No 360 for me

Maybe your wife was a little pro-active and managed to get her hands on one and is saving it for a Christmas present? Otherwise yeah, I'd say you're outta luck.

I wonder what would be worse - not having the money for one on launch, or having the money set aside for it but not being able to get your hands on one.

Hell, I went to three stores on lunch break and couldn't even find the 2-disc War of the Worlds DVD, let along anything 360-related. Except one place did have about 90 copies of Perfect Dark and nothing else.

Well, I know this probably won't help anyone here, but just on the off chance it does:

I stood in line yesterday for my 360 (16 and 1/2 hours) at WalMart. I had a Toys R Us preorder for a bundle which now I don't need, and refuse to bilk people on ebay for. So I'm getting a refund at the Salem, NH Toys R Us within the next half hour, if anyone in the area reads this in time and wants to take advantage of that.

You were in line for 16 and half hours?

Yes. I got there at 7:30am for the midnight launch and there were already 5 people waiting. The store had 32 premiums, which were all claimed by campers before 10am. The 16 cores were gone by 1pm.

Outta curiosity - what made you decide to stand in line when you already had one on preorder from Toys R Us?

16 hours? Wow.

Three things: price, time, and certainty.

The Toys R Us pre-orders were bundles. I got a $610 one that included two sports games I didn't want, and a controller I didn't need. I was going to have to sell off most of the bundle, and I calculated that even if I did for decent prices, I'd still lose about $60.

Another factor was time. Walmart was doing the sale at midnight, while Toys R Us wouldn't be open until 10am.

The final, most important reason was certainty of getting a system. I've heard too often how people show up with a pre-order ticket, only to be told that they don't have the item for them. If I waited until 10am on Tuesday to see if that would be the case, every other store would already have sold out. I really wanted the console for the Thanksgiving weekend, and I don't have the kind of cash to buy one off eBay. So I decided the best course would be waiting in line at the earliest sale location, leaving open the latter ones as back-up.

Ahh. Well then good choice, guy.

No place around me has one either. Hell, the K-Marts never even got one

Anyone know when Best Buy's and the like get shipments?

Outta curiosity - what's so important in getting a new console the same day it is released?

Geek cred is all I can figger.

Damn Nick, I'm sorry. I hadn't even thought of offering to do that. I think it's already too late, I gave a family member heading out a bit ago the pre-order stub. I'll see if I can get them on the phone and hold it off.

I think it may run a little deeper than that. I assume these guys have been hearing about how badass this system is for quite awhile now, so they're really anxious to get their hands on it. Plus, with it being the holiday season and all, a lot of people are gonna have a lot of free time what with time off of work and school and what better way to spend it than test driving a brand-new console (family and holiday stuff notwithstanding). Plus, if you don't have it today and haven't made special pre-order arrangements, chances are you ain't gettin' one till next year, so that adds to the ferver. Well, that's at least my reasoning for wanting one on launch day.

Although I'm sure a very large portion of the Launch-Day buyers are just doing it for geek cred.

I dont know if you guys checked your local Target or not but Since they had a model out on display this past weekend, I assume they at least got a couple in today.

I'm having to wait to get mine...for a long long long time probably.

nor did they have King Kong

Well, it also stems from the fact that now these things won't be readily available for over a month, without a lot of legwork and also calling places. Hell, most places that get shipments too will sell out of them by the time most people get out of work.

I'm inches away from Ebaying my system. Those thousand dollar paydays are damn hard to resist....

Jesus, this whole situation sounds crazy. How long till the stores get more supplies?

I saw a couple that were going for 1500, 2000, even 2500 or more on eBay. It's crazy, I tell ya, but I really wish I had one--I'd use that money to get me a XL-2, which is something I could use a lot more than a gaming system.

Sorry Nick, couldn't reach them before the pre-order got returned.

What the FUCK is wrong with you people???!!!??

I got so F'd in tha A.

Had a core system promised to me at the last minute, then I got a call saying it had already been reserved.

Then I went to Best Buy at 8:39am, because they had posted they were opening at 9am, but when I got there, they had a paper sign stuck on the door saying "8am Xbox 360's go on sale", fuckers. I walked in when the last guy was walking out with the last 360 core system.

I don't even care now. I guess I'll check every week, since the store is within walking distance, but whatever.

I think Microsoft did this on purpose. Like Nintendo does with everything it launches. Lie about shortages to create a frenzy.

Of course people I stood in line with were assholes who talked about how they had bought like three 360's and they were going to sell them on Ebay. I wanted to stab those people in the face. The others were made up of parents saying they had to get one for little Johnny for Christmas, but that they needed the one with the hard drive.

I'm just enjoying my PS2 now, since thats all I have left (I traded in my Xbox and GameCube, becasue I thought I was getting a 360).

Can't wait till Black comes out on PS2.

Please don't buy any Xbox 360's off Ebay. I know they will all sell, but please don't be that person that helps the assholes that helped fuck regualr people over on launch day when they bought 3 systems at 3 different places like ticket scalpers.

As a preemptive strike...Fuck you Devin!

Don't be mad just because they were smarter than you.

Big gaming fan or not, how the hell can you resist selling your several hundred dollar purchase for seven times more than what you paid for it? I didn't even have the cash to buy it at retail price, but if I did, I'd resell it in a heartbeat.

Even for a measly $1500.....that's a sweet ass thousand dollar profit.

If I had one I would most certainly sell it on eBay. I like money.

If you feel like getting one before Christmas, you can try here -

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MESE%3AIT&rd=1

I just placed the opening bid.

*crosses fingers*

Heh. 99 cents and 15 hours to go. How long until it hits $1000?

I almost listed mine on Ebay before chickening out. Knowing my shitty luck, Ebay would get flooded with consoles tonight and my system would wind up selling for five hundred bucks.

(And yeah, I know it's possible to put a minimum reserve of $1000 or whatever on an auction, but minimum reserves discourage bidders and cost money.)

I'm a wimp. With an Xbox 360. But still a wimp.

I'm torn between my love of the hardware and my desire to pay off a third of next year's rent. I'll wait until two weeks before Christmas, then check out eBay again.

My question is, when Microsoft catches wind of this (if they haven't already) is there anything they can do to stop it? Not saying they should or they shouldn't as I don't care one way or another, I was just wondering if they'd even have a case should they chose to take action.

Catch wind of people selling the 360 on eBay? There's not much they can do. They bought the systems themselves, they've given Microsoft their money, and the system is now theirs to own and, if they want, to sell.

You Guys Are Idiots.

Says the guy who stood in line for nothing.

Greed wins:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=8236496330

I got one. But it wasn't easy. I waited in line at Target from midnight to 8 am, when they opened. And now at work I'm paying for it. Oh boy am I paying for it. I doubt I'll even get to play it tonight. I can only see myself heading straight to bed.

Picked up Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham 3. Can't wait to play them, but first I must rest.

Slater I'm glad you posted that as that's what I was talking about earlier.

I know it's not illegal to sell property you already paid for, I get that. But what makes this different from say, ticket scalping? If you posted your XBOX for exactly what you paid for it with no reserve, then yeah, you have no control over what the price jumps to. But if you put a reserve or a Buy It Now price over the face value, isn't that the same as scalping?

I do gotta say, Slater that I ain't calling you out as I have no moral stance on this whatsoever. I hope you make the money you want, it's just the quest for knoweldge that has me here asking this.

No. Scalping is illegal for a very specific reason that simply does not apply to a product like an XBox 360, a blender, a car, a painting, or really anything other than a ticket or pass of some kind. Buying a rare commodity low and selling high is perfectly legal- in fact, it's pretty much the mechanism the stock market runs on.

The difference is that scalping a concert ticket is illegal. Buying a product and then reselling it at a higher price to someone who wants it more is NOT illegal. It's capitalism. Suppy and demand, all that. If you need it explained further than that, read an economics textbook.

There's nothing even remotely illegal OR immoral about reselling a system that was fairly and legally acquired.

Well okay, that makes perfect sense. But what makes selling a sold out concert ticket (in a sense - a rare commodity) for double its price illegal while it's okay to sell a sold-out video game console at triple (or more) its price?

Personally I feel it should all be legal as no one forces the buyer to pay those prices, but whatcha gonna do?

Never said there was. I don't think there is. I was just curious as to what makes that illegal and not this as it's all supply and demand. Relax, guy.

I guess they had some point they were trying to make, and I bet they felt pretty good about themselves until they checked eBay this afternoon.

From smashmyxbox.com...
I'm not foaming at the mouth for one of these or anything(yet. give me a year), so I'm not really mad, but couldn't they be a little more creative? Smashing is so... well, boring. I'd have set it on fire, while I was playing it, personally. There would also be the nice added bonus of seeing if the system really does shut down by itself when it's temperature goes too high.

*edit- Also, it's a piss-poor social experiment. I'd rather see these guys smash this thing in front of all the people who spent hours upon hours waiting in the cold only to not get a 360. Then the experiment could be whether or not these Xbox smashers would get lynched by an angry mob.

*edit 2: the sequel! - my first edit makes no sense, since that was their plan. But the site says they smashed it in front of a few "Xbox fanboys" who already had 360's. Damn wusses...

An experiment....riiiiiiight.

These guys are just assholes with an angle. Hey, man, if you get off on being first in line, waiting all that time, and smashing a piece of hardware so a few guys can boo you...more power to you.

Just do us a favor, and use protection when you have sex. We need you out of the gene pool.