Tuesday, May 8, 2007

My quest to purchase the Nintendo Wii

My parents bought the XBOX 360 for me about a year ago for my birthday but unfortunately it was stolen. Selecting my next console was difficult but I decided to buy the Wii primarily because of the cost. Additionally, I had heard many good reviews of the system. The controller format for the Wii should be intriguing to any gamer and I am certainly no exception. When I decided to purchase the system, I had no idea that they were in such high demand. I called store after store. From Wal-Mart to electronics stores to gaming specialty shops. No one had the system in stock. A sales associate at Best Buy told me to show up at around 5:30 on Wednesdays or Fridays (when their deliveries come in) and they usually have them in stock for about 15 minutes before they sold out. So the next delivery day, I was there by 5:30 and their trucks came in but surprise, surprise; not a single Wii in that shipment. As you can imagine, I had about lost hope. Other stores wouldn't even tell me when they expected to get them and no one would let me purchase one in advance. I was considering paying a premium and ordering one off eBay but I really didn't want to do that since cost was a factor in choosing the system. Finally, a few days after my pointless trip to Best Buy, I was at a friend's house making the usual calls to stores around town (and some out of town), when my friend asked if I had tried EB Games. I had called both of their local stores the day before so I figured it was pointless. But since he mentioned it, I decided to try again. I called one and they didn't have it. Then I called the other store and was shocked when the sales associate told me they had one. I asked him if he could please hold it for me for 10 minutes and he did. I consider myself extremely fortunate that it only took me a little over a week to find the Wii as I had come to the conclusion that it may be a matter of months. Supposedly Nintendo is increasing production so hopefully others won't have to go through what I did before long. If you are wondering whether all this was worth the effort, the answer is absolutely.

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