I'm not sure what annoys me more: the fact that this poor guy was duped by some jerk who decided to sell him a $400 chunk of firewood, or that the writer from ABC calls the item "A Wii game" repeatedly in her article about the incident. You write for ABC, don't you think you could have possibly researched the situation enough to know that the Wii is called a "console" and not a "game?" Do your job, you illiterate trollop.

Anyway, the incident is sadly not a new trend, but of course it's no less distressing for people when it actually happens to them. An Arizona resident won the console on eBay in February, paid $400 for it, and received a Wii box with a block of wood in it shortly thereafter. He filed a complaint with eBay, who found the seller's account had promptly been closed after the transaction took place. They are currently conducting an investigation into the fraud.

A word of advice to all the non-gamer adults out there: don't pay double for the Wii. The reason you want one so bad is because everyone you know wants one, which is very likely more important to you than actually playing the damned thing. Then when you get it you can invite all those people over to play multiplayer games and waggle your Wiimotes at each other and in a few months there'll be a thin layer of dust on it and you'll forget why you clamored for it in the first place. Trust us -- we're real gamers. We know.

[Via ABC15 - thanks, Jonathan]