Holiday Shopping Deja Vu: Wii Hot as Ever but Shortages Expected
In the photograph above Santa Claus tries out the latest games for the Wii on Black Friday at the Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton, California. Nintendo is setting up these Wii stations at over 25 malls across the country this holiday.
The push from Nintendo is going to help make a hot product even hotter. Just like last year the Wii is a must-have item. CNET reports that the Wii topped Black Friday searches on both eBay and PriceGrabber. Over 3,000 Wii game consoles were sold on eBay on Black Friday.
The Wii game console was the most searched-for product on eBay, followed by the Wii Fit companion product. Consumers snatched up 3,171 Wiis over eBay, at an average selling price of $349, followed by the Wii Fit, with 1,059 sold at an average selling price of $140.
eBay shows over 11,000 results if you search for a Wii console.
Here were top ten Black Friday searches on PriceGrabber, a shopping comparison website. The list shows the Wii in the top spot and in the 5th spot with the Wii Fit.
Nintendo Wii console
Ugg Australia "classic short" boot
Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray disc player
Samsung LN52A650 52" LCD TV
Nintendo Wii Fit
Panasonic TH-42PX80U 42" plasma TV
Sennheiser HD 555 headphones
Canon EOS Rebel XSi Black SLR digital camera kit
Acer Aspire One AOA110-1295 notebook PC
Canon PowerShot A590 IS black digital camera
So far there seem to be plenty of Wiis but GameStop's CEO David Carlson has warned he expects to run of out Wiis before the end of the shopping season - see here, here, here and here. This is very similar to what happened with the Wii in 2006 and 2007.
