- Source

Update: Just wanted to post a UK eBay auction sale.  Seems like there are only ~210 people on the UK eBay reselling them, some are in the US.  Since there are so few, the sales are hours in between, so I probably won't be showing anymore of these.

Wii U Basic w/ Zombi U - Retail £292 (US Retail $360) - Sold for £247 ($395 US), including shipping.  Considering the seller is located in the US and the USPS has flat-rate International Priority shipping set at $61, which would bring the total US price at $456, this seller got royally screwed by this sale.

As you can see by the chart, resellers haven't been able to get nearly as much profit from reselling the Wii U as they did the Wii.  In fact, just a week after launch, the resale price of Wii U had dropped significantly (the Basic was only averaging ~$50 above retail, while the Deluxe was averaging ~$75 above retail.)  Compare this to the Wii, which started out at just below $600 and was still averaging ~$200 above retail going into into its 2nd week.  And things haven't gotten any better.

Going by anecdotal evidence, there are just about as many posters who claim not seeing Wii Us in stores as there are who claim that stores near them have several in stock, so that's a wash.  After doing a quick search, I found out that Wal-Mart, Toys-R-Us, and Kmart are still out of stock online.  Amazon never stocked them, so that's a large retailer out of the equation from the start.  Target only has the Basic model.  The only two places that seem to have them are Best Buy and Gamestop.  So considering we have less than 3 weeks til Christmas, only 400K were sold the first week, and many online stores are sold out, these consoles should be selling for extrememly high prices if there is high demand for the console.

Here is a list of a few sales I put on my watch list that spanned an hour and I checked after they were over.  I decided to take off any that were asking for an "unreasonable" price (there were 10-15 sales that were starting at $70-$120 in profit), as no one was bidding on them.

Wii U Deluxe w/ Deadly Creatures (Wii) - Retail $366 - Sold for $11.50 profit, part of which goes to eBay.

Wii U Deluxe - Retail $350 - Seller was asking for $50 over retail price and didn't get any bids.

Wii U Deluxe w/ Ghostbusters (Wii) - Retail $362 - Sold for $355.  Seller actually lost money on this sale.

Wii U Deluxe w/ Lego Batman (Wii) - Retail $367 - Sold for $355. Seller actually lost money on this sale.

Wii U Deluxe - Retail $350 - Sold for $352.  This sale would be break even, or even a loss.  However, the seller charged $33 for shipping, so he should profit by $15-$20.

Wii U Deluxe w/ SMBU & BO2 - Retail $470.  The sale ended at $410, however, the reserve was not met.

Wii U Deluxe w/ SMBU - Retail $410.  Sold for $15 profit, part of which goes to eBay.

Wii U Deluxe - Retail $350.  Seller was asking for $10 over retail and didn't get any bids.

Wii U Deluxe - Retail $350. Sold for $10 profit, part of which goes to eBay.

Wii U Deluxe - Retail $350.  Sale ended at $350, however, the reserve was not met.

Wii U Deluxe - Retail $350. Seller was asking for $25 more than retail and didn't get any bids.

Wii U Deluxe w/ SMBU - Retail $410.  Sold for $20 profit, part of which goes to eBay.

Wii U Basic - Retail $300.  Seller was asking retail price and didn't get any bids.

There were about 5 other sales where the sellers were asking for $50 over retail price and they didn't get any bids.  I would have listed them, but the list was getting long.  And just to show I'm not just picking out negative ones, I'll list the positive ones from that hour last.

Wii U Deluxe - Retail $350.  Sold for $50 profit, part of which goes to ebay.

Wii U Deluxe - Retail $350.  Sold for $65 profit, part of which goes to eBay.

Wii U Deluxe - Retail $350.  Sold for $80 profit, part of which goes to eBay.

Now, I'm not saying this seemingly low demand is a permanent thing.  However, much like the 3DS, I think the Wii U is going to have to get a price cut to ~$250 before people start really getting onboard with the main draw for Nintendo's new console.  So, what say you? 

Wow, quite the interesting post. Too early to tell just how well the Wii U is going to sell, but this is certainly food for thought.

Wii was a miracle, I don't even remember how Nintendo managed to make so much buzz back when the thing launched. It's like everyone and their monkey was talking about it.

I doubt that the Wii U will need a price cut to sell. It already sells at a loss as it is. I think the demand may be low for a couple of reasons, and one of them may in fact be the fact that holiday season is coming up. As it goes along, I believe more people will want one and more appealing games would be out for the system.

@ bolded

If anything, that should be helping the sales and demand of the Wii U.  Children would be going nuts over it (not saying kids were the only ones into it, Nintendo fans ) and wanting it for Xmas, like they did the Wii that was launched the same time of the year, and their parents would try their damndest to get their hands on one.

I heard most of the shopping happens on Christmas Eve (or at least around that week before Christmas).  Also, the stock for the Wii U hasn't replenished yet (I don't think).  So I think we need to wait a little longer.

kids and MORE advertising. I seen a few peopel on these forums say shit like didn't realise it launched this week, and this is coming friom people who scout the forums for gaming information lol.

This is interesting data, but like I've said before: there will not be a price cut anytime soon.

Nintendo learned its lesson from the 3DS launch, and priced the Wii U accordingly. I think we won't see a price cut for the first two years, if not three.

It's a bit too soon still.

Actually, Black Friday week is one of the largest shopping weeks of the year.  And if December is anything like it was last year, sales will either be flat or slightly down from November.  As for the stock, that actually reinforces my point.  If there was high demand and very low stock, then the prices on eBay would be averaging $150-$200 above the normal retail price and people would still be purchasing them.