, LOCAL PICK-UP" in your ad.

MrFuzzypaws

went to local gamestop this evening and they were putting 4 Rock bands on the shelves 2x PS3 and 2x 360...this on a Wednesday evening. but it appears to not be nearly as elusive as the Wii continues to be.

Seiven

@MrFuzzypaws: Sounds like a good idea, reading through some of the posts Im sort of shocked, the day rock band came out I went to walmart around noon they had like 5 for 360 when to target they had only 2 but best buy had a heaping mountain about 24 for 360 and 5 for ps3, since Ive seen them still around, I guess its all in your location...

jesselacey

Novel concept, I know, but I got my copy of Rock Band by...pre-ordering it through Gamestop. Plus they had a promotion for an extra 30% credit when I traded stuff in toward the purchase of it. I ended up not paying a red cent for it...

I don't work for them or anything, but seriously guys...just put down some money and you'll have the game the day it comes out.

Dvizzl

Got in a line at the local Target at 6:20 on a cold and snowy Sunday morning in late January. I was given ticket No. 13 about 45 minutes later. A few days later, it was Happy Birthday Emily! 11 months later, and she barely touches it -- but Santa is leaving me at least one game under the tree.

frozen-toes

Maybe try: [www.xpbargains.com] and [www.refreshthing.com]

[www.mahalo.com]

SaraMahalo

From what I've heard, Wiis will be advertised in the Target flier on Sunday, December 16. Generally, they do hold some stock for such ads. The last time it was in the ad the store I frequent had probably 20-30 at opening that Sunday morning.

_Puck

Luck. Sheer luck. Last year, my wife gave me cash because she couldn't find a Wii, so I began calling every store in New Hampshire that would potentially have one. Struck out every time. On December 27th, though, I struck gold by stopping into a Target at 9:15am and they had a full stock. This was the same store I had called an hour earlier and was told that they wouldn't know when they were getting a shipment. I suspect that sometimes they just tell people on the phone nothing in order to make a sale on the spot.

Throughout the year, I've spotted them around here and there -- but most of the time I've seen them at Kmarts, because no one shops at Kmart!

space race ace

My wife happened to be at Walmart on a Thursday or Friday to purchase something completely unrelated and she walked by the electronics section and saw a Wii in the case. She couldn't believe it, but there it was so she purchased it. They said they happened to have gotten a shipment that day of 3. They stocked them and she picked up the last one. We are very happy with our purchase and use it all the time...especially with friends.

mrosedal

I, too, have had good luck with Toys 'R' Us. I bought a Wii and Guitar Hero III for Wii (on separate occasions) with no problem. These were both situations where nobody else in town had either item.

bradmccormick

If you're really desperate you can call Nintendo directly and attempt to order a Wii from them. It takes a little nice talking and a good natured rep. So don't expect 100% if you or the rep is in a bad mood.

[www.kristian-hermansen.com]

liquidglass

I see others have mentioned this, but have to put my .02 in to avoid the big box stores unless you need to be there anyways - go to EBGames or one of the other smaller shops during the week; they get shipments around the same time as the big box stores, but don't typically hold on to their Wii's until sunday. Just call around usually Thursday mid-morning to afternoon and see if they've got one.

I got mine by happening upon this situation in boston, and spent a happy 15 minutes chatting with the clerk about the situation, and how he's always shocked that his stock sits from delivery thursday mornings until midday sunday (which is when people give up on bestbuy and give a 'last gasp' effort at the smaller shops).

TechTalk WRLR 98.3FM

I went ahead and ordered one of the "overpriced bundles from Wally World". When everything arrived, I took the items I didn't want to the nearest Wal-Mart and simply returned them for a credit to my card.

mstevens

I didn't realize that Rock Band was in such high demand. I see the bundles just about everywhere I go. As for the Wii, that's a whole other story. Maybe seen them once in a store since launch.

Perky Peanut

How much is everyone paying for their Wii? I have seen prices like $400 and stuff.

lilparker780

I got my Rock Band (360) from Virgin Megastore in Times Square. They had stacks up them all over the place. I never figured that be a good place to score a game.

casualweaponry

I tried the "sleep with a GameStop manager" method. Works every time.

The Wii has been a blast!

campusrunner

I work at a game store mentioned in some of the other comments, so I know a little bit about what I'm talking about. The absolute best way to get a Wii is to not complain or be a jerk to the people working at whatever store you go to. We will occasionally get random shipments of 3 or so Wiis and just not tell people, waiting for a particularly nice person to ask about it. So the key is to be friendly, and even if they don't have a Wii in stock, they are more likely to help you find one, or make calls, or even hole a Wii the next time one comes in

kmangwing

@sweetpea12:
I got a Wii from that Nintendo World in Manhattan and another from a toyrus at 42st. I believe one of the employees told me that they restock everyday in the mornings. If you want to get a Wii from there get it in the morning!!! After 1pm is a lost cause, because they do run out everyday even at there.

tgeorge

I just scored a GHIII for Wii this way.
Tried to order through BestBuy via the pick up in-store method. The site lists the area BBs that have it in stock. Upon completing the check out, I got an email stating that the item was out of stock and provided a customer service phone number to call for options.
I called and BB offered to ship it to me free, and claimed it was in stock! Deal!
Then, I get an email saying it was back ordered -bummer. Good news: 2 days later it shipped. Better news: $90!

fulldec

I got mine the weekend after launch at future shop. They had like 15 of them lying in a literal heap on the stock room floor, and you had to ask for to get one. It was sort of stupid, I mean selling product is a good thing. They shouldn't have been hidding them.

gulyman

Here's my suggestion (and how I got my Wii); go to a small game store, flirt with the geeky boys behind the counter and ask them to call you when they get one in. I received a call the next day and it was held behind the counter with my name on it and a discount. I was also called later when they got more nunchuks in. Of course this may only work if you're a girl.

UnRed

I found a person on Craigslist who helped me find a Wii. She told me about the different Wii inventory trackers but then emailed me when Amazon got them in stock. I went to Amazon and sure enough, they had them. A couple of days later, I had the Wii in hand and I sent her $40 for her help. Worth every penny. I didn't have to stand in line or even leave my desk!

M

Mike