navin prasad

How to Find a Wii.

I bought a Wii on Tuesday morning.  I'd been putting it off for several months for a few reasons:

• I didn't want to pay more than the MSRP $250 by buying off of eBay, resellers, etc.
• I didn't want to buy a Wii bundled with a bunch of extra software that I would have no use for.
• I didn't want to have to go to a retail store and wait in line on Sunday morning (I'm not lazy...I just don't have a car.)

On Tuesday morning I just simply decided to put my mind to it -- that I would get a Wii.  It ended up being rather simple:  I searched around for some RSS-based trackers that I could set up in my Bloglines feed reader.  These trackers continuously check various online retailers for Wii availibility and report back via the beauty of syndication.

I ended up using WiiTracker and it worked out great.  I had to check up on the main site a few times (it didn't seem to be updating in my Bloglines), but I caught the Wii going on sale on Amazon within the first minute. 

I should note that I had already been looking at message boards on Amazon for some time, so I knew that Wiis generally go on sale for short periods on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.  Another factor that helped me out was that Amazon has recently instituted a policy so that people cannot buy too many systems in one time period.  It helps guard against all those eBay resellers.  And another thing to note -- One-Click ordering doesn't work on the Wii, so you should have your account set up to speed you through the checkout process if at all possible.

I admit I was probably a little lucky to check the WiiTracker at just the right moment.  The Wiis sold out in about 20 minutes.  I'll be patiently waiting for mine to show up in the mail.  In the meantime, I've already got Zelda and Metroid waiting on my shelf. 

So that's how to get a Wii, with minimal effort, in case anyone's interested.  Or did I just have a spot of good luck?

Tags » find wii availability online

• 27 September 2007
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