Or how I spent the Wii hours of a Sunday morning…
Post version 2.0, now with Wiierd links!
This story actually starts with my father who, along with his girlfriend, sends our kids a yearly questionnaire designed to reveal the not-so-secret secrets of what they’d like to get for Christmas. On all three lists appeared an item that Kathy and I weren’t even aware that they wanted: a Nintendo Wii. So one morning a couple of weeks ago I got a call from my dad saying that he’d like to get them one and wanting to know whether that would be OK or not. It was OK as it was something that Wii definitely weren’t going to be getting for them and it definitely wasn’t in the budget.
Pops calls a week later and says, “Hey, Wii‘re having a hard time getting a hold of this thing and they’re about $450 on eBay, should Wii try to get them something else?”
“No,” I said, “they’re gonna love this. Let me see if I can find a way to get one.”
So last Sunday, the 10th of December, on “tips” from employees at Best Buy, I showed up at Best Buy’s front door at around 8:30 am. There were about 5 other cars parked outside when I got there, all of whom had the same “inside” information and who wanted to snag a new system. But when Wii got inside it was pretty obvious that Wii were early for nothing. No systems shipped. No systems delivered. “Next week.” said the sales guy. “I know Wii‘re going to get some next week.”
Now, my father and I have a little bit of early morning history together. In fact, Wii have some late December early morning history. Way back in the winter of 1976, when my father had season tickets for the Raiders, he and I woke up at the crack of dawn to stand in line outside what was in those days still called the Oakland Coliseum to pick up tickets for Superbowl XI in Pasadena.
Oakland, December, early morning, father, child, 1976, 30 years ago on the nose. That early morning journey paid off in spades. My dad got his tickets to the Superbowl and I… well, I got to watch the game at home while my dad went to Pasadena. So maybe it didn’t work out that well for me, but you get the picture. With this in mind it only seemed fitting that I brave the coldâ€â€32º in NY in December, OK, maybe not that coldâ€â€in hope of capturing an elusive Wii.
I woke up dreaming several times during the night. Once at two o’clock when I dreamt that I was first in line to get the Wii. Once at four o’clock when I dreamt that I was in a line more than 100 people long. At 5:30 I climbed out of bed for real, washed my face, put on my warmest clothes, hit the road, bought a cup of coffee and headed to the mall. What I’d dreamed could never have prepared me for reality.
I could see a smallish line as I drove past Target on my way to Best Buy. I knew that Target had about 17 systems, so I thought I was in good stead. The line looked short and I knew that Best Buy was supposed to have more Wii than Target. But as I pulled into the Best Buy parking lot, I was met with a surprise: it was packed. Pulling past the entrance to the store I rolled down my window to take a look at the crowd: about 60 people in all. I asked one of the people in line if everyone was waiting to buy a Wii and he told me that they were, that Best Buy had 30 units and that I could buy his spot in line for $250. “Two-hundred-fifty bucks?” I said. “Dude, my kids won’t have a problem waiting until after Christmas then.” “Guaranteed spot.” he said. “You’ll be sitting right where I’m sitting and I know I’m going to get a system. Besides, someone else just bought a place in line.” “No thanks,” I said, “I’ll try my luck elsewhere.”
I drove back down toward Target muttering, “Sheesh, if I’d wanted to spend two times what the system’s worth I would have ordered it on eBay and stayed in bed.” That’s right, eBay where as of this very moment you can have any of three Wiis within the next minute for, get this, anywhere from $410 to $600. In English, that’s anywhere from $160 to $350 more than the system is actually worth. eBay, the great equalizer, where the fool and his money part more quickly than usual…
I drove past the crowd at Target and asked what the deal was there. Four guys huddled together told me that 60+ people had just gone home. Target had 17 units and an employee had just come out and given tickets to the first 17 people in line, which made the line I’d seen 5 minutes earlier more of a mirage than a reality.
As a last resort I headed over to Game Stop in one of the smaller local malls. There were no lines outside the so I ventured inside where there was a very small line. I put my name on a list where I was number 12. rumor had it that there were possibly as many as 12 Wiis in the store. I may have just lucked out.
A survey of the crowd gave me a little indication of what a Wii level of intensity I had compared to everyone else around me. Two people had been there since midnight, sleeping in chairs until the mall opened their doors. One of those two was only along for the ride. Numbers two and three arrived shortly after 1:00 a.m. Number four arrived at 3:00. Numbers five and six arrived between 3:00 and 4:00. In short, if you wanted to guarantee that you were putting a Wii under the tree at Christmas you had to be frigging out of your mind. I had no guarantees, but it appeared that I had a Wii in sight. And frankly, I was pretty sure that, all memories of early December mornings aside, I was pretty much nuts for getting OUT OF BED at 5:30.
The manager arrived at 8:15, the store opened at 10:00, looked at the crowd and asked, “Are you all here for Wiis?” In unison Wii replied, “Yes.” “Well,” he said, “I only have six…”
I think Wii‘ll wait until after Christmas to buy a Wii. My guess is that there will probably be 50 on the shelves somewhere around December 27th. The kids won’t mind. In fact, they’ll be thrilled just to know it’s coming.
And I’m thrilled to death to know that I’m nowhere near as nuts as I thought I was.