The Art Of Camping In Front Of Stores

[xyzyxx]

Hi, my name is Xyzyxx, and I'm a complete Nintendo fanatic.

Five years ago, when the Gamecube was first released, I didn't have a job or a car. I didn't have enough money on release day. So I had to wait an extra month before I had proper fundage, and even a month after release it was difficult to find a store that had the Gamecube in stock.

The Wii is being released about a month from now, and I have the money. Unfortunately, I missed out on the chance to preorder one from GameStop this morning. So my plan now is to "camp out" infront of Kmart on release day and be one of the first to walk in and buy a Wii.

However, I have no experience in the practice of camping infront of stores to buy games/tickets/anything else. If any of you have done it before, is there any advice you can give me? I do plan on asking the employees at Kmart certain questions such as when they are going to open, whether or not they'll be selling the systems early, and so forth. Just how early do I need to be there, do you think?

[W31RD0]

never tried it, but depending on how many people in your area, that wants the Wii, I would say you should get there in the middle of night. Maybe something like 3 am or something. But, again, I've never tried it, and don't know anyone who has.

[Bas]

In my experience, paying the full ammount up front pretty much guarantees you a console on release date. It's also hilarious to walk past the line of idiots who spend 2 days outside the store waiting in tents, and receiving your Wii upon showing your receit. Without the wait.

[xyzyxx]

In my experience, paying the full ammount up front pretty much guarantees you a console on release date. It's also hilarious to walk past the line of idiots who spend 2 days outside the store waiting in tents, and receiving your Wii upon showing your receit. Without the wait.

You're referring to preordering, right? Preorders for the first shipment were sold out, half an hour after the GameStop opened yesterday. People apparently camped there so they could get their preorders. My town doesn't have any other stores that take preorders. At kmart, it's first come, first served; which is why I want to camp there.

[Ishkabo]

Here are some photos of my recent Wii camping out experience. It ended in sucessfully getting my preorder at GameStop

Warning! Stupid captions ahead!

http://myweb.csuchico.edu/~telliott9/10-13-06/

[Drakkenfyre]

Here are some tips

1. Make absolutely sure the store will let you camp out, some stores do not like it as it crowds the store and can create a safety problem (in their eyes) if the store is not open 24 hours a day, this is not such a concern, unless the police show up wondering what you are doing outside of a store before it opens

2. This goes without saying, but bring some water and maybe some food, depending on how long you sit and how long it is after your last meal, you will get awfully hungry and thirsty (see #3 below)

3. If you take something to drink with you, drink it lightly, because unless you trust people there or have a solid guarantee on a sale (i.e. the store gives out tickets) you do not want to have to run to take a leak all of a sudden

4. Take a chair, obviously you already planned this, but just making sure

5. Take a small blanket, depending on your region and weather, it might be cold and it could come in handy, or just be comfortable

6. Take along some reading material, or a CD player/MP3 player, handheld system, something to keep you entertained

7. Take a camera, be it digital or normal, in case anything crazy happens you can get pics

8. Unless you personally know the people, DO NOT TRUST THEM WITH YOUR SPACE IN LINE, reguardless of how nice they are, reguardless of what they say, if you go out of line even for a moment and they can move up a spot, they will

9. Lots of stores do Midnight releases like movie theaters, my local Wal-Mart did this with the GameCube (everyone stood on #'s written in chalk in lawn and garden, at Midnight you got to purchase in the order your # was, I was #1 and got the first GameCube sold locally in my city) check to see if they are doing this so you do not show up expecting to camp out only to find all of them sold

10. This is not necessary but a good tip nonetheless, if the stores start selling games/accessories before the actual system is launched (again, like they did with the GameCube) BUY THEM THEN, as everyone and their brother will make a mad dash to buy them at the system launch and you might get screwed out of what you wanted

that is about it for camping-out tips, and seriously, unless you live in the tropics, take a small blanket with you, because if you are sitting outside of a store in the early hours you will get cold, and you will want it

-Drakk )))

[Drakkenfyre]

huh? Slightly late? :p

How so? the original poster was talking about camping out on launch day, not for pre-orders, which he already said he missed, he asked for tips on camping for the system itself

-Drakk )))