The Wii

On a brighter note.....





Are you still looking for and hoping to get a Nintendo Wii before Santa arrives?




The Wii issue is resolved for me. Believe it or not, I was able to get a complete set for a reasonable price. If you are hoping to buy and own a Wii sometime between now and Christmas day and you don't want to overpay, here's some information that might help you:

1. Tell everyone you know that you are in the market to buy a Wii. Spread the word. You'll never know where your lead will come from.


2. Call every store in your area that you can think of that might sell the system and ask them when they will get their next shipment. Target, Toys R Us, Best Buy, Fry's, Circuit City, are just a few names but don't stop with these. If you get someone on the line that seems helpful, schmooze them. If you can, leave a contact number with them so that they can call you when they get news of a new shipment.


3. When you find a place that will get a shipment, make a commitment to be at the store at least two hours before the opening. Don't fool around. Get there! Take some coffee, tea, or water, and the newspaper and dress warmly. You might consider taking a light-weight folding chair with you as well.


4. Be sure to understand what payment methods are available. Cash? Check? or Credit card? Do they take American Express?


5. Know what you want in a system and how much you are willing to spend. Be prepared for a curve ball. For example: You showed up just to buy the basic console. What if they tell you they are only selling the system as a bundle? Are you prepared to buy the entire bundle? What comes with that bundle?
6. If you go to a store and miss the opportunity to to buy one because you were too far back in line. Don't leave. Wait until the systems are sold and loiter around. Sometimes they have extra systems that they don't pass out cards for. And there is the chance that one of the buyers is willing to sell his/her system for a profit. A true profieer. Be sure to cut yourself a good deal!

Here's my story on the Wii. After calling around to every place I could think of, I got word from a Toys R Us that their Sunday shipment did not come in and that they were expecting it Monday night. They would unpack it on Monday and set it up for sale Tuesday morning. Reluctantly, and skeptically, I got up Tuesday morning and leisurely left the house. My goal was to be at the store at 7:00 am. The store opened at 9:00 am. I rolled up about 7:10 and noticed a line of about 20 people already formed. Still questioning whether they had systems at all, I casually strolled over to the line allowing one lady to beat me into position. You can all guess the conclusion..... At 7:30 the store representative comes out with 20 reservation cards. The cards run out three people in front of me. I was number 23. I deliberated for a moment and wondered if I should wait another hour and a half to see if there are any extras but decided to avoid the wait and I headed home. From there I get on the phone and call every store I could think of. I finally got a nibble when a young lady at Best Buy agreed to take my number and call me when she heard news of the next shipment. I still haven't heard from her. And that was two weeks ago.

Advance forward to last week. I'm laying in bed on a Saturday morning and the telephone rings. It's a friend. The voice on the other end says: "Don't think I'm crazy, but are you still looking to buy a Wii? Because if you are, I'm the 5 Th person in line at Fry's and they are supposed to have a shipment in this morning. Hurry up and get here." I hung up the phone and off I went. I had to rearrange and miss a few things including a 9:00 am. soccer game but I jumped in my car... Stopped for gas (you're always on E when something like this happens.) and rushed down to Fry's. I was number 17 in line. Suffice to say, I waited - Got my system - and moved on. My friend who got there before me found herself in a little bit of a bind. She hoped to pay for hers with an American Express. Guess what? This Fry's didn't accept American Express. Fortunately, she had a check with her and was able to purchase the system after a somewhat extensive background check. I offered to pay for it and let her reimburse me later but the ball had already started rolling on the check issue. I'm thankful for her call and I offered to take them (she and her husband) out to dinner one night. Bueno... Score one for the team.

I could write a whole new post about the people waiting in line with me. Like the women in front of me with the really bad cold. Coughing and sneezing and sniffling the entire time. Or the guy 5 people behind me who waited 1.5 hours in line with us all only to find out that the line was just for the Wii people and regular customers could have entered through another entrance hours ago. Or perhaps the guy immediately behind me who I saw in the parking lot later and he offered to sell me his system for a $60 profit. Or the husband and wife team who tried to cut line and buy two systems and found out there was only one per houshold. If the wife had waited and stayed in her place in line they possibly could have purchased the two systems seperately. But when they tried to buy them together they were denied. I'll spare you the rest of the details but what a morning and what an adventure for me.

Good Luck if you are looking for a system. Look for my post later on the setup and play of the system.

Xbox 360 vs Nintendo WII

Where Can You buy the Nintendo Wii?

Last year Santa was a hero in my house. He left a brand new Xbox 360 underneath the Christmas tree. Boy was that a hit. I must add that I became quite a fan of the game myself. Madden 2007, Sonic the Hedgehog, and NBA Live were the popular games. I must admit that I was a bit disappointed in the lack of availability of age appropriate games for the younger kids, or "E" rated (Everyone) games. But I was very impressed with the graphics. Xbox 360 seemed to win that competition hands down against the other platforms. Please note that I haven't played the Playstation 3 yet. Nonetheless, as the year went by more and more games became available and I discovered that with a special disk ordered from the company, we could configure our console to play the older regular Xbox games. This created a new pool of games. We added the Lego Star Wars games to our collection and then followed up with a very cool game - " Surf's Up" shortly after...... I really like that game. I'm not a surfer and don't really buy into the whole surfer image but the movie was cool and the characters have some redeeming values and I get " totally "stoked" playing the game." (See, I even learned a few new words) I later picked up the Tiger Woods game on sale and quickly found that game to be quite enjoyable as well. It's fun to create your own players and customize them in size, appearance, and dress. You'll have fun trying to create someone who looks like you and plays like you..... Anyway, I summarize this all to say: It was a nice gift from Santa and it brought and continues to bring joy to me and my household.

So this year, after succumbing to all of the hype and listening to all of the so called advantages of the Nintendo Wii system from my friends, I stopped in a game zone and checked out the Wii system. Pretty cool. It has just okay graphics in my opinion - Not nearly as good as the Xbox 360. But it was fun using the wand/baton or whatever that thing is called and I enjoyed the physical interactivity. I processed the information and decided I could definitely justify owning two game platforms. The Wii is just different enough to warrant a purchase. I reasoned that the different controls and motions are a required skill set that today's children should master. For example:

Look at the Predator and Global Hawk weapon systems:

Pictured below: These UAV's (unmanned aerial vehicles) are the military's latest manifestation of space aged, sci-fi, technology. These vehicles are largely being flown by 25 - 45 yr olds who grew up playing Pac Man, Space Invaders, Galaga, and Donkey Kong. Who would have thought that they'd be sitting in a bunker thousands of miles away from the weapons system digesting tons of computer generated information and making life or death decisions utilizing skills perfected on those antiquated gaming systems.

RQ-4 Global Hawk

MQ-1Predator

So with that distorted reasoning and logic, I decided to ask the big guy(Santa) for a Nintento wii for Christmas this year. That should be easy enough right? I remember seeing them in all of the stores just a few months ago for around $249. Concurrently, I decided to look online to check the availability. Well, guess what? That was a few months ago. I just casually looked around the web starting with the obvious places like Toys R Us, Best Buy, Target and you guessed it> These are the messages I received: Sold Out, Out of Stock, Unavailable, etc., etc., Wow. Who would have thought? I then went to some other places like: Costco.com, Walmart.com, Circuitcity.com and the likes.... Sold Out! The only place that the Wii seems to be available is Ebay and Amazon. All for outrageous prices! Forget that! Wow! Can this be real? How can a company like Nintendo not have enough platforms available at the peak of the selling season?

I guess I snoozed by waiting this late to order a system but I guess Nintendo made a bigger mistake in not being able to quench a thirsty market at a critical time. At least I can kick back and wait for Santa's elves to build me one and get the free delivery on Christmas Eve. I wonder what the other shoppers will do. Anyone know of a good place to buy a Wii this close to Christmas at a reasonable price?

Please let us all know.....