I just received the txt message for Sears saying stock was available. It looks like it was an error presented from the wonderful Sears site. Here is what my spiders snagged just a few minutes ago:

Sorry for the confusion, but keep trying the page for a little while. They might just release them in the next few minutes, but I make no guarantees as always.

Right now, Amazon Gold Box has the Schwinn 230 Recumbent Exercise Bike for only $299.99 through midnight EST/9:00 PM PST or until stock sells out. After doing some quick research, this is $100 cheaper than anyone else selling it according to Google Shopping. Better yet, over 80 people have reviewed the unit with it receiving 4.5 stars! If you are in the market for an exercise bike, I suggest you head over to Amazon and snag one quickly.

Yes, they do have stock available at Best Buy, but bundles only. I got a txt alert which notified me first. By receiving the txt alert, that meant that there was stock available for the Console Only. I ran to the site and sure enough only the Bundles were available. I checked my cache to make sure, and sure enough, there was a reason for the txt alerts to go out. Here is the cache snapshot of what my spiders saw for the Console Only page:

Sorry for the txt alerts for Console only seekers, but as you can see Best Buy was showing stock when I visited.

All others, hurry up and snag a bundle!

UPDATE:

I guess I was wrong about them not truly having consoles only. Dang it, I gotta learn to trust those spiders more. Glad some of you were able to score one!

Justin

I just got back from lunch, where I received my txt alert, and saw Amazon had stock. Unsure about this given the last episode with Amazon, I referred to the cache from my spider and sure enough, stock was available. Here is the cache snapshot:

As always, how many they had I am unsure of…

I just got my text that Sears has Wii’s In Stock; I tried to purchase and was denied during the checkout process. I would continue to attempt to make the transaction occur throughout the morning as when this occurs, it can be a sign of what is to come. This is what normally happens with Sears, and today is going to be no different I am sure. You may also want to try the Wii Bundle at Sears.

Justin

A week later and another batch of Wii’s is already being offered up again!

UPDATE: Dang, Wii’s are still moving incredibly fast. Stock is already sold out!

All,

I know it can be quite frustrating in trying to get your hands on these Wii’s. It is important to realize there are a variety of factors that can cause issues with you receiving your alerts as soon as possible. The one common issue among all of the current solutions is the delivery mechanism and its reliance on other services.

In the past, when I had my own system send email alerts, alerts became too slow because of the shear volume of emails being sent and the necessity of speed. As a result, I switched over to the Google Group to harness the power of Google’s email servers which are way more powerful than mine. This has worked out great and has enabled my site to remain live during the alerting process.

I also started to use Twitter this past holiday season to send the text alerts, which, by the way, are the most effective at this time, but then again we are relying on our mobile carriers to deliver the messages in a reasonable amount of time.

That is why I would like all of you who are frustrated and who believe this system doesn’t work, to stay tuned. I am working on a series of solutions, of which I believe the first to be released will be released by early next week. Granted, this may not turn out to be the best option, but should help in delivering alerts much quicker.

How will I know if this solution works or not? By using all you guys to test it out. So, rest assured, I am constantly working on better delivery mechanisms to improve time-to-delivery.

Justin

UPDATE: I reactivated Kmart because units became available again! Keep trying! People are getting through; you just need to keep trying.

Indeed, Kmart had Wii’s in stock early this morning; 4:08 AM EST. As of right now, I have turned Kmart off because they continue to show inventory, however when checking out, one can not complete the transaction.

Around 6:48 AM EST Sears then proceeded to make inventory available as well. Since then it appears units have sold out. I will now turn Sears off in order to stop alerts.

Yippee! Only the second time since Christmas!

Nice to see Circuit City had Wii’s available earlier today. I hope a lot of you were able to take advantage. However, I noticed they were still showing “In stock” on my tracker still at 1:30 PM. I checked into it, and of course they were not available. I have since corrected this error. At least the alert went out quickly enough the first time around, and it was good to see the Twitter mobile alerts were working again. Next time Amazon has stock, hopefully Twitter will be functioning just as smoothly. Last time, their system maintenance screwed us up. Can’t win them all I guess.

Just released, the brand new Cobalt & Black version of DS Lite is currently available for preorder at Buy.com and Circuit City. Well, let me take that back, Circuit City HAD preorders available, but now appear to be sold out. In stock tracking was also added for Amazon and Best Buy. Just refer to the Nintendo DS Lite In Stock Tracker to sign up for the FREE in stock alerts ensuring you get your hands on this new model ASAP.