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April 27, 2007
Good Wii Hunting
On this rainy Friday morning, I have some sunshine to spray upon you: I pass along my video games column, "Game On," which ran in today's paper.
CAMBRIDGE — I’ve got a Nintendo Wii now and I can thank a stranger, a Red Sox cap and plain old-fashioned good luck for it.
My wife has been an absolute doll lately and I wanted to do something nice for her. She’s a big-time gamer and has wanted the Wii ever since Nintendo sent me one for a week to try out and review.
I called about a dozen electronics stores last Friday, including Best Buy at CambridgeSide Galleria where I learned that the store expected a new shipment to arrive Sunday morning. Show up early (about an hour before the store opens at 11 a.m.) and you’ll get lucky, I was told.
I slept in late on Sunday and didn’t get to Best Buy until 10:30 a.m. Boy, did I pay a cruel price: I was the 23rd person in line and only the first 22 people received ticket vouchers that would guarantee a Wii.
I stuck around, though, because rumors (there were at least 30 of us behind the first 22) started floating around that Best Buy may have more. The rumor mill was working overtime and I imagined this must be what it’s like to cover Major League Baseball’s winter meetings.
“There might be some at the Watertown store,” one person whispered. “Hey, try Circuit City or GameStop,” another said. Cell phones incessantly rang.
Mmmmm.
I waited until about 11 a.m. when a big dude in a blue polo shirt sporting that familiar yellow price tag logo emerged from the store and bellowed, “The Wii’s are sold out!”
Annoyed, most of us got out of line and lingered, heads down like sad donkeys.
I turned to my wife and said, “Hey, let’s hang around a little while longer — maybe someone with a ticket won’t show up — maybe someone’s credit card will be declined!”
Neither scenario happened and it appeared all was lost until a man in his 30s, sporting a shaved head and yellow backpack, approached me.
Man: “Are you looking to buy the Wii for yourself?”
Me: “Yes.”
Man: “You aren’t an investor?”
Me: “No, I have no plans to resell it. It’s for my wife.”
Man: “Take my ticket then. I have an extra one.”
The kind gentleman reached inside his pack and handed me a white piece of paper with the Best Buy logo, Wii price tag and written in red ink —Ticket# 8 out of 22 — on it.
“Wow,” I said. “What made you pick me?”
The man replied, “You look like a nice guy — a Red Sox fan.” He pointed to my Sox hat, a beaten-up black mesh number that read “2004 World Champions” (the one they wore in the locker room after Game 4 in St. Louis).
“But why do you have an extra ticket?” I asked, unable to fight a reporter’s instinct to pose every question under the sun.
“My son got a ticket, too,” he said. “So we don’t need two.”
With that, he just smiled at me and my wife and walked into the store. I thanked him a million times and followed him into Best Buy where I, and 21 others, slapped down $249 for the most coveted game system on the planet.
Be sure to check out The Sun’s entertainment blog at TheSunBlog.com/entertainment.
Andrew Ravens’ e-mail address is aravens@lowellsun.com.
Posted by Andy Ravens at April 27, 2007 11:07 AM