So, the word got around at some point earlier this week that the local Best Buy was going to be getting a shipment of Nintendo Wiis for sale this morning. I went to scope out what the situation was going to be like at around 12:30 a.m., just so see if there was a line. There, in fact, was already a line, with some people who had been there since 7 p.m. Thursday. A sign was outside the entrance that said they had received 15 Wii units and 8 Playstation 3s. So, I decided to stick around for awhile to see what would happen. The crowd was well organized with a list of the 15 people who were going to get a Wii for sure, crossing off the names of people who left and didn’t come back after too long. By the time it was firmly established that the people who were there were not going to leave, I was #16 on the list, meaning I was going to walk home empty handed. Ouch.

Someone in the line, who was pretty much just a scalper, asked me a couple times if I wanted to buy his spot in line for $100. I would have paid maybe up to $50 or $60 tops, but it’s not worth that much to me. So I kept waiting on the off chance that someone would have to drop out of the line for one reason or another, but at about 3:30 a.m. I called it a night. No Wii for Ninja today.

The experience was quite interesting though. The people in line were all very friendly, and there were all sorts of folks waiting there. In addition to the usual batch of gamers and scalpers, there were a few parents, one pregnant woman, and one guy with a British accent who had just gotten off a flight from Montreal and went straight to the mall without explaining to his family why he didn’t go straight home. We had some fun conversations out in the cold air. Everyone was very helpful, offering snacks and picking things up for others. I kind of would have liked to have stayed in the line just because it was kind of fun, but there was really no point in staying if I wasn’t going to take home a Wii. When I left, some people were nice enough to offer to give me a phone call in the unlikely event that a spot would open up, which was a very cool thing to do. But, like most of the other things that have been going on for me over the past several months, it didn’t work out.

So, I am still wanting for Wii, but not badly enough to pay scalper prices for one. I will continue to use my patience.

Funny thing is that when I had left the line, there were still a few PS3s left unspoken for! Heh!

Sayonara.