After much toil and endless battles with the world in general, I have managed to get myself a Nintendo Wii. This is not an easy task especially when you live in a country that seems to be so disconnected from the rest of the world when it comes to gaming console releases, South Africa. The story of how I came to eventually get this Wii though is one of pain and suffering, of good times and of bad times. It's character building stuff we are talking about here... let me explain.
On the day that the Nintendo Wii was announced and became available to order from the online import shops I placed my pre-order. I must have been at least in the first 100 people to do so, I knew I had a good spot and that when the revolutionary console would launch, I would be one of it's first loyal subjects. The pre-order in which I speak of was placed in November 2005! It seems like such a long time ago now. Time passed. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, the wait for the Wii was devastating. Each new tidbit that was fed to us by the big N made me drool, and when finally hearing that the console would officially be launching in November 2006 I started to cry tears of joy. The long wait would soon be over.
Now I hear you asking "Why has this guy only got his Wii now if he ordered it over a year ago?" and the answer is quite simple yet it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I pre-ordered from Lik-sang, yes the company that closed up shop no more that three weeks before the Wii was to ship! Nooooooo. They had even lead me on by sending me e-mails stating that it would soon be in stock and that I must specify which region I want etc etc... sniff, even writing about it now makes my eyes well up with tears.
It was thus that the worldwide Wii craze began with out me. I locked myself up in my room, shut the light out, got under my covers and cried.
In the many weeks to come we would try to locate a Wii for sale in stores, but because of the shortages and high demand, our chances were low. We had contacts in Florida, Tokyo, London and Sydney all on the lookout for Wiis, but they couldn't find a single one. It is because of this that I turned to eBay. Yes I would taint my soul by bidding for a "scalped" console. eBay is filled with hundreds of people selling brand new unopened Wiis for nearly twice the price they paid for it. Unfortunately there are enough people out their just like me that would be willing to pay this increased price to get the console, so the sellers thrive on our anguish.
For those of you that have never used eBay before, make sure to check out my
Step-by-Step Guide to buying a Wii/PS3 on eBay. My Wii should be arriving any day now, yours could be too!
Rumours have been flying around recently with regards to whether or not the Xbox 360 will come out this April in black. It is said through “reliable” sources that stores across Australia have been prepped to receive the new coloured systems in time for the PS3 launch (around the 22nd of March 2007). A move that some describe will offset PS3 buyers because now there is another black system on the market, or just that Microsoft had always planned to launch the system in other colours (black and silver) but when they were going to launch them and where have never been disclosed.
.jpg)
