He wasn't unlucky, he was daft. www.wii-consoles.co.uk is updated constantly and there's always somewhere online with stock so it doesn't matter where you live in the UK you can buy a Wii at RRP or less.

It must've just gone out of stock then. As people have been saying it was in stock all last week which tallies with these numbers and was still in stock when I looked earlier today.

actually he isn't daft, not everybody after a wii knows about that site. he got a ps3 in the end anyway.

If he bought a Ps3 was he really going on the hunt for a Wii then? I'm sure if somoene wants a Wii they would go on the hunt. (And not end up buying something else)

well i wasn't really keen on him getting a wii, so i didn't exactly help him out. i convinced him to stop wasting his time, so he got a ps3 instead.

Anybody here ever heard of margins of error?

^have you heard of denial?

Damn accept defeat until you get evidence and THEN whne you get that rub everyones face in it. Until then your in denial.

Does Nintendo own its own cargo freight ships? I don't think so...

And for all those m*** that think that Nintendo diverts/reallocates shipping due to a "really cool game in area xy", please take the time and go to a freight shipping company and ask them a few intelligent questions, like:

a) How many _MONTHS IN ADVANCE_ has (larger size) cargo to be reserved?

b) How does the price of cargo change if not reserved _MONTHS IN ADVANCE_?

c) You should get the point by now...

Make the people happy by mentioning that you think that Ninetendo redirects its console shipments when higher demand is possible in some area of the world. You will see people ROFL and if they are really nice (and have a lot of time to kill), they will try to explain to the naive how international shipping works..

So to sum up: Please people, stop this ridiculous "company xy diverted yz to aa due to the cool bb"

I suppose the key question is "How do you explain the consistent massive increase in available hardware for the Wii on the Weeks surrounding a big game release without diverting or stockpiling of hardware?"