Help! Where to find a Sony Play Station 3?

[Blue_Roses]

My kids are wanting this for Christmas and I didn't really want to get this for them, but my spouse wants it too:eyes:---so, here I am, online looking for something I know VERY LITTLE about. Someone told me to go check ebay and I did, but, wow, I couldn't believe the selling price.

Anybody, please, PLEASE direct me on how I should go with this. I'm trying to keep this a surprise, but I having a hard time finding one.

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated:)

[Little Wing]

1. You're screwn

[SacredCow]

2. Probably a good start is to spread the word among your friends/family...

The stores are sporadically getting shipments (as I hear) so if anybody happens to be in the store when they go on the shelves, they can snag one for you.

[Blue_Roses]

4. Sporadically?

WTF? I guess I am screwed

[MrCoffee]

3. Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

it's a quest fraught with peril.

[Blue_Roses]

5. LOL

not quite what I was looking for, but it did give me a good laugh--guess it's the nerves;)

[MrCoffee]

at this stage, you need to be very very lucky to find one...

the earlier poster was right on the money. spread the word among family/friends. your best chance is to be in the store when a shipment comes in. you probably want to avoid ebay, from what i've heard, that way madness lies.


personally, i think Sony's monkeying with the distribution to increase demand, so they can justify the insane price tag. but that's just me.


best of luck.

[WindRavenX]

15. they are doing that

and yeah, there's no real good way to get a PS3 at this point unless you

1) get lucky and are in the store at the right place and time

or

2) You have thousands of money to blow on eBay.

My SO and I are getting one next year, hopefully when Sony cuts the price and gets all the bugs worked out.

[Blue_Roses]

19. I agree--what is the "approximate" price tag

the one the stores sell it for? I've only seen the ones that are high priced on ebay

[MrCoffee]

23. i think it's around 500 for the base model, 600 for the upgrade

don't ask me what the difference is. i have no clue.

[philosophie_en_rose]

6. Become friends with people at electronic stores.

Be friendly. Maybe someone will let you know when a shipment is coming in.

[LeftyMom]

Well, first you'll need to get a time travel device, then you'll need to go to spring and get one.

Other than that?

You need to get your family to apologize for sending you on a snark hunt and find out what they really want, because you're about as likely to get them the golden ticket as a PS3 before Christmas.

[Omphaloskepsis]

7. Good luck with that.

Piss them off and get them a Wii. They will be mad for about five minutes. The Wii is the most fun in video game land*. And it is a hell of a lot cheaper.

*I hate video games.. But the Wii is a blast.

[alarimer]

11. I want one

But I am going to wait a few months until they are readily available.

For some reason I just love the Nintendo games more than I want to play those games for the Xbox or PS3. Even silly ones like Mario or Zelda.

[Blue_Roses]

20. Looks like that is the best bet at this stage of the this mad

game--and it is starting to feel like a "Rat Race" game.:crazy:

[Maddy McCall]

24. Wii is actually getting better reviews than the PS3 is.

But it's just as hard to find as the PS3 is.

[Frank Cannon]

22. I'll second the vote for the Nintendo Wii

I want one so badly I can taste it. They have cool interactive contollers, cost almost have of what the PS3 does ($250 vs. $399+), and are actually available, since Nintendo started out with a lot more units and is ramping UP production to meet the overwhelming demand.

[Maddy McCall]

26. They're sold out everywhere I've been.

We did the stand-in-line thing on release night--and got all the extras and games along with the console.

But I haven't seen them in any of the gamer stores or department stores here since then.

Could probably find one on ebay for around $500, though.

[ComerPerro]

30. Wii Sports owns

[Tyrone Slothrop]

8. Good luck...

There were alleged production problems that led to them only releasing about 300K units for the entire US.

Hence the absurdly high prices on eBay. They're nearly impossible to find.

[Dukkha]

9. easy. get it on eBay.

as of this post there are 16313 listings for a PS3 console. The scalpers did not anticipate this high amount of competition so you will pay above retail but not as much as before.

[PVnRT]

10. Be careful!

Soon, your kids will play a violent video game, then, next thing you know, BAM! they're out doing drive-bys, committing murder and voting Republican.

[Midlodemocrat]

12. I got one because a friend happened to be shopping at Target

when a shipment came in. Same thing happened to another friend at Circuit City yesterday.

Your best bet is to find out when the trucks come in to various stores and stake the store out.

Good luck.

[Blue_Roses]

32. Stake the store--LOL

It's getting that bad...

[Broken_Hero]

13. hmmm

In my experience, with box stores, you need to find a box store that is out in the sticks...because most box stores, send out the same number of products...and some stores out in the sticks won't sell to many because its an item to costs to much, and most people won't buy it...

For example, during the last Elmo craze, my wife couldn't find an Elmo doll, and she ended up going to a little town in Oklahoma to visit friends, and there was a small box store there, and they had the Elmo dolls in spades...meanwhile, all our searching before hand left us empty handed....

Just a suggestion, probably a fruitless suggestion, but maybe something to think on...:shrug:

[blitzen]

14. maybe try the Smithsonian?

[seemunkee]

16. How many people are you willing to kill?

[ContraBass Black]

17. Try going to the local electronics stores in person and asking.

[Blue_Roses]

42. I did go to three, but I live in Dallas and the

"local" stores will have you running all day, so I resorted to the phone to no avail.

[Blue_Roses]

18. omg! I'm gonna pull my hair out!

I just called the 12 or 13th store --Best Buy-- and they got 18 in YESTERDAY AND THEY SOLD OUT IN ONE HOUR!!!!! WTF???????? What is it about this game that is such a hot commodity? I feel like I'm on a mission now and it's the fight till the end. I don't even play with the PS2 we have.:crazy:

:argh:

[Broken_Hero]

25. Keep searching, and

start branching out your efforts...did any of them say when the next shipment is coming in, and if so, ask if they can put you on a waiting list of sorts?

[Karenina]

47. You HAVE a PS2

and NOW you're tearing your hair out and wasting bandwidth just to "keep up with the Joneses."

Diagnosis: Conspicuous Consumerism.

Cure: Put a GUTSCHEIN (promissory note) under the tree saying that on March 1st (AFTER THE BUGS HAVE BEEN WORKED OUT OF THE SYSTEM or at the very least acknowledged) a PS3 will arrive.

I teach Englisch to execs and prepared a lesson called "PLAYSTATION PIXILATION" in which I culled all the stories of the release. Jan, a controller at a HUGE media outlet quipped, "They are crazy. They are just paying and competing to be FIRST for something RIDICULOUS."

Blue_Roses, THINK! :think: WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU BOUGHT INTO??? :wtf:
Read this from a 14 yr. old in Iraq and GET SOME PERSPECTIVE! QUICK!!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2883278

[Maddy McCall]

21. LOL - Good luck.

Might want to try WalMart at 2AM when they are putting out new stock.

[Blue_Roses]

28. I just left Walmart and I swear everytime I won't go back

but there I am:eyes:

[Maddy McCall]

29. If you go in the middle of every night for a week or two...

you can probably get one.

That's when they put out new stock.

By 6AM, everything is sold, because other people will be checking in in the middle of the night, too.

It sucks, but it beats the hell out of paying 3X the price on ebay.

[Scooter24]

50. Just an FYI

Most of the PS3 and Wii consoles don't come from retail warehouses but instead by FedEx or UPS. Your best bet is to find out when their normal UPS/FedEx shipments arrive and arrive shortly before then.

My friend got one at a Walmart last week just about 30 min after they recieved them by UPS.

[Maddy McCall]

55. Cool. I didn't know that.

Excellent info there.

When my son was two, he wanted a Real Talking Bubba--that's ALL he talked about--"Real Talking Bubba this. Real Talking Bubba that." LOL. I went to Walmart several nights in a row in the middle of the night...on the third or fourth night, a stock person was putting Real Talking Bubba on the shelf.

So he got his Real Talking Bubba that year.

[LynneSin]

27. Give them a card good for one Playstation 3

To be purchased after the first of the year when they get back down to normal price.

Even your husband should understand that there is no reason to pay 3-4 times the price for a game device when after the new year the shelves will be overflowing with these items

[LoZoccolo]

34. Yeah, I think if she does that they might be disappointed, but not at her.

I think they'd rather wait for it a couple weeks than not get it until next year, and it's all over the news that there are shortages so they'll understand that part.

[Lisa]

46. she could pretend it's from Santa (or one of his lackeys) ...

And format it like an official business letter, but put in so many outrageous excuses that it's funny to read (e.g. "and then the reindeer ate green onions and got the runs so badly that we had to postpone the cargo flight, and by then the Sony warehouse had closed for the holidays ...")

One of my classmates received something like that from her folks (for a Cabbage Patch doll, I think it was) and I was incredibly envious -- not because my folks never even thought of buying me anything that "in", but because they weren't off-the-wall enough to write a letter like that.

[Blue_Roses]

36. He does, but he's sneaky like--he just nudges with a few

hint, hint, hints, until it's like, "OKAY, I GET IT!"

He did say they are hard to find, but me being the "technically challenged" one, I thought, "no problem":crazy:

[Bassic]

31. Wait a year.

The price will go down and the inital defects will have been corrected.

[Blue_Roses]

33. true and then there will be

PS4? lol...:D

[Bassic]

40. No

I bought my PS2 a year or two after it came out, and that was in the summer of 2002. They don't change them as fast too fast as it would prevent them from making a lot of money on the games themselves.

[Blue_Roses]

43. that's what I'll probably do.

I'm not going to pay some outrageous price for this thing. They still have PS2 for now.

[mdmc]

35. start hyping up that YOU would be interested in playing wii

and then buy one of them.

[Maddy McCall]

38. Also sold out.

[mdmc]

39. start hyping up that you want to play monopoly

:)

[Maddy McCall]

54. I hear chinese checkers are all the rage this year.

:D

[mdmc]

57. i did not know this

:kick:

[leftofthedial]

37. you'll have to kill someone for it

just like everyone else

[Xithras]

41. If you want to spent the money on a bundle, Gamestop has them.

Still insanely expensive like EBay ($900+ for the 20GB) but they include a lot of games and accessories to make it worthwhile. You can order one on their website, and they'll ship it December 15-18...in time for Christmas. My B-I-L has one from them, and they shipped it within three days of the original release.

You might get lucky and find one in a store, but if I were you I'd look online. Try to find an online retailer with a projected shipping date before Christmas. Some, like Amazon, are so backordered that they aren't even accepting orders anymore. Others, like Gamestop, offer a better chance at getting one.

You aren't going to find a bare system anywhere though. All the retailers know what the demand for this thing is, and they make a lot more money from bundles than from bare systems. You will not get one for much less than a thousand dollars.

Or you could just do what I did and buy a Wii :)

[ContraBass Black]

52. And if she buys a Wii, she might even enjoy playing it herself.

[carlydenise]

44. good luck..........try Ebay..........

but you are going to pay a pretty penny for it.....you would have a better chance of getting a WII if you are into gaming systems...I bought one for my son and he loves it.
Carly

[leeroysphitz]

45. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

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Now that's funny.

[JackBeck]

48. ebay. and expect to pay outta yer arse. n/t

[uncle ray]

49. Craigslist

i checked my local craigslist after reading this thread, found several units for sale, for 6-800. one seller claimed to be only asking $35 over retail.

[Generic Brad]

51. They're on sale in the future

They will be drastically discounted when Playstaion IV debuts.

[Az]

53. Seriously unless you are prepared to fly to Japan

Just forget about it. People have literally been killed trying to get one of these things.

[Robeson]

56. Tell your spouse and kids of the value of a family sitting around playing...

...a good old fashion board game. Stress how it will really bring the family together! :D