They started coming last week. Not last month.

my stack of flyers disagrees with you...

I don't know what's the point. People like Kwaad keep making predictions about the Wii and keep on getting it wrong. So desperate they are to find any chinc in the armor. It really reminds me of the people who kept predicting the death of the iPod.

Could be indeed 2 reasons. WII is selling even more now because of the release of Paper Mario, it's a hot game at the moment. Or more supplies went to Europe, Japan seems to have a lower stock as well.

Though when checking now 774 new systems available on Ebay, not very low

Kwaad, you've been wrong before about Wii's availability.

From what we know, the most obvious answer is that the Wii's demand is actually going up, not supply going down. Come on now, we've had two months of NPD data now and three months of Japanese post holiday MC/Famitsu/Enterbrain sales figures to demonstrate that Nintendo's supply is as high, if not higher than the other two. Itrackr's Wii availabity is up to 13%, ferchrissake.

And the Wii was worth around $330 including shipping a month ago(PS3 was worth $590 incuding shipping in the same time period).

I was at eb today in Roseville CA trying to snag Paper Mario early, but no luck... Anyway I asked about the Wii and was told that they are getting regular shipments and they sell out within seconds. Literally, they never get to unpack the boxes. They got 20 in last Friday and that morning there was a line of people waiting.

I was talking to the guy that opened that day and he asked them why they were lined up and was told that they were in line for the Wii. He said that he didnt think they were getting any and the people told him that they would wait and see, and sure enough, UPS brought them in that morning.

Also he said there were two old couples waiting in their cars for the store to open to get a Wii.

I really think Nintendo has found that mainstream system. The demand is just insane. Initially I thought for sure that it would be sold out until March (this was pre E3). I preordered mine the first day EB was taking them and my friends laughed and said they would just walk in the week after release and get one. Well they are still looking and probably will be for a while...

I don't see Wiis being readilly available anytime this year. Maybe March of 08. Sure Nintendo is upping the supply, but we have no idea what the demand really is.

AND, the killer games have not even released yet. Pokemon and that Wii health pack will be huge sellers.

The only downside to all the demand is we will probably have to wait for 08 to get Brawl and some other system sellers since Nintendo will want to wait until they are meeting the demand before releasing some of their key system sellers...

Wii's cannot be found in Australia, but for some reason there are still a few bundles available on ebay (Australia). Some good deals as well, such as a pack + few games for $300-$350 (base unit retails for $400). As long as they are actually Australian units (not HK imports) this is a great deal.

Im thinking this (increase in demand) as well. Had the Wii now for 4 months (almost exactly), and we have MORE people coming over to play it (on average), and more people asking about it. Part of the reason is that we have "infected" a few non-gamers - and its much easier for a non-gamer (i.e. 65yr old mother!) to infect other non-gamers in their age group/demographic.

Im (also) starting to think it will be 6-9 or even 12 months before we can actually walk into a store, and buy one with some sense of assurance.

...

I think its time for Nintendo to do something DRASTIC. Get 3, 4 or even 5 companies simultanously gearing up to manufacture this beast. I'd love to see them be able to manufacture 4-5m / month ;)  [they will start running into CPU and other supply issues long before these levels anyway.. :P]

I am in the UK and I have not seen a big increase in the number of wiis in the shops.

I have been looking for a wii for about 2 weeks. I have been looking on the internet mostly, the only site I have found with a good number of wiis in stock is from a company called GAME. They are not sell out as fast as others because the cheapest wii they sell is £310 in a bundle with 4 games. They don't sell a wii on its own anymore which costs £180.

I am trying to get a wii from amazon at the moment. They are one of few retailers that still offer the wii on its own (not part of a bundle).  They have been getting a small but steady flow of wiis. They have been adding 2 wiis at a time to their site at random times of the day.

I have even gone as far as to write a computer program that checks amazon's site about every 20 seconds to see if they have wiis in stock.

 Well Wii availability is now down to 3%

I could be wrong but I suspect that the reduction in the number of Wii systems available to buy may just be because scalpers are finding the work necessary to find a Wii system is greater than the return available on eBay. If you can only get one system per store, and you have to line-up at the store for 1 hour (at least) before it opens to buy that system (and with all the other work you need to do to sell it) how much do you have to sell the system for to make it worth your while?

With a lower number of systems available the price per unit goes up because there is greater competition for every unit.