Seeking: Single White Wii
On Saturday night, after spending most of the day unpacking boxes of books into newly built bookcases at me and my boyfriend Jessie’s apartment, he turned to me and said,
“We need to talk about tomorrow.”
I must have looked nervous suddenly, because he laughed quickly and comfortingly before letting me in on the news. He wanted to get me a Wii for Christmas. The only problem, obviously, being that the shiny white puppies are pretty hard to track down.
This is my story in attempting to get one, and unlike the lucky bitch from CNN, doesn’t end happily.
Read on after the jump...
EBGames in downtown San Francisco alerted us to the fact that they would be getting a shipment Sunday morning, and begin selling them when they open at 10am. I must say, I completely underestimated the drive to get these. Thinking that all of the hubbub was still on the PS3, I thought Wii’s were available in droves. Surely they were flowing into the streets and children were picking them up and laughing merrily into the December air!!
We got up at 7:30 and reached the storefront shortly before 8, optimistic and half expecting to see no one in line. We saw a few people in line, maybe 8, and I thought, “This is in the bag.” A girl, snotty in the cold turns to me and points at a sign on the window.
Six?! Surely EBGames is playing some cruel joke to turn away the uninitiated. Surely they have at least 20?? 9:45 rolled around, and I was two hours sick of the kid behind me and his bad breath asking me questions about my DS. The employees we were all staring at through the windows stopped their bustling and the metal grate opened. The entire line, at this point nearly 30 deep, stopped talking and waited with hushed icy breath.
There was some flurried movement at the front of the line, six people were let in. And then it was over. An employee put his arms into an X shape, like an airplane director, and the metal grate came crashing down. Nobody moved. An optimistic bunch, gamers. We really believed that they had more. When the store really opened at 10am, we all rushed in, half expecting Wii’s to come flying out of the employees arms as their faces broke into unabashed grins and they yelled out, “Surprise!!”
But there were none. We were ninth in line, and they only had six. What was this? Give me my Wii!!
So you can imagine my jealousy when I read about the woman from CNN getting the last one. I could almost see myself one of the angry man-nerds, desperately tugging on her bag.
Don’t worry though, we haven’t given up. The boyfriend has put in a order for a contest on Amazon, and we have a 1 in 28 chance of being able to get one. I think we’re gonna win.
Wish us luck! I guarantee I’ll be posting something as soon as the box is in my trembling hands. Oh Wii, how you’ve captured my consumerized, GayGamer heart!
Pirate Prince
Posted to Video Games on 18 December 2006
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: nintendo, personal experience, wii
lucky dog! Good luck in your hunt. I tried convincing the bf we should get one, but he opted to go with the ps3.
Can’t really complain :)
*sigh
A friend of mine got a Wii on Friday, bought Zelda, Wii Play, Rayman etc. just to sell it again on Saturday night, cause he didn’t like the controls and the available games.
He’s such a friggin’ queen. *rolls eyes
At least he lost 50€ through the resale, serves him right. :-D
Especially since I didn’t have the money to buy the system off him.
Good luck!
I was in the neighborhood, and stopped by the NYC Nintendo World Store to pick up some more Mario stuff for my Animal Crossing house and see if there were new demos to download. (Oh, and also totally stare at this hot blond gamer boy playing the DS next to me) As I left, I saw some guys camped outside sitting in chairs covered in blankets. Apparently, the shop was going to be getting more Wiis in tomorrow morning, and these guys wanted to be first in line. Crazy! It was only 7, so they have a long wait ahead of them. Seems crazy to camp out for a console when it’s not even launch day… When, oh when will the Wiis be readily available to everyone who wants one?
the amazon results are in!! it’s a no go. :(
surely the gods are laughing at me. no wii for the pirate prince!!
egh, sunday i got up at 5:45 to stand in line at target (which opened at 7:00). i was number 50…they were said to be getting from 15-50. so after an hour and a half…they only got 15.
harrumph.
i just wanna play zelda.
I called every big box and small specialty store I could think of every day for a week, and just when I had given up hope, I chanced one last call to Walmart on a Friday afternoon – and lo, they had just got their shipment in. I’m really starting to wonder what Ninty’s up to – they have to know at this point that every unit available with sell.
Play Zelda on GC if you can’t get a Wii – Wii controls are fun and functional, aiming is better, but it’s all at the expense of a free camera, and in a Zelda game it’s such a pity not to be able to play couch director.
People were seriously camping the Nintendo World Store TWELVE HOURS before it opened? I’m not getting a Wii before next December, am I?
My boyfriend and I both entered the Amazon contest…and we both won!!! So it will be a Merry Christmas after all and I won’t have to dump him for failing to get me the one gift i wanted!
mike, i hate you. all i want is one, and you and your boyfriend get two?