Thursday, August 14, 2008

How I Was Able to Buy the Wii Fit

Can you believe that even though the Wii Fit was released in May, it is still near impossible to find one in stores today? I learned this the hard way as I tried to pick one up as a gift. Instead of paying the hugely inflated prices found on eBay, I decided to use my tech-savvy to buy one for retail price. All it took was a few websites, a program, and patience. After about two weeks of waiting, I was finally able to get a Wii Fit from a retailer, not a reseller. Here's how I did it:

WiiTracker.com

This site was originally set up to help people find out when Wii's came in-stock online, but has branched off into tracking other products like the Wii Fit. Wiitracker works by automatically checks a number of retail sites (Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com, and Gamestop.com, to name a few) every couple of hours to see if the Fit is in stock. If you sign up to ZapTXT through their site, then every time WiiTracker.com finds a Fit in stock, they'll automatically text message you. You have to be quick though, usually there are so few Fits in stock that it'll be sold out in less than 10 minutes!

NowInStock.net
NowInStock.net is basically the same thing as WiiTracker. The only difference is that they track some stores that WiiTracker doesn't (and vice-versa). But it's still worth using NowInStock and their alert system because, well, it's better to be safe than sorry. Oh, and tip: since NowInStock uses emails to alert when the Fit comes in stock, it's best to put in your cell phone's email address. For Verizon Wireless users, the default is @vtext.com.

Amazon Watcher
The last thing I used was a nifty program called Amazon Watcher (available for PCs and Macs). Amazon Watcher checks Amazon.com every couple of seconds to see if the product you're looking for is in stock. What makes it extra special is that if you provide your login details, it'll automatically buy the product when it comes in stock. The only downside is that for big-ticket items like the Wii and the Wii Fit, you need to pay $25 for a license to activate the automatic-buying feature in the program. Kind of a bummer, but still a cool program.

As I said before, it took me about two weeks to finally get a Fit, and I settled for the $150 package, which came with a bunch of accessories.

I hope this guide helps. Happy Wii Fit hunting!

3 comments:

Julia Park said...

Yay for Wii Fit!

Anonymous said...

Seems like a lot of work. She's doing "the tree" oooo

Anonymous said...

Seems like a lot of work. She's doing "the tree" oooo