In all of Miami-Dade county, there was but one single Toys R Us store that was doing a midnight event for the launch. We anticipated a line outside of the store, but what we found was more like an impromptu village of hardcore Nintendo fans. Here's the kick -- the west Miami store had a technical glitch and nobody paid tax for anything. The average sale was over $500 as people we met each had two games and an additional controller, so management decided to eat the tax glitch (their cashiers were restarted a few times as people waited patienty in the isles to no avail) instead of insighting a mob and sending people home.
Update 1: With a Wii due to Oni from last month's contest and an urge for a new console of my own, I camped from 6am to noon and secured the last Wii in midtown target and the #2 spot on Circuit City, also walking away with a classic controller, and extra wiimote, a 2000 points card, Call of Duty 3, Trauma Surgeon, and, of course, Zelda: Twilight Princess. The only reason I'm not playing at this very moment is (a) The Wii is in the middle of a frickin 1 hour update and (b) as soon as I publish this post, I'm going to sleep. I honestly can't remember the last time I did that.
Hit the jump for four on the scene videos!
At the front of the lines we met with a group of nine who started at Wal-Mart but were discouraged from camping due to a no-voucher free for all policy. They regrouped at Toys R Us down the street and camped there since Friday; heckled by employees who thought the turnout to be small. Reality set in around 5pm when a crowd of 500 gathered. Inside there were only 200 systems, so people without preorders or a good spot in line were grasping at straws. Luckily there are over 2 million units and plenty of stores opening at 8am tomorrow with big numbers on the shelves, so if you want a system you shouldn't have much trouble finding one (in the ghetto) tomorrow. If you are aspiring to own a Wii this year, don't wait for December. Today's your day!
Contest:
9:01 AM on 11.19.2006
| 
BTW, have you seen the PS3's on Ebay lately. Yesterday they were going for $3000, now they're going for around $1000. This also makes me smile. So what are you going to spend your $350 profit on?
it's funny cause everyone's d/ling the console update at the same time right now
;)
If you bought the Classic Controller and you have any wired GC controllers or Wavebirds, TAKE THE CLASSIC BACK! The Wavebird/wired GC does everything, and there's no need for a classic if you've got one of them already.
The added bonus is that the Wavebird is completely wireless, no tether to anything period.
So back home, some grub and a few hours sleep later I headed out to Target. Got there just after 5am (I passed by the local Circuit City to see two guys asleep in sleeping bags and another 4 people being a little more active), 7am tickets were handed out I was number 11 of 33, Yay!
I was also happy to see number four reserve from the Walmart arrive with her little girl to succesfully snag a place. Nice. After take a well earn WiiWii break in the local Kroger I discovered they couldn't sell beer before 8am and then headed back to Target. Some guy turned up expecting to score a Wii, he chose to pay one of the other people a $100 for their ticket (they seemed happy to have bypassed the ebay wait for their profit).
Well he probably was right to buy it, just before 8am the last two remaining tickets were handed out. There was a small argument due to two queues having formed since everyone had got their tickets it was decided those who arrived first would get them (the $100 guy wouldn't have been one of them).
And thats about it, as is normal for such important purchases by debit card wouldn't go through and then it got denied! Luckily the savings fund worked just fine, I can have that heart operation anytime.
A few things I noticed.
The walmart crowd in my final store was mainly mother's and older people. I saw probably a quarter who'd I'd say looked like gamer's (and I saw a lot of gamer glazed looks last night). Either the mother's and older people are panic buying
for xmas or they are trying to score a buck.
The Target queue was a more varied spread and mainly gamers, some had hoped to score a Wii there and move onto another store to get a second for ebay to recoup some costs. Most however chatted about gaming and a pretty common theme throughout the night was a lack of enthusiasm for the PS3, either because of the price, launch titles or future 3rd party support.
Right, I'm off to try for the 100th time to update my Wii. Can everyone just back off for a god damn minute! :)
wii is great. fits nicely right onto of the 360 HD-DVD drive :)
http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img2547xd5.jpg
Only thing, the slot doesn't light up for me? It flashes when i turn it on but then stays off... is this normal???