XBox 360 Madness 2005 Step 1
I'm in the parking lot of Wal-Mart waiting to get the brand spanking new XBox 360. The night began when Heath Hudspeth called me at 6pm and told me that he was thinking about waiting in line to get one for $400 and then resell it for at minimum double that. One today that someone got in a giveaway sold today on eBay for $1200. So I laughed and didn't think about doing it. Then later my brother Tim and I were talking online and I pitched the idea jokingly to him that we should go wait in line until the morning to get one and then sell it on eBay for at least double. And Tim said, "Let's do it" And I said, "Crap!" b/c I was really hoping that he'd say no. So we talked about it and I called Best Buy at 9pm and they said they had around 25 people there waiting already. And so we scrambled out there and got our spots in line. After much speculation from everyone and their grandmother, and everyone's stories contradicting others, I told myself not to believe anyone's info %100.
Then while Tim held my spot at BB, I drove across the street to Circuit City to see what was up over there and they told me that they had only 12 premium xboxs and there were already double that in line. So then I drove to Wal-Mart to see the status over there. I asked a guy in a lawn chair that had started the line there what was up and he said there were only 30 xboxs there and there were 20 people in line. So I went inside Wal-Mart to ask a manager what was up. She told me there were 60 xboxs and she didn't know how many were premium and how many were core. So I went back to best buy to talk to Tim and nothing had changed at Best Buy. Well Mark Rinberger called us a few minutes later and said he was confident that we'd get one at Wal-Mart on Ambassador. Tim asked if I wanted to go and I said I didn't.
3:07 am
Then Tim told me a convincing point, Best Buy opens at 9am and Wal-Mart opens at 6am. Hmmm? So we went to camp at Wal-Mart. It was freezing there. They had roughly 35-40 people there most of the night. Everyone there was cool. We created a list of who was in what order. Even though WM said they wouldn't recognize the list, we used it to enforce ourselves. Tim was pretty much the creator and the keeper of the list. He did a good job with it.
(battery ran out while waiting, the rest was written 2 days later)
The List
Well about 4am more people started showing up and we passed the list around to show them that they couldn't cut or they'd have to fend themselves against 40 ticked off people. Most of the new people were cooperative. There were 2 problems. One older guy showed up at 5am and I walked up to him to ask him to sign the list, and he asked if I worked for WM and when I said that I didn't he looked at me rolled his eyes and walked away. I guess he won't a morning person:) See the problem was that it would only take on person to mess this up for everyone. WM said that if the door was rushed at opening time that they would refuse service to everyone and no one would get and xbox.
Well about 5:15am after we had over 60 people in line some college aged white kid showed with his friend and I gave him the list to sing and he signed it and said, "I don't care about no $#!@ list" and I thought, oh no, this guy is gonna screw it up for everyone. I told him that you had 55 people who had been here for 7 hours in the cold that he'd have to answer to if he tried anything and then he said, "oh I'm just messing." Well he didn't try anything, thank goodness.
Well at 5 until 6am they started letting us in the door at 5 at a time. We walked 10 feet into the store and up to a table and they handed us a ticket there. Tim was 24th in line and I was 25th in line. Well when we walked up to the table we still weren't sure how many premiums there were and how many core. Well we walked up to the table and they handed one of the 2 types of tickets they had but I didn't know if it was a premium. Well I looked on it and I saw the price of whichever one we were buying was $399 which meant that WE WERE GETTING A PREMIUM!
6:12 am - Tim's Ticket
Now Tim and I although we'd definitely enjoy getting a new xbox, they were too expensive, and we were more interested in the fact that xbox 360s were going for as much as $2,000 on eBay. We wanted to make some kwon:) So we stopped up to the customer service desk with out tightly held tickets and paid $431.58 exactly for our little money-making experiment. The wait in the cold was over. We had done step one, no we had to start thinking about eBay.
When I was thinking about whether or not it would be worth it to go wait outside a store for 7 hours just to make a few hundred bucks, I honestly didn't want to. The only reason that got me out there was that I wanted to hang with my brother. But after we got our xboxs I realized how much fun I actually had hanging with Tim and all the other people out there. We played cards, played some hack, and really hung out just like at a party. It was worth it even if Tim and I don't bank on these things when they sell.
I'll post and let you know what happened on eBay.
Then while Tim held my spot at BB, I drove across the street to Circuit City to see what was up over there and they told me that they had only 12 premium xboxs and there were already double that in line. So then I drove to Wal-Mart to see the status over there. I asked a guy in a lawn chair that had started the line there what was up and he said there were only 30 xboxs there and there were 20 people in line. So I went inside Wal-Mart to ask a manager what was up. She told me there were 60 xboxs and she didn't know how many were premium and how many were core. So I went back to best buy to talk to Tim and nothing had changed at Best Buy. Well Mark Rinberger called us a few minutes later and said he was confident that we'd get one at Wal-Mart on Ambassador. Tim asked if I wanted to go and I said I didn't.
3:07 am
Then Tim told me a convincing point, Best Buy opens at 9am and Wal-Mart opens at 6am. Hmmm? So we went to camp at Wal-Mart. It was freezing there. They had roughly 35-40 people there most of the night. Everyone there was cool. We created a list of who was in what order. Even though WM said they wouldn't recognize the list, we used it to enforce ourselves. Tim was pretty much the creator and the keeper of the list. He did a good job with it.
(battery ran out while waiting, the rest was written 2 days later)
The List
Well about 4am more people started showing up and we passed the list around to show them that they couldn't cut or they'd have to fend themselves against 40 ticked off people. Most of the new people were cooperative. There were 2 problems. One older guy showed up at 5am and I walked up to him to ask him to sign the list, and he asked if I worked for WM and when I said that I didn't he looked at me rolled his eyes and walked away. I guess he won't a morning person:) See the problem was that it would only take on person to mess this up for everyone. WM said that if the door was rushed at opening time that they would refuse service to everyone and no one would get and xbox.
Well about 5:15am after we had over 60 people in line some college aged white kid showed with his friend and I gave him the list to sing and he signed it and said, "I don't care about no $#!@ list" and I thought, oh no, this guy is gonna screw it up for everyone. I told him that you had 55 people who had been here for 7 hours in the cold that he'd have to answer to if he tried anything and then he said, "oh I'm just messing." Well he didn't try anything, thank goodness.
Well at 5 until 6am they started letting us in the door at 5 at a time. We walked 10 feet into the store and up to a table and they handed us a ticket there. Tim was 24th in line and I was 25th in line. Well when we walked up to the table we still weren't sure how many premiums there were and how many core. Well we walked up to the table and they handed one of the 2 types of tickets they had but I didn't know if it was a premium. Well I looked on it and I saw the price of whichever one we were buying was $399 which meant that WE WERE GETTING A PREMIUM!
6:12 am - Tim's Ticket
Now Tim and I although we'd definitely enjoy getting a new xbox, they were too expensive, and we were more interested in the fact that xbox 360s were going for as much as $2,000 on eBay. We wanted to make some kwon:) So we stopped up to the customer service desk with out tightly held tickets and paid $431.58 exactly for our little money-making experiment. The wait in the cold was over. We had done step one, no we had to start thinking about eBay.
When I was thinking about whether or not it would be worth it to go wait outside a store for 7 hours just to make a few hundred bucks, I honestly didn't want to. The only reason that got me out there was that I wanted to hang with my brother. But after we got our xboxs I realized how much fun I actually had hanging with Tim and all the other people out there. We played cards, played some hack, and really hung out just like at a party. It was worth it even if Tim and I don't bank on these things when they sell.
I'll post and let you know what happened on eBay.
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