This morning I set out to purchase a PS3 for our contest winner of the month, Matthew in the UK. Our neighboring Europeans can't buy the damn things for another 3 months so he's more than happy to get an NTSC version from Destructoid, and we are much abliged to make this happen. We've all heard that PS3s have become more available than 14-year-old Taiwanese trannies, but little did I know that I'd end up with two 60GB systems within an hour of trying. I'm still surprised that there are two just sitting in my sofa as I type this despite all of the bloodshed and drama these things caused in recent weeks. Blows my mind.
Going on a tip from Colette's article about the seedy PS3 Blackmarket, I attempted to take a console off one of our local scalpers -- and even offered a premium before attempting to shop during daylight hours.
I wrote to a guy who had two consoles and offered $100 more than retail if he would please deliver them to me in my office where my team could club him with staplers if he tried something funny. He refused -- after having spent days in line and incurred costs, he was looking for a profit of $125 per console minimum. I went to Circuit City yesterday and didn't see any, but I suspected I could do better. Biding my time, I slept on it and made a few calls on my lunch break. It went like this ...
PUSH ZERO FOR OPERATOR, GET TO THE POINT:
Walmart North Miami - Nope, clueless
Circuit City Midtown - Nope, shipment is 1 week late
Target North Biscayne - "Why'd you call the Pharmacy?"
Target Midtown - Nope, and we hate our customers here
... think Niero think ... OH, DUH!!!
Walmart Hialeah - ¿Que?
Gamestop in the middle of the ghetto - "We have a few."
Bingo.
He wouldn't hold them for me, so I was on the phone with my financial adviser and on the road in 5 minutes, supressing my hunger for the Taco Bell I would pass along the way. I personally never really craved a PS3, to be honest, until I was caught up in the shopping moment. I know I'll want one in the very near future, but for right now, I can't think of a single game I want to own. But with the Gran Turismo HD demo on the PS3 network and my Gamefly account burning a hole in the back of my brain, the thought of coming home to one was tempting. I could rent Fight Night 3 and Resistance this weekend. Why not?
I arrive at a store full of customers, women population zero. There's a kid walking circles around the Wii. They don't have any.
Manager: "The 20 is $500 and the 60 is $600".
Niero: "I'll take 2."
Manager: "Can't do that. Limit one per customer. But I have two. It's a company policy thing"
Niero: "So if I bring a friend to buy one, it's ok?"
Manager: "As long as he buys it on his credit card, sure."
This worked out, because I didn't actually have the money for two. I was all talk. Various credit card transactions later, refusals of extended warranties, and two trips with Nido to the bank and it was a done deal. I had scored two 60GB PS3s in under an hour with just six phone calls. Cake. One for me and one soon on its way to the United Kingdom. Nido asks if he can buy a Wii. His head bowed a little and he smiled, almost as if we had just asked where magical fairies come from.
Manager: "No sir. That's a hard one. It's the hot commodity."
Lessons to take away from this: It was clear that the only guys who are having trouble selling them are shooting high and not keeping an ear on the news. Dtoid regular Puppet had no trouble selling his for $1,500. The guys that shot for $2,000 lost to him, I'm sure. I assume this family was among them. I offered him some pointers and wished him good luck, knowing that my offer was probably the best he was ever going to get locally. Still, $760 on eBay is still plausible, though. He'll do OK if he actually takes my advice. Maybe.
For the rest of you: believe the hype. They're not incredibly hard to find anymore, and the only people buying them at a premium just don't know where to look. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go buy an industrial fan.
Anyone feel like swapping houses? Its nice and wet over here, thats good, right..?
(Psst! It's been here for a little over a year now.)
lol
:P
Tell you what, Summa. If you hate your Wii so much, why don't you auction it off for charity? It's not like you paid for it (and quite frankly, given your repeated bashings, and you being a journalist and all, you don't really deserve it; I'm sure Golin Harris would love to read all your rants against it) so you're not really losing anything, right? I'm certain that someone else out there actually wants it, and charities are never not needing support.
So, Summa, are you ready (or able) to put your money where your mouth is? I doubt it, but I'd happily be proven wrong.
Any other D'toid commenters agree with this?
Also, my local Best Buy manager confirmed me that they would be running the PS3 on this Sunday's newspaper ad.
So, good luck to anyone looking for a PS3. The days after Christmas are a breeze.
If it gets good games that aren't the same Mario and Metroid and Zelda I've played already, then I will praise those games and the Wii. Elebits is a perfect example.
But launch consoles are launch consoles, six still ain't many. My point was that 2 half-decent games on a $600 system probably won't be eating up all of Niero's time either. (He's got a 360 for that, doesn't he?)
I can't say that I agree with you but one thing is for sure. If Robert gives away his wii, it will save him the trouble of playing the games for 3-5 minutes before he posts how broken they are.
On that note, does anyone know if nintendo has released the 'horse grass patch" for zelda TP?
WTF?!
I camped out for 48 hours in a rain poncho, kilt, and flip-flops with nothing to read but a TV Guide from 1987 and half of a cereal box in front of Trannies 'R Us to buy my six 14 year-old Taiwanese trannies and I was hoping to flip them on eBay for a 200% mark-up in time for Chinese New Year.
Fawk!
I guess I'm going to be in last Gen for awhile now
Anyways, I picked one up along with the 360, dropping 1100 in a 5 minute trip to wall mart, and I'm starting to regret it. So far, I've been playing GoW and Wii Sports far more than the PS3 and I've found the console to be frustrating at times with some borderline retarded software decisions.
I think Next Gen doesn't start till Sony gets some compelling games.
And are you using the wi fi? Ive had all sorts of problems with slow and dropped connections and have been wondering if I have a semi defective unit.
360 gamertag is Replete Ein, and PS3 Network is Sienar so everyone feel free to add me, especially Summa on PS3 so I can pwn him in Resistance
You must be talking about your Wii articles. Wait.......
Also... fuck the PS3. I've powered it up only a couple times. ITS A GOOD DUST COLLECTOR.
But if you already have a high level gaming pc? Kind of a tough pill to swallow.
FPS on the PC and Fun Games on the Wii.
And I can easily name 6 games I'm having a blast with on the Wii.
1) Elebits (we're in agreement there, that game is sick)
2) Marvel Ultimate Alliance (wii controls make a regular hack n slasher into a game that I'm having a hell of a good time with)
3) Metal Slug Anthology (I've always loved the metal slug games, and this is a godsend. the wii controller isn't so hot here, but the cube controller works just fine)
4) DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi (Never watched the show, but it's a fun and light fighting game)
5) Toejam and Earl (never got a chance to buy, silly and entertaining action game)
6) Gunstar Heroes (if you don't like this, kill yourself)
and there's plenty more games I'm looking forward to, but this post is probably long enough and won't get read. But
I'm extremely happy with my Wii. Nintendo deserves to profit off their system. I haven't been this in love with a console since the Dreamcast.
And Wii sports Tennis is a blast. My wife and I play it all the time.
Also, Super Mario Bros. It's the same game that we've been playing forever, but hell, people are excited about the new Gran Turismo aren't they?