If you are one of those that have been waiting to get your hands on ARMA 2 Combined Operations, which includes ARMA 2 and ARMA 2 Operation Arrowhead, in order to play the DayZ Mod, then you are in luck this week as Amazon Downloads has the set on sale once again. If bought separately, the two games would cost $55, but right now it only costs $19.99. It is not the same price as the set was back in May where Amazon had it offered for $14.99, however for a measly $5 more you can still pick up the set and start blasting Zombies!

Right now, the Microsoft Store is slashing the price on the Xbox 360 250GB Kinect Bundle by $50 to only $350! To take advantage of this deal, head over to the Microsoft Store >

—- OR —-

If you would rather just have a 250GB Console without Kinect, that one is slashed too and only costs $250! Click here to head over to the 250GB Console Only sale.

Hurry up, as both offers end on May 26th!

Over the past 11 hours, since the official release of Diablo III, we have seen the elusive Collector’s Edition stock become available at two major retailers. Target had the first stock available at 12:00 AM EST, with a decent showing of inventory that lasted just under an hour. Then, GameStop, at 9:26 AM EST, showed its hand with a barrage of inventory that lasted just over a half hour before the listing was removed from their site.

If you are one of those still holding out for the Diablo III Collector’s Edition, things are looking up. For how long, no one really knows other than Blizzard. But we suspect more inventory might show up over the next few hours, or even days.

First, head over to our Diablo III Collector’s Edition Tracker and see if stock is available. If no stock is available, and you want to be alerted as soon as we see inventory in stock and available for purchase, then be sure to register with NowInStock.net to receive our FREE in stock alerts!

If you are unfamiliar with NowInStock.net, we are a completely FREE web service that tracks the availability of hard-to-find items, such as Diablo III Collector’s Edition. We monitor multiple retailer sites at once giving you a selection of retailers to choose from. Register for an account for FREE, add the items you want alerted on, and as soon as we see your items in stock and available for purchase, we alert you via email, TXT, desktop alerts, or browser alerts. We have helped tens of thousands of users get the items they want, and you could be next.

Looking to get those grubby little hands on the elusive Star Wars: Old Republic Collector’s Edition because you failed to pre-order it like all of your other friends? Then you need to head over to our recently released Star Wars Old Republic In Stock Tracker to see if stock is available. If not, don’t fret. If you are not familiar with NowInStock.net, we are a FREE web service that tracks the availability of hard-to-find items such as Star Wars Old Republic Collector’s Edition. When we see stock available for purchase, we will notify you! To get started, register for a free account, add the items you want alerted on, set your alert delivery options (txt, email, desktop/browser), then kick back and wait for those alerts to come in.

Weekly update on all that is happening around the world of hot, hard-to-find products and NowInStock.net

Amazon Cancels Pre-Orders for Transformer Prime

This is one of the most frustrating events to occur in sometime, at least for those that were eagerly awaiting their pre-ordered ASUS Transformer Prime. Amazon has decided to cancel a large portion, if not all, of the pre-orders placed for the Transformer Prime. And those that got their preorders are voicing their displeasure from commenting on the Amazon product pages of the Prime (which Amazon decided it should delete), to forums like over at TransformerForums.com to articles about the debacle on Engadget and Android and Me among others. I pre-ordered one myself and sure enough I also received the slap to the face. There is nothing more frustrating than having your anticipation squashed. What really irritates me is the canceling of the order. I expected delays on the Prime when I pre-ordered it, and I was willing to accept receiving my pre-order well into January/February. What I was not expecting was for Amazon to rip me out of line and kick me to the curb. This is what I call a failure of customer relations. Yet, I have a service representative trying to apologize to me when questioning the incident. I want whoever made the decision to rip me out of line to apologize for their failure. And I don’t care if the reasoning was ASUS is having issues with demand; I will wait in line!

But never fear, there are retailers still accepting pre-orders. They may or may not go through in the end, but at least you can try. If you are still interested in placing a Prime pre-order elsewhere, head over to our Transformer Prime In Stock Tracker to see who is still offering them.

LeapPad Explorer

LeapPad Explorer continues to shine in the sales department and there is no sign of demand letting up. We saw subscribers pouring into the site this past week. When adults have a neat toy, the kids will want one too. LeapPad is there to fill the void and give the kiddies something to play with while mommy and daddy use their own tablets. If you are going to want a LeapPad for Christmas day, you better register for our FREE in stock alerts now! If you really want a LeapPad, I suggest you sign up for a FREE account then get the Desktop or Browser Alerts running on your computer. These two methods are the fastest and most efficient at alerting you when stock is available. If you want to role the dice and see if stock is available right now, head over to our LeapPad In Stock Tracker.

Other Notables and New Items

While LeapPad is the clear dominator this holiday season, there are quite a few other products that are in demand, some were on the site last week, but we also have a few new ones:

Monster High Dolls – the Monster High Dolls strike again this year. With the hottest dolls being Toralei, Abbey, and Spectra. Holding steady near the top, but nowhere even close to LeapPad Explorer.
Angry Birds – taking the life of the party on your tablet offline was sure to be a hit. Angry Birds board game-style is selling like hotcakes. This past week interest has increased, but not much.
Lalaloopsy Dolls – Lalaloopsy is back again this year. Some interest is definitely there, but Monster High still tops them.
Doodle Bear – This cuddly little bear is not gaining anymore momentum.
Skylanders – seem to be warm, but even with a mention of shortages in inventory from Activision, interest still seems static.
Fijit Friends  – This is a new one of those dancing items. Not sure it will get any more interest, but I could be wrong. They are available fairly frequently.

What is NowInStock.net?

We are a web service that monitors the availability of hard-to-find products then alert you when those products come in stock. In order to receive these alerts, you need to register for FREE account, add items that you want alerted on to your account, then choose what types of alerts you want sent for each of these items. We offer TXT alerts, email alerts, browser alerts, and desktop alerts. Once in a while, we offer Twitter alerting (if Twitter allows us) when a product becomes really popular.

It appears the word from the horse’s mouth (Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick) is there might just be a shortage on the newly released Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure video game/action figures this holiday season. And what better way to counteract this bad news than with a Skylanders In Stock Tracker!

For those of you not familiar with NowInStock.net, we are product availability tracking site. In other words, we discover when hard-to-find items are in stock at online retailers, then we alert you. The best part is the site is FREE. Register for a free account, add the items you want alerted on to your account, select the type of delivery (txt, email, desktop/browser, or pre-order email) you want for each item, then sit back and wait for in stock alerts to arrive.

Xbox 360 with Kinect still only $199.99,  BUT this is the last day to save the $100+ on the Xbox 360. This sale at Microsoft Store ends today if not sooner as it also ends when inventories are gone. Not sure where the prices will go after today, but more than likely back to $299 and $399 respectively. As of writing this post, Microsoft Store still has stock available.

Here are the options still available and in stock at writing time:

4GB Xbox 360 with Kinect – $199.99
250GB Holiday Bundle with Kinect & 2 Games – $299.99
Ultimate Gaming Bundle – 250GB console with Kinect, 3 games, one of your choice, LIVE card, points card, memory stick, extra controller – $394.99 (Ends 1/8/12)

If you want to see if inventory is still available then head over to Microsoft Store with the links above, or check our Xbox 360 In Stock Tracker.

If you are one of those that heard about Xbox 360 with Kinect only costing $199.99, but are having a hard time finding one, we know where they are still in stock. As of writing this post, Microsoft Store still had stock available. You have two options to choose from, 4GB w/Kinect or 250GB w/Kinect, and both are a stellar deal that will not last long. In fact, the deal only lasts until November 28th or until all units are sold, which has already happened at Amazon. If you want to check if inventory is still available then head over to Microsoft Store with the links above or check our Xbox 360 In Stock Tracker.

If you are one of the thousands looking to find a new Nintendo 3DS, well you have a little more longer to wait. The official release date of the 3DS is March 27th, 2011 in USA/North America. Until then, you do have the option to pre-order the 3DS. At NowInStock.net, we are tracking a variety of retailers already taking pre-orders. To place a pre-order now, head over to the Nintendo 3DS Tracker.

If you are one of those that would prefer to wait and pick up their system once the 3DS officially releases, then you have the option to sign up for our FREE in stock alerts. Once we see stock available for purchase at the retailers we track and you have selected, we will send you an email alerting you.  To receive the FREE in stock alerts, register for a free account, then add the Nintendo 3DS items you want alerted on. That’s it. We are currently tracking Amazon, Target, and Best Buy. If stock becomes hard to find after launch, we will add more retailers. To see our current list of retailers, visit the 3DS tracker.

Word on the street is Nintendo 3DS is highly anticipated, and pre-ordering may be the wisest option. However, given that the launch date is at the end of March and not near Christmas, inventory MIGHT hang around. Unfortunately, only time will reveal the popularity of  the 3DS.

Wow! We went from a near barren virtual shelf to a packed shelf with 24 consecutive hours of Kienct being in stock at Amazon. If anyone out there is still having trouble finding a Kinect in stock, then they aren’t looking in the right places… ughhhmm… NowInStock.net! The next question becomes… will this last major shipment to Amazon be the last for some time, or will the item be everywhere you look after the holidays. I wouldn’t put it past Microsoft to have planned it this way to build hype during the holiday season, but a few things speak to me to contradict such a scheme.

One, the Kinect has been receiving pretty decent reviews. Everywhere I look, I am seeing 4-5 stars for ratings. Granted this could be Xbox 360 fanboys, but it should equate out to be less than than 4-5 stars if there was truly something wrong with the device. Even fanboys can’t push ratings whenever a device is flawed.

Two, Micrsoft has sold a lot of Kinects. According to reports, they have sold over a million units within the first 10 days alone. That is a hefty amount of devices to be shelling out, especially for a $150 item.

Third is the amount of money spent in producing Kinect. We are talking hundreds of millions of dollars spent, and why would Microsoft shun anyone from trying to buy the unit. They have a lot of money that needs to be recouped in order to break even. If each unit reportedly costs $56 dollars to make, and they are selling the unit for $150, then they are well on their way to already being profitable.

If you are one those out there still looking for Kinect, check out our Kinect Tracker. If stock isn’t available, then sign up for our FREE in stock alerts. We will try our hardest to help you find one fast. Better than driving around town looking.