I felt extremely fortunate. While others stood forever in long lines and searched exhaustively for a Nintendo wii console for weeks and months, I found one quickly online and at a great price. I never had to leave my house, the package arrive a few days later on my door step.

We never allowed video games in our house before the Nintendo Wii console. Our family has enjoyed hours of fun and togetherness, not to mention a few heated battles, challenging each other in Wii games.

To help save other frustrated fathers, mothers, and wii gamers time and money, I decided to put together all the incredible resources I found in the epic quest for "The Nintendo Wii"!

It is my experience that your choices to find the Wii include big box retailers (most frustrating), niche stores (most time consuming), third party web sites like ebay or craigslist (most expensive), or at online stores via shopping search engines (my bet for best price and availability). Wired.com provides some common sense guidelines on "How to Score a Wii", like getting up early on Sunday, wait in long lines, smooze your local retailer, avoid the web (what were they thinking!), and overpay on Ebay or Craigslist. I would try a radically different approach.

I subscribe to the 80/20 rule. Why waste 80% of your time doing unproductive tasks. Let someone else do the tough stuff for you. You have to be different to find wii success. whether you choose to buy a Wii online or in the stores you can save time and/or money with the help of shopping search engine (see below) and some online tools (also see below).

Shopping Search Engines

How I found my Wii! I love shopping search engines. You can look at a specific product and see all the stores they have found that are selling the product you are looking for. Be sure and check out the different sites, because many times each will display several different stores where the product is available. You simply search for the product, click compare pricing, and click on each offer that interests you to see the complete details.

I found my Wii on Shopping.com at a store in California. I have 3 children, so I ordered a package that came with the Wii console, 2 Wii wireless remotes, 2 Wii nunchucks, Wii Sports, and 14 extra games with Wii Games. I got all of this for $389.00 plus $24.00 shipping and handling. Be sure to click and check out each offer. Some will include shipping and others will not. Some will charge tax and others will not. So be sure and find the lowest total price!

Shopping.com

Shop.com

YahooShopping.com

Shopzilla.com

Big Internet Retailers

Here are a list of the big web stores that sell the Wii.

Amazon.com

Buy.com

BestBuy.com

CircuitCity.com

Online Tools

WiiAlerts.com - Alerts you by cell phone txt message when an online store has Wiis in stock.

Refresh Thing - Shows availability at online retailers. Good if you are willing to pay for one of the more expensive Wii bundles & don't mind waiting for shipping.

xpbargins - their wiitracker (aka Wii finder, locator, Wii stock & price checker, find-a-Wii preorder, presale) checks online retailers for their stock of Nintendo Wii systems every few minutes and list the inventory status on the same page.

Notifywire - Lets you build alerts for hot selling items and receive alerts via text message on your cell phone. Includes ebay and craigslist alerts.

OutofStock.com - Wii finder scans popular web retailers and auctions for availability.

If you like to shop the traditional way, and need to touch and feel the item before you purchase, here are a list of tips and valuable online tools to help save you time and money.

Tips to help you find a Wii in the stores

• Talk nicely to the clerk in the video game section - they are being bombarded by people looking for the Wii. Many are rude, so being overly nice can't hurt.
• Find out when the last shipment of Wii's arrived - most stores stock early in the morning. A Target employee told me they usually received electronic shipments at his store on Tuesday and Saturday night are re-stocked the shelves early that next morning. So arriving as the store opens on Wednesday and Sunday is a good bet.
• Can you pre-order a unit. Pay now and pick up later. It is hard to turn down money. You can always put it on your credit card. This might be a bigger deal for the small neighborhood merchant. They always need money!
• Check out neighborhood video game stores - sometimes the small store is not getting overlooked for Walmart, Target, and BestBuy. Try the same tactics. Be nice, as about previous shipments, any idea on future shipments, can you pre-order.

Online Tools:

These online tools will help you find the Wii in stock at local stores,

Wi.findnearby.net - Enter your zip code and select how many miles you want to select. List Wii's found on a map. Click the listing for details. Lists stores in the area & lists when Wii inventory will be in stock. This information is based on internet rumors for the most part. Sometimes it is accurate, sometimes it is way off. Also andy for finding eBay Wii auctions around your area This can help save money on shipping.

iTrackr - Excellent way to get ahold of a Wii. Free to sign up. If you want alerts via email and/or SMS text message to your cell, it costs $1.99 for up to 10 stores.

Craigslist - Select your city (if available) or state from the right hand column , then browse the "for sale" section usually under "games+toys". Save some time and on the left side and use "Search Craiglist". Type Wii in the box and select "for sale" as the category and click the arrow button to start searching for the Wii in your area.

Here is a list of a few sites and tools that will help if you are in the UK. I will continue to add links here as I find them.

Wiifind.co.uk

stocknetwork.co.uk

WiiPreorder.co.uk

Did this hub help you find a Wii? Use the comment section below and tell me your success stories. Give me feedback if this was helpful. Ask questions. If you know other resources list them in your comments and I'll add them to the hub. Good luck and good shopping!