Its been over a month since I last posted an update, so I have decided to give everyone a little insight into what has been happening with NowInStock.net and the market.

Wii Inventories Stabilized

It appears that Wii inventories have finally stabilized with Wii’s being in stock for some time now at a variety of online stores including Amazon, Best Buy, Gamestop, and even Radio Shack. The Wii has finally run its high-demand course!

As a result of the steady inventory stream, I have DISCONTINUED all TXT alerts for the Wii via Twitter. I suggest that all users stop “following” NowInStock within Twitter as I will begin using it for future site updates and no longer for Wii stock alerts. To unsubscribe from NowInStock on Twitter, login to your Twitter account and stop “Following” NowInStock.

Google Group NowInStockWiis subscribers will continue to receive Wii alerts, however, I have removed the sign up form from the web site as there is no longer a need to use this group.

Wii Fit Inventories Stabilizing

Just like the Wii, Wii Fit inventories also continue to be steady, but a little less so than the Wii. WiiFit Twitter alerts will continue through the Twitter account NISWiiFit. Also, the WiiFit Google Group will continue to receive email updates, but like the Wii the sign up has been removed from NowInStock. You still sign up for FREE alerts, the alerts will just be distributed via my NowInStock.net alert system.

Video Game Deals Tracker

What has been taking the majority of my time over the past few months is my effort to formulate a price tracker of sorts. The initial focus of these price trackers is to monitor Amazon for price flucutations and determining when “new lowest prices ever” are reached, when “all-time lows” are hit, when “new preorders” are available for preordering, and to “view all preorders” for each specific gaming system. I am tracking a series of video game systems with this new type of price tracker including Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, DS, PSP, PS2, PC, and Mac games. Also, I have a main video games deals page where one can see the deals found each day. As you will see on the this page there is also an RSS feed for each specific system so that you can use your RSS readers and have the deals delivered autmatically daily.

I will be working on add more features as time progresses, however right now I think this service is providing very valuable information. On each specific game system page you will find a complete list of all games I could find for each respective system along with price indicators and price details by clicking the icons in the info column for each game.

Please send over your thoughts or wishes for this deal tracker. I would love to hear your input. Also, rest assured that price alerts and inventory alerts are going to be included once I flush out the system to handle these.

That is all for now. I will continue to update every month with new developments.

~ Justin

I believe this is the first time in over two years that I have seen Amazon release Wii inventory on a Sunday morning or even a weekend. I assume they are targeting people who are getting up early to run out to their local stores that have Sunday ads claiming they have Wii stock available. Save yourself a trip to the store right now by jumping online and heading over to Amazon to get your Wii. Inventory has been in stock since 3:00 AM EST or 12:00 AM PST! Good luck!

The times of the Nintendo Wii being out of stock seem to have come to an end. As of right now, it appears the Wii clearly has enough stock available at a variety of online stores including Amazon and Best Buy retaining inventory well over multiple days.

With the down economy resulting in deflation and the rising US Dollar value, I think Nintendo, after 2 years, has decided to finally flood the market here in the United States to capitalize on this increased dollar value.

Wii Fit on the other hand is another story. The Wii Fit in stock time has gradually increased over the last few weeks for sure. Recently Amazon had Wii Fit units in stock for over 4 hours with Best Buy matching that number. This is the longest time frame NowInStock.net has seen since the release of the unit. Is the down economy putting a damper on such purchases or are more units just available. I am sure in the next few weeks will get a better understanding for sure as more and more people truly being their holiday shopping. Will Nintendo do the same with Wii Fit as they have done with the Wii? Will inventory begin to flood stores? I remember reading that Nintendo was going to start pulling inventories from Europe and start pushing more units to the US. In a matter of a few weeks, the Wii Fit might also be very easy to find.

Subscribers of NowInStock.net Wii Mobile Alerts via Twitter:
As a result of these high inventory levels, there is no longer a need to utilize Twitter for mobile alerts. I will continue to monitor inventory closely, and if need be, I will turn the mobile alerts back on. Inventory will have to diminish, but this is something I do not envision this holiday season.

I wanted to shed some light on the recent alerts that have gone out for Amazon for both the Wii and Wii Fit. These units have indeed been in stock, just not that many at a given time. These are most likely the result of canceled orders from Amazon or customer cancels. When the units are released back into the system, there are very few units in stock. As a result, my spiders pick up that stock, but by the time the majority of you get the alert and make it to the site, the stock is already gone and it looks like I am throwing errant alerts. This is not the case.

Every time I spider a page and see stock available, I store a cached snapshot of the page to ensure I am not throwing these errors. Below you can see the most recent cached snapshots for both the Wii and Wii Fit. Also, when it comes to the Wii, Target has been selling Wii’s through Amazon, but when they do, they only release about 5 or less at any given time. This was the cause a week or two back when Amazon Wii alerts were going nuts.

Wii cached page w/Target as seller from yesterday the 28th of August:

Wii Fit cached page from today the 29th of August:

Again, this is just part of the tracker business. Remember, you are using the trackers as a backup to normal Wii and Wii Fit hunting so limit your expectations, but at the same time remember we have been successful for thousands of people.

Hang in there, NowInStock.net will get you one!
Justin

As I said prior and as a reminder to all… When visiting Best Buy after an alerts ALWAYS ignore the Sold Out Online on the Hardware page and click into the item you want.

The summer lull is upon us, and Wii seekers can begin to feel hope. This is the best time of the year to find a Wii if you are still looking for one. Once again, I am predicting that this holiday season will be quite competitive in the Wii hunting market.

So where do we currently stand? Typically inventory from July through beginning of October remains in stock longer. This is the result of demand slow downs and the Summer lull. I initially thought that demand as a whole would begin to die this summer, but from what I can tell, the inventory shipments appear to roll with overall demand. Nintendo knows demand is much lower in the summer so less units are shipped, which makes predicting demand that much harder. However, I have noticed that the bundles are lasting much longer and in some instances so are the consoles. This is mainly the result of Circuit City and Best Buy. I would like review the major Wii suppliers, and let you know what I have observed over the last 2-3 months by store. This information should help remaining Wii seekers find a Wii.

Amazon
Still need to be really lucky… even with the tracker emails and TXT alerts (best option). If you want a Wii from Amazon, one of the three places that still sell the Wii console unbundled for $249.99, sign up for the Wii TXT alerts. This is your best option. But, BE QUICK! Stock still sells out in 5-15 minutes.

This past spring Amazon killed the commissions on Wii sales. This was seriously bad news for us trackers, because this is how we pay our bills. Their associates program is one of the, if not, the best one out there.  Amazon felt the trackers, such as NowInStock.net were only contributing to the demand and helping the resellers. Their reasoning was that if we ban commissions on Wii sales, then it will only help inventory last longer. At least this is what they told us in a round about way. If they truly felt this way, how wrong were they? I wasn’t about to remove my tracking of Amazon because they removed commissions. My users want $249 consoles. Since this ban has been implemented, Amazon continues to sell out in minutes. So, removing those commissions really helped, huh? 😉 If NowInStock helps you acquire a Wii, please buy your accessories and games through us! We still get commissions on those items and it helps the site remain active for the next products to be in high demand… such as Guitar Hero World Tour tracker this fall!

Best Buy
After a late entrance into the world of online Wii sales, Best Buy finally did so last fall. However, they took off the 2007-08 holiday season greatly limiting online sales. This past Spring they have made a revival of sorts. At this time, Best Buy remains your best option in snagging a Wii console-only online. Inventory arrives about once every two weeks and lasts about 20-50 minutes. They are one of three stores to still sell the Wii console for $249.99.

Circuit City
One of the shops that still sells bundles, but not at gouging prices, at least in my opinion. You can get a bundle from Circuit City fairly easily, they are lasting for a day or two at a time. And, they replenish stock about once a week. For $360, you can get your hands on a Wii Console, extra Nunchuk, extra Remote, and a game. This is really not that bad of deal unless you plan on playing the Wii by yourself.

Newegg
Newegg has continued to sell bundles on a daily basis, but they do gouge you coming in at the $500 range. This is a little ridiculous if you ask me, but demand is still there for it.

Buy.com
Crazy bundles for crazy prices and not too often. Sometimes the bundles are even sold by third parties. It seems like Buy.com just doesn’t have the connections like Amazon does.

Sears & Kmart
The last store to still sell the Wii console unbundled. Honestly, this one has been a nightmare since the beginning, but it is definitely possible to acquire a console at the $249.99 price point. Their inventory system is essentially garbage, only providing relatively accurate information in a world where we command real-time inventory status. The best time to snag a Wii from either of these stores is after a lull in not having inventory. If they haven’t had inventory for over a week, the next alert you get, hurry as soon as the next one is sent! If there are none, stick around for a while and continue to try; you might just get through. Their inventory system is so bad, I chose to take it off the Twitter TXT alert system to ensure that TXTing fees didn’t get outrageous.

Walmart
One of the other “major bundle” pushers. They continue to pawn off $600 range bundles which is by far the most expensive we have seen in a while.

GameStop
They continue to sell the bundles online which are not that overly priced, however Circuit City still remains the better option in my opinion. The one thing with GameStop which can be of benefit is they always do a preorder sale telling you they will have the unit in a specified time. They never have inventory “in stock” always “pre-orders.” This can have its advantages when looking for a unit that you may want for a birthday in the future and want to ensure you get one without having to monitor the tracker alerts.

Target
Target is a tough one. Recently there has been stock availble in bundle form. The bundles are slightly over priced in the range of GameStop. In the end, it feels like during the off-season, the Summer months, Target will have inventory once in a while to sell. However, come holiday season the inventory appears to just flow directly to the stores and rarely rears its head online. Just the age-old tactic of trying to get you into the stores.

I hope the above information gives you Wii seekers a better look into where you might be able to snag the type of unit you are looking for. As we get closer to the holiday season things will begin to change again, at least in my opinion. However, you can never tell with the recession. Word is that Nintendo is limiting the inventory to the US because of the recession, but the retailers must not feel the same continuing to sell bundles.

In short, best Wii console-only options in order: Best Buy, Amazon, Sears & Kmart. Best options for bundled Wii’s in order of value: Circuit City, GameStop, Target, Newegg, then Walmart.

Looking for a Wii… sign up for our FREE alerts at the Wii Tracker.

In case you have received your alert and went to Best Buy site only to see a “Sold Out Online” indicator (blue squares), you just need to dig a little further. In the screen shot below you can see that you just need to click on the name of the unit (red arrows) you want, then on the next page click “add to cart.” This will allow for you to purchase the unit. Their site has a tendency to be a little slow to update these indicators even though stock is available.

Do not be fooled by the main hardward page where it shows “Sold Out Online”, instead click into the console or bundle you want, and you will see it is available for purchase online.

Image of the main hardware page:

Image of actual product page:

See you can buy them online!

Holy Moly, Best Buy is selling Wii’s for $249.99, snag them up! I am starting to have the sense that Nintendo might actually be meeting demand. Although, last year there was a slowdown over the summer and early fall months, this time it is much earlier and could be a sign of stock outweighing demand. Over 30 minutes later, and the console is still available!

Now at 1:00 EST, Amazon has received them. I guess today is Wii delivery day, as the freighter just docked in Seattle, and the trucks are already leaving the port stocked full.

Well, the double shot of Wii’s in stock was received today. First was Circuit City early this morning and now Amazon early this afternoon. I hope all of you get one.

Justin