Wii advice

[dadofandrew]

My wife and I would like to buy the Wii basic model for our son, but are shocked at how hard it is to find. Any advice?

[ryne100]

There were 5 at the WalMart in Whitewater yesterday, I think they sold out (they are going for $350 on eBay so my roomates saw an investment opportunity, yeah Whitewater business school). I think most places get their shipments on Mondays, (Sunday for Best Buy), I would just call WalMarts in your area on a Monday morning and ask if they have any in stock.

[dadofandrew]

Ryne, is this a $250 basic model, or the fancier version?

[bjkrautk]

There's really only one SKU for the Nintendo Wii; they're all the 'basic model.'

 

As to finding one, my recommendation would be to try and find one in the next month. (Once the holiday shopping season starts in earnest, people will be lining up outside Best Buy - just like last year.)

 

Your best bet for finding one in the interim is getting in touch with the people in the gaming department of your local Wal Mart, Target, Gamestop, etc. Find out when they're getting their new shipments of the console in. (If you talk to the right employee - preferrably a supervisor - you might get an answer.) If the product doesn't stay on the shelves, your best bet is getting to them as they go onto the shelves.

 

Certain gaming / shopping websites (e.g. Cheap{synonym for posterior}Gamer, slick deals, fat wallet) used to post the weekly ads for companies like Target, Best Buy and Circuit City in the week(s) before the sales started. If the Wii shows up in the ad, generally the stores would hold their weekly shipments for that Sunday morning. Unfortunately, the retailers have cracked down on that sort of information in recent months. (Both the PS3 price drop and the XBox 360 price drop were discovered because they showed up in ad circulars printed beforehand.)

 

Good luck!

[Katuluu]

Al, if you still have any contacts at Toy R Us I would try them. Most of the big retailers get shipments once a week, and if you know the day it is simply a matter of showing up and hoping they will be in stock. It's amazing that a year after release they are still this hard to find, and a testament to what a great product it is.

[PKBadger]

Kind of off-topic, but has anyone modded their Wii? I've never used a modchip with a system before, and definitely wouldn't be able to do it myself because my soldering skills are non-existent. But despite the legality and such, it sounds really appealing.

[zzzmanwitz]

i know someone that ordered it off of the toys r us website (i'm pretty sure shipping was free). You might want to check there.

[RobertR]

I'd suggest utilizing one of the wii tracker websites, a bit of patience, and the ability to get up before stores open on Sunday morning. Getting up and checking the big box advertisements in the Sunday paper early is a good strategy as well. It took me a while to find one, but it just takes some perserverance. I'd hate to try to find one during the Christmas rush though.

 

You'll probably want to get an extra Wiimote and nunchuck controller too. Wii's are well suited to multiplayer participation.

 

Robert

[Chio151]

itrackr.com

 

swear by it.

[mothershipconnection]

I know this doesn't help, but you really need to find out what areas are not selling them well. In the town I lived in down in TX, I was able to show up 2 hours early a week after the release and score one. There were only like 23 people ahead of me. Look for a place that has an aging non-affluent population and you'll probably have the best luck. The people who buy these systems are middle class and above and either parents or twenty-somethings. I was in a hick town on the weekend when the students were back in Dallas, so there was little competition.

[mattsr0625]

i bought mine from hollywood video/game crazy. i called every place in town and no one had it. went to hollywood and they had 3.

[Paul77]

I got mine last year during the peak of Christmas shopping. I think I must have just been at the right place at the right time. I was shopping at the target in Delafield. I had all but given up hope of finding one in time for Christmas when lo and behold - five of them! I bought it right there.

 

Anyway...keep checking the big online retailers everyday. Sears.com had them in stock this morning, but not anymore. Walmart.com has them - but only as a $550 bundle. Find yourself a good "Wii Tracker" and check it frequently - several times a day. Good luck

[dadofandrew]

Thanks for the advice thus far. By the way Ben, almost every one we have found is the fancier version with a couple of everything, some have other games as well, so i think there is more than one sku, but many are exclusive to a certain retailer.

[blatzlight]

I purchased my Wii off of Craigslist.org last February brand new for $300 and that included Zelda, a game you would want anyway. You can still find them on there fairly easily. It isn't much more than retail when you include taxes and the hastle of stores.

 

 

 

As for modding a Wii, I just got mine modded two weeks ago. I now have over 900 NES games and 700 SNES games. Plus I can play burned games. It is a glorious thing.

[bjkrautk]

Thanks for the advice thus far. By the way Ben, almost every one we have found is the fancier version with a couple of everything, some have other games as well, so i think there is more than one sku, but many are exclusive to a certain retailer.

 

AFAIK, there are actually two SKU's from Nintendo. Both include the following:

Nintendo Wii base unit

'console stand'

RCA (Composite) adapter

1 Wii-mote (game controller) w/ wrist strap

1 'nunchuck' attachment

Sensor bar (with stand)

power adapter

WiiSports (game)

 

The only real difference between the 2 SKU's is that the second one also includes a Wiimote "glove" (some sort of jacket, presumably intended to stop the controller from sliding out of the user's hands). It's not even that much of a difference, really: you can order up to 4 (free) wiimote gloves from Nintendo's website. (The second SKU is only a month or two old.)

 

Any other bundling of hardware, software, or miscellaneous accessories is taking place at the retail level. (Most of the forced bundles at launch cost around twice the price of the actual system.) There was no bundle when my older brother purchased his Wii at Target last December.

[jazzytrav]

I think I must have just been at the right place at the right time. I was shopping at the target in Delafield.

I've found this to be absolutely amazing. Go to a store, any store, and ask about something difficult to find like a Wii. If they're out (which they almost always are) they'll make up an excuse about how difficult they are to find and how you have to be on the ball in order to get one. They also give you bad advice about how you might go about getting one, or they try to sell you something more expensive.

 

Then go to Target across town. If you have a Target in your town or city or anywhere relatively nearby, go there. There will inevitably be several there at all times. It's the coolest thing ever. Target rocks.

[JoeHova]

I thought I heard that Nintendo was coming out with a more deluxe version of the Wii, supposedly it would be able to play DVDs as well as games. That might just be a rumor though, I haven't really paid attention because I don't care about that feature. You might want to check into that if such a thing would matter to you or your son.

 

As for the unavailability of the Wii, it's shocking to me too. I bought two of them at launch (one for my little brother) and only had to get to the store about 6 hours before it opened. You practically have to wait that long to get one even now. I've only seen them on shelves a couple times. You know Nintendo is churning them out as fast as they can, yet they still can't even come close to meeting the demand. It's ridiculous.

 

And the new Mario is coming out next month. That will probably increase demand even more. I hope it's better than the GameCube Mario, which was pretty lackluster in general.

[Paul77]

I think I must have just been at the right place at the right time. I was shopping at the target in Delafield.

Then go to Target across town. If you have a Target in your town or city or anywhere relatively nearby, go there. There will inevitably be several there at all times. It's the coolest thing ever. Target rocks.

The thing is I shopped every Target around many times over. Each time stopping by the game area looking for a Wii with no luck. Then all of the sudden - boom - there it was.

I thought the DVD feature would be available as a software update. Who knows, like you I don't really care if my Wii can play DVD's. One more thing to anyone who's going to but a wii this year. But an extra nunchuck and wii-mote asap! I had to wait 6 months before finding one at Walmart. That was 6 month of single player action. I don't know if the controllers are still short shipped like the console, but just in case...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mothershipconnection]

By the way Ben, almost every one we have found is the fancier version with a couple of everything, some have other games as well, so i think there is more than one sku, but many are exclusive to a certain retailer.

 

Like Ben said, there's only one "version" of the Wii, unlike PS3 and 360, and it's $249.99. The only difference is what the retailer decided to have to buy in addition to be able to purchase a system. Since they're in such short supply, some places decided to only sell them as a $500 bundle, meaning you have to buy $250 worth of extras to be able to get the system. Check their policies, though, as I've heard that you can often buy the bundle and just return the extras and get that money back.

 

 

 

I thought I heard that Nintendo was coming out with a more deluxe version of the Wii, supposedly it would be able to play DVDs as well as games. That might just be a rumor though,

 

Last I heard, that model was only going to be available in Japan.

[Paul77]

sams club (.com) has a reasonably priced bundle available for the time being. You get the Wii ($250), and extra Controller ($40), extra Nunchuk ($20), a "classic" controller ($20), Twenty dollars of Wii points (for downloading classic games) ($20) & a game (Ninjabread Man?) ($30).

 

Of that bundle the only thing I wouldn't want (or recommend) to buy is the Ninjabread Man game. Without the game I think thats the perfect bundle to enjoy your wii right out of the box. Who knows, maybe Ninjabread Man is good - I don't know. Personally I still play wii sports more than anything else (followed closely by Super Monkey Ball).

[dadofandrew]

FYI, I felt the demand will only go up, as no one seems to think Wiis will be arriving in quantity before Xmas, and bought one on Ebay for $291 plus $38 shipping.

 

Anyone else agree they will be $400-450 by mid-December?

[TooLiveBrew]

Personally I still play wii sports more than anything else (followed closely by Super Monkey Ball).

Super...Monkey...Ball....RULES!

[Katuluu]

I wouldn't be surprised if the prices on eBay start climbing by Thanksgiving, so I think you made a pretty safe investment Al.