By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Unprecedented Wii availability at amazon UK

NJ5 on 28 February 2008

This site looks pretty accurate as far as I've seen:

http://www.wii-consoles.co.uk/wii_stock_history.asp?Productid=3

For many months now, the Wii has been sold out 99% of the time at amazon UK, yet it has been available for the past two days without interruption. Note that in the past, it was only available for a few minutes at a time, and now it has been available for two days. That's a huge, and very surprising difference!

Now let's make one thing clear - despite this, the Wii is still #1 in amazon's "PC/video Games" sales chart, which probably means one or more of the following:

1- the whole video game market is on a sudden huge decline at the end of February (doesn't seem very plausible to me)

2- for some reason, Nintendo is giving preference to amazon over other retailers (I wouldn't bet on it, but it's of course possible)

3- Nintendo made a huge shipment of Wiis this week (the most likely of all three, although I have to wonder how huge it has to be)

I think the above explanations are lacking though, since I don't see any of those three factors being huge enough to explain such a big difference in availability. So here is a different theory:

Amazon probably sells a lot of consoles to internet-savvy Wii scalpers who have a lot of ways monitoring availability (stock trackers, etc), and therefore usually snap up Wiis pretty quickly in order to sell them at ebay for a huge premium. If it's indeed true that supply is finally catching up with demand (as some people have suggested), maybe those scalpers are less interested in quickly buying all the Wiis available at Amazon.

What do you think? Has supply finally caught up with demand, or will this just be a very short-lived situation?

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

Around the Network
tabsina on 28 February 2008

Wow.. i wish we could actually see how many wiis were in stock.. its too difficult to conclude anything from that, given the circumstances of it also being the top of the videogame chartz



akuma587 on 28 February 2008

Teh Wii is doomzwred.



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

ZenfoldorVGI on 28 February 2008

Awesome, might see some big Others numbers soon.

As for evidence that the Wii has met demand in europe, this means nothing.



I don't need your console war.
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor.
You're power hungry, spinnin' stories, and bein' graphics whores.
I don't need your console war.

NO NO, NO NO NO.

Lingyis on 28 February 2008

oh yeah!

and it's got a great discount! from 179.99 to 179.98. what a bargain!



the Wii is an epidemic.

Around the Network
NJ5 on 28 February 2008

I just thought of something - when Toys R Us did that Wii software promotion in USA, weren't they getting more shipments than normal? Amazon UK also has big discounts on many Wii games right now, that might have something to do with it. However, I still have my doubts that that would explain the whole thing just by itself.

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

Quilex on 28 February 2008

Just for a bit more anecdotal evidence. The High street shops, Game & HMV in my town have had stock for the last 10 days first time I have seen them in stock this long. It will be interesting to see if they can build up a stock ready for the release of Mario Kart followed by wii fit



Renar on 28 February 2008

In stock for 2 days? 2 WHOLE days?

Wow. N. can cut back on the replenishments there. Instead of shipping the games in minutes to replen like they needed to, they can wait for days, maybe even 4 days, before restocking Amazon UK.

Oh, shoot. They are probably on a weekly basis at best. Oh well. Back to outages before the new stock gets there. Let me know when stock last for 6 days, would you?



Torturing the numbers.  Hear them scream.

tokilamockingbrd on 28 February 2008

wow, the UK went from famine to feast quick... must have been huge shipments....



psn- tokila

add me, the more the merrier.

NJ5 on 28 February 2008
Renar said:
In stock for 2 days? 2 WHOLE days?

Wow. N. can cut back on the replenishments there. Instead of shipping the games in minutes to replen like they needed to, they can wait for days, maybe even 4 days, before restocking Amazon UK.

Oh, shoot. They are probably on a weekly basis at best. Oh well. Back to outages before the new stock gets there. Let me know when stock last for 6 days, would you?

Very funny, but as I said this week is a huge difference. Stock at amazon UK used to last for minutes every single time. Even much before Christmas.

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957