Nearly 10 months after the initial release of the Nintendo Wii, Best Buy has finally released the Wii on their site for the first time. They are the last of the major retailers to do so. They must still feel that driving customers to the store is priority number one. Come this holiday season, I wonder if they will continue to offer the Wii online?

Just after the release date was announced, Amazon already has Spore up on the site and available for preorder. Reserve your copy today! This is one of the, if not the most highly anticipated PC games in a long time. The way it works at Amazon is first come first serve. Ask yourself, do you want to be 100 in line or 500,000!

Preorder Spore now at Amazon >

Today, for 49 minutes straight, beginning at 1:00 PM EST the Wii was in stock at Amazon. This is by far the largest time frame that the Wii has been in stock at Amazon since the release of this unit back in November of 2006. Simply amazing. Those of you that might have missed this opportunity, make sure that you sign up for Wii In Stock email alerts to be notified of the next opportunity.

For those of you that have not been in tune with the Wii, it is still one of the hottest items on the market. Demand is still so high that market analysts have extended their estimates to mid-2008 before the Wii market will be saturated. This means this holiday season will end up being good for Nintendo, but maybe not that good. Nintendo has stated that production will continue to be low as a result of third-party parts still be delayed. If you had any thoughts of getting a Wii for the kiddies this holiday season, better start looking now. What better place than signing up for our Wii in Stock Alerts! We have helped thousands since last November and are planning on continuing our tradition this holiday season.

Wow, after 20 long minutes, the Wii is still in stock at Amazon. We may set a new record here on the length from first being in stock to sold out!

All, I just wanted to quickly address the in stock alerts for the Wii Console at Amazon showing up for $349. Obviously, or maybe not that obvious to some, this unit is being sold by a 3rd party Hubbagames. While this tactic is commonplace on Amazon for other products, this is actually the first time since the Wii launched late last year that I have seen Amazon allow a 3rd party reseller show up in this manner.

With that said, the way my spidering script works, it checks to see if the price is viewable and does a few other checks before alerting. As a result of this 3rd party and its reference to the Wii in this manner, my script is showing in stock as it does on Amazon, but at $349. My question to all… Should I take the time to fix this or does it not bother you?

It appears that Amazon also now has the iPod Classic 160 GB version up for preorder now. If you want one of these bad boys, I know I do, then you better get your space in line now. Can you imagine 160 GB. That is a load of content. I wish they had the recently released iTouch even remotely close to half this amount of space. Preorder the iPod Classic 160 GB now!

Amazon is now taking preorders for the upcoming Wii Fit. Slated to arrive on January 1, 2008, it would be wise to get in line now by placing your order ASAP as the holiday season approaches. Once the holiday season heats up, I can guarantee you this is going to be one of the hottest Wii accessories of the year. Get your Wii Fit preorder now!

Also, we are tracking the Wii Fit within the Wii Accessories page.

On average, Wii stock at Amazon sells out in 4-8 minutes. Hence, over the past few months the Amazon Wii alerts have not been quick enough. While I have managed to receive the email alerts with time to click the link and order one while they were still in stock, I do realize that most people are not in tune with their email as much as I am. Even at that, there have been times when I have been slow enough and they were gone. One of the reasons for this is the fact that my spiders check the pages on average every 3-4 minutes. So, if Wii’s come in stock at Amazon and my spider doesn’t run for another 2-4 minutes, coupled with the time for you to receive the email, it is too late already.

In order to combat this, I have decided to run Amazon seperately on a faster schedule. This should increase the time to actual alert to more around the 1-1.5 minute time frame. In essence, this is a dramatic shift because 2-4 minutes difference can mean the difference between “in stock” or “sold out”. I may decide to crank up this checking even further, but I still can only send emails so fast. So, when you receive an alert for Amazon, you need to act FAST!

We shall see how this new script pans out. I expect that this week Amazon will receive another shipment on Thursday or Friday. If not this week, I would say next week for sure.

GameStop has once again changed up their Wii Bundles with the introduction of the Big Bundle and the Mario Bundle. I have gone ahead and replaced the previously existing bundles with these new bundles so if you were subscribed to these alerts in the past, you are already set, unless you were not subscribed to both bundles and want alerts for the other one.

In order to see which bundles you are subscribed to, always consult with the list here.

On a side note, the direct link to the Mario Bundle was not working properly so I made the link head straight to the Wii Bundle list.

Last Thursday I received my own alert that the FragFX controller for the PS3 was in stock at Amazon. I went ahead and ordered it up. I have been waiting for this one for sometime now. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am a PC gamer at heart and the transition to console gaming has been at best lackluster when it comes to first-person shooter games. My aiming skills are greatly diminished by the Sixaxis controller. I am hoping this new controller will help to alleviate this issue, but from user reviews I have been reading it doesn’t look to promising. Today, the FragFX was delivered on time, as always, from Amazon. After I get a chance to play around with it, hopefully I will be able to drop a comprehensive review on the blog letting all know what I think of it.