Go to amazon, select the PS3 and go to the cart.  Come down to the PS3 part of the order and bump up the amount to 999 to see if they have 999 in stock.  Move back up to the top of the page and click on update and then once it's updated move back down to see what number is left in the amount of PS3's where you put in 999.

Currently it is 738.

Comon.... Wii original price (USD 249,00) - Amazon Wii (USD 344,01)... PS3 original price (USD 499,00) - Amazon (USD 499,00)... They stop of if deluding.

Hmm yeah that is funny!

What's strange is that the Wii is #4 in Top selling???

I thought this amozon.com site was updated hourly?? They seem to be out of Wii's - except for independent sellers at rediculas prices... yet it's Still at number 4???

Do they extrapolate this for a period of time, say a full week, or month maybe? or is it what's selling for that hour alone?

It seems a bit dodgy to me.... How can we believe these numbers if it is supposed to be updated every hour yet the Wii is sold out OR it's selling for $350+ for the base system (nothing extra) and is sitting comfortably at #4 for the last few days???

If it's extrapolated for say the last 7 days, then Even if sales suddenly stopped on the PS3 it would still be listed as the #1 seller for 7 days, (as long as it's sales aren't surpassed in total), thus meaning the new number one seller at the time is not being displayed until it either overtakes the PS3 total or the recorded time is up.

Can someone please explain to me how amazon works like this? Is it by the hour or some other way? I am from Australia and have never actually purchased through them or an online outlet like them before.

Thanks.

Well, in Amazon.de there are games in the top selling list which are not even out.

My guess: Amazon counts buys if somebody buys (preorders) at the time he buys (preorders) not at the time they actually ship. So if people buy WII's know it is counted, even if they get the WII in one month because Amazon is till then out of stock.

Not sure, but I think the rise might be more to do with Bargain Websites.  Most of them have posts concerning you can get the PS3 with the 5 movies for $499 with no tax and free shipping.  Circuit City was the other option as they were throwing in a second controller and the 5 movies this week, so I would expect both stores to have great PS3 sales this week.   Everyone has the five free movies, but the no tax and free shipping or free controller put this over the top with a lot of the Bargain hunters.  Just not sure if it will stretch to stores beyond these two.  It is amazing the impact a posting on one of the bargain sites can have.

Charles

If these stores continue to sell out with this offer expect others to follow to sell the massive supply of PS3 they will have.
Just had a crazy thought maybe Sony planned this(sounds crazy i know but keep reading): Sony starts of with a stupid price yet still selling out at Christmas the after that they dont go out of stock again they keep shipping units, discontinue the 20GB because of low demand release the 80GB with the same features as the 60GB so now all their units are standised unlike the 360*, with the stocked up supply in warehouse and stores alike they do the "price-drop" people start buying them with the special offers attached other stores follow by example the PS3 continues to sell well then E3 just ups the game with LittleBigPlanet and Killzone2 and others enticeing people in with cute little Stitchbags(main character in LBP) then Christmas comes MGS4 possibly released they have a massive stock of PS3's they ship them to retailers they keep the BD offer going and throw in Motorstorm with the 80GB they 60GB goes the 80GB drops down to $450 and tht is how Sony keeps from going out of stock over the Holidays.Nintendo goes out of stock with the Wiis and 360 out of stock from Halo3 in september unable to supply the demand and that leaves te PS3 has the only option and sales keep going up for Sony and Nintendo cant get enough out to supply the demand same as MS and Sony is laughing all the way home to deal with the skeptics saying that it would fail and noone would buy it.
*why in gods name does the 360 have 3 COMPLETLY different SKU's the only thing they all have in common is they can all get the Red Ring of Death.

They don't take pre-orders on Wiis. On some items they do, but Wiis are far too high demand for such a service. You could literally be number one million in line if they just let people sign up like that, and you might not get your Wii for years. Seriously, years. 

Hmm, I wonder how big demand really is... but millions and years sounds a bit exaggerated. In Europe sale already decreases every week. 

First, demand in Europe shows no signs of slacking -- the weekly sales for Wii have gone 60k, 61k, then 58k. That's not slacking demand. 

Second, I'm certainly not suggesting that a million+ people would actually wait out a year long wait for a Wii, I'm only talking hypothetically. Given that Amazon is near-constantly sold out of Wiis at any given time (they are right now, all they have left are 400+ dollar bundles, unlike the PS3, which they have new systems in under retail price even with the price drop), if every single person that came looking for a Wii on Amazon reserved one, you'd rack up sales fast, and those sales would get out of hand. Is it millions? Geez, I dunno, but that isn't an impossible figure (as I said, definitely millions still waiting here in America alone) and if it's correct, then you definitely woudl be waiting years. 

In general though, arguing over how many hypothetical reservations there would be is silly. Let's just agree it would be "a whole lot." The system is still sold out almost everywhere in the world, after all. 

The Wii sales are decreasing everywhere slowly but surely its like the DS in Japan one month 145000 sold the next 120000 sold and then 110000 then 99000 it just kept going down from there.