Top 10 Wii Items Listed on eBay

Hi folks! I have a feature-length blog entry today. You may have heard that Wii is was the most searched term on eBay in December. So, it’s not surprising that a couple of hundred “Wii” items were put up for sale, despite not being Wii consoles. I’ve rounded up the Top 10 Wii Ebay Items Listed on eBay for your delectation. Scams, funny stuff and any other interesting items, they’re all there. Comments appreciated!

#10

Item: Nintendo Wii Games Console (better than a PSP)!

Highest Bid: GBP 1,000,000.00

Sold? Of course not!

Well here was one eBayer trying to be a little too clever for his own good, who in the parlance of these times got owned by respectable, decent eBayers who got a little tired of this sort of nonsense. The “item” in question was nothing more the answer to this little head-scratcher (which would give you the chance of winning a Wii by dialing a premium-rate number):

What was the name of another classic Nintendo console?

(1) Nintendo 2005

(2) Nintendo 222

(3) Nintendo 64

Very difficult I’m sure you’ll agree. You can only imagine his glee when the item reached £100 turning to red-faced realisation that his little scam was rather transparent as the bids reached several hundred thousand. Funny!

#9

Item: ZELDA TWILIGHT PRINCESS STAND UP DISPLAY NINTENDO WII

Highest bid: $117.50

Sold? You betcha!

Frankly, I think this is a little silly. There may be collectors out there for this sort of thing and it may be slightly cool to have in your bedroom, buy really, $100 dollars seems a little too much to pay for a large piece of faded cardboard that’s been thrown out of a video game store.

Runner Up: SUPER COOL NEW NINTENDO WII HAT SKULL BEANIE CAP

Just as additional proof of the fact that anything with Wii on it is golden, $51.50 for a white cap with the word Wii on it. A little expensive wouldn’t you say. Ah, it’s official merchandise? Makes complete sense then!

#8

Item: NINTENDO WII CONSOLE!!!!!! Picture

Asking Price: £235.00

Sold? Nobody was that stupid!

Okay, you may get sick of all of the obvious scams in this list. And this one is as old as the hills too. Not the product, but a nice photograph. Gee thanks! A nice fellow created and account called scam_watcher666 to stop unsuspecting folk being ripped off. Too bad he wasn’t around for the fellow who forked out a few hundred for an e-mail address.

#7

Item: Nintendo Wii For FREE.....!! A Must See. Check It Out.!

Winning Bid: $350

Sold? No chance

There have been quite a few of these as well. Come on people! Stop this nasty scamming!! The seller cryptically promises:

The winner of this auction will recieve a way to get the item! Its so weird how all this works, i bet most of the people selling the item on here get there item through this...

Weird how it works, huh? I’m sure it is, and I’m sure it doesn’t! I think these guys have found up to some affiliate-based-dodgy-signup-thing (you know what I mean) similar to freeipod.com back in the day. The winning bidder here was a new (fake) member who kindly prevented some nice but gullible eBayers from being scammed. Phew!

Runner Up: NEW NINTENDO wii WHOLESALE LIST SAVE HUNDREDS

This one has been round as long as eBay has – shame on you scammers!

#6

Item: Nintendo Wii Wi Wee We Box

Highest bid: $26+$10 P&P

Sold? Most Definitely

Ok, so you probably saw this coming by now. In fact, several dozen Wii Boxes were put up on eBay to profit from the Wii hysteria over Christmas, but this is the only one I could find where a real sale seemed to take place. To be fair to the seller, he makes it very clear what he’s selling:

“a brand new mint condition empty Nintendo Wii box, this is a great collectors item for any Nintendo fan »

« NO WII INSIDE THE BOX «

Runners Up :

Wii Sports White DVD Case - Highest Quality Guaranteed

#5

Item: eBay's Most Expensive - NINTENDO Wii Auction

Asking Price: US $9,999.99

Sold? No way!

This item was listed by a power-seller who probably ought to have known better. But you have to admire the ballsy attitude of some of these guys. Rather generously, the seller promised to donate 50% of the sale to charity. And the other half? Well, that was going to make somebody’s life better (Hint: somebody=the seller). A rather amusing Q&A session followed:

Q: Why oh why, do they allow people like you out of the maternity unit? I have faith! Faith that you will always be a shmuck! Good luck on the auction. I expect their will be people queing up to participate. Mainly from padded rooms. Cretin

A: Spread the love.

#4

Item: Nintendo Wii Best Buy Receipt!

Highest Bid: $451

Sold: YES!

That’s right – not a Wii with receipt as proof of purchase but just a plain old receipt. Oh dear! Just when you thought the online charlatanism couldn’t get any more blatant.

You are bidding on original " Nintendo Wii " Best Buy Sales Receipt. Dated 11/19/2006. Receipt is from Best Buy Store#482, located at 60 West 23rd Street in New York,NY 10010. Please note i have crossed out with a blue pen my personal information on Receipt. Thanks and Happy Bidding!

Again, to be fair, it seems pretty clear what the seller was offering here. Still, quite a cruel way to ruin some inexperienced user’s Christmas.

#3

Item: A RARE EMAIL ADDRESS,

Winning Bid: $300

Sold? YES!

Well, as you may have heard there have been quite a few cheeky (evil!) sellers out there who thought selling a NINTENDO WII!!!!!!! (email) would fool buyers into paying cash for a piss poor e-mail address. And you know what, some of them did just that. Many if them didn’t sell, and some were bid up by newly registered accounts who clearly had no intention of paying, but it seems that cash did change hands for a few. This is one of the more puzzling ones, where it seems so obvious that no Wii is on offer that the mind boggles:

The buyer, who clearly had some eBay experience paid $300 for powerseller@wii-worldwide.net and not only that, received this (rather cheeky) feedback from the seller:

Great Transaction !! Fast Payment !!

But then, the buyer, who had been duped, left this for the seller:

Very good transaction, good seller.

Whats going on here? Either they negotiated something to avoid negative feedback or someone is not quite clued in to reality. Give him an e-mail to find out!

Runners up: there have been many of these auctions where it appears that large amounts of cash have changed hands, so please feel free to e-mail the following folk with your commiserations!

WeWii4Free@yahoo.com paid $379 for this address!

wiisexshop@gmail.com paid $200 for this address!

Wii_1trusted.seller@yahoo.com

nintendo-wii.seller@hotmail.co.uk

wii_gamer2007@yahoo.co.uk

Nintendos_Wii_System@yahoo.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hot-Nintendo-Wii-email-address-WiiCantWait-yahoo-com_W0QQitemZ120071325147QQihZ002QQcategoryZ102333QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Nintendo-wii-consoles@hotmail.com

#2

Item: Waterfront Florida Home HOUSE NINTENDO WII INCLUDED

Asking Price: $675,000

Sold: YES!NO!

Not being an estate-agent I won’t dispute whether or not this lovely Florida home on Cocoa Beach was worth a couple of hundred grand or not, but I wonder much more interest they generated by putting eBay’s most popular search term in the title of their item. Clever folk in my opinion!

Edit: Er, perhaps they weren’t so clever after all – turns out I committed the mortal sin of not properly researching my blog entry! The house didn’t sell after all. Still it was a nice idea!! Hope it doesn’t screw up the rather authoritative nature of this list!

#1

Item: Bag Of Popcorn and Empty Soda Cup with BIG RED STRAW (and a Wii)

Highest Bid: $450

Sold: YES!

This is probably my all-time favourite eBay auction and is really a wonderful case of effective viral marketing. One lady, either delusional or genius turned the entire crap-auction-item-masquerading-as-a-Wii business model on its head by using the Wii-masquerading-as-a-crap-auction-item™ model. The item description begins:

YOU ARE BIDDING ON THE ONE & ONLY BAG OF POPCORN AND EMPTY SODA CUP WITH BIG RED STRAW. FROM TARGET ON SUNDAY 8:44 am NOV.19/2006 The big release day of Nintendo Wii..NO RESERVE STARTING AT ONE PENNY! AND YES WINNER WILL NOT ONLY RECEIVE THE ONLY BAG OF POPCORN AND SODA CUP AND DON'T FORGET THE BIG RED STRAW.

Tucked away at the bottom, she mentions:

oh ya the Nintendo Wii system too GOOD LUCK ALL wish i could share popcorn with all but only one lucky bidder will get it ALL.

Within a few days, the BIG RED STRAW had become a mini-internet phenomenon (the eBay page has had over 30,000 visitors) leading to an amusing question and answer session with potential buyers, which included:

Q: Before I can bid I need to know one thing, what are the specs for the Big Red Straw? I tried finding the info on Target's website but came up with nothing...

A: HI list from hell thanks for watching, but come on we all know the BIG RED STAW specs are TOP SECRET.

Q: I was wondering aprrox. how many pieces of popcorn will be included with the bag. Thankyou and GOD BLESS!

A: I DON'T know! by the way did you see how big that BIG RED STRAW is WOW....

COMING SOON: Top 10 eBay iPhone Scams! I’ll probably have to wait a week or two before there are 10 Scams out there – so a word of warning to anyone using eBay –

Read the item description, if it seems too good to be true, it is!! Caveat emptor!

Update: Thanks for adding me to Digg! If you liked the story, why not Digg it?

Goldeneye - A Trip Down Memory Lane

I was playing Goldeneye 007 for the N64 today (4 Player Licence-to-Kill, Facility, Pistols) and it got me thinking. This game came out in 1997 making it almost 10 years old! My point that in those 10 years, very few FPS games have managed to live up to this title - it remains one of my favourite games today. If you're interested, this is a great story of how the game got made and what it might have been! Oh, and if you're really into this game, check out my favourite Goldeneye site of all time!

Anyway, I'm very excited about this story, which adds fuel to the rumour that Goldeneye may be available on the Wii Virtual Console. I don't know about you but a four player deathmatch over the internet using the Wiimote (or a light-gun - Why not?) is an appetising prospect. The exact likelihood of this going ahead is unclear. Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America says:

"Would I love to see it on virtual console? Absolutely. But there are a lot of issues there." He made it sound like there's a chance. "Suffice it to say we would love to see it, so we're exploring all the rights issues.

Rare, the makers of this classic were acquired by Microsoft a while back, so they develop exclusively for the xBox systems now. In fact, they won't be making their back catalogue available for the Virtual Console. Goldeneye appears to be an exception, since Activision owns the Bond game franchise now.

In related news, the Stamper Brothers, founders of Rare and creative talent behind many of their games have quit the company. Perhaps they might start developing for our beloved Wii!

One final Goldeneye story: Goldeneye Source an amazing mod for Half-Life 2 is finally in Beta. If you own Half-Life 2, I urge you to check this out.

I'll let this video do the talking.

GOLDENEYE SOURCE
Uploaded by hij_opeope

More Goldeneye Source Videos

WiiSearch.TV - Search Wii from your TV

Have a look at my latest project, WiiSearch.TV .

The general idea is a search engine specially created for browsing the net with your Wii from your living room. I built it using Google Co-Op. Although it works perfectly, it's a little Beta at the moment since its essentially a glorified version of Google Search. A nice feature is the 15 or so "Refinements" I've made available so you can narrow a search of (say) "Red Steel" by reviews or cheats or to just articles on Slashdot or IGN.

It looks pretty nice from the Wii itself and in my opinion it has more Sexy Wii Goodness ™ than Google's own homepage/search results. You have the big advantage of avoiding Google's side column ads as well, so browsing in column mode is a doddle(press 2 on your Wiimote). The photo shows it in action on my TV at home.

So go on make WiiSearch.TV your homepage on your Wii and impress your mates!!

(Note: I hope to dedicate quite some time to improving this and making searches easier with the Wiimote. Any would-be collaborators, please let me know!)

Cheapest Wii Games Online?

Here's a challenge for anyone who's interested in finding a Wii bargain online. What are the cheapest online sources for Wii stuff - games, wiimotes, nunchucks etc.? In Europe, I've found some quite nice locations which may be of interest:

Amazon UK

First off, Amazon UK will only deliver games and hardware to you if your address is in the UK or Northern Ireland. That said, at £34.99 for the majority their games, they are some of the cheapest online. If you like this blog, get your Wii stuff through my Amazon Store. You won't get it any cheaper, but I have everything Wii nicely arranged for easy browsing!

And as an exclusive bonus, the first 10 people to buy through my Amazon store and sent me a copy of their email invoice get a link to their site in the Our Friends section over to the right (your site cannot have racist, pornographic, abusive, or illegal content. Thanks!). Remember, you can buy any product you like from Amazon using the search feature, it doesn't have to be Wii related. Your link will stay up for 30 days after you submit it. Anyone who doesn't make the first 10 will be added when the links expire. So get buying!

Blah DVD

The folks over at BlahDVD.com have the cheapest Wii games in Europe as far as I'm concerned. €50.99 with free shipping to any EU country.

eBay.com / eBay.co.uk

It's something of a crapshoot. but if you look hard enough you may find a bargain.

I'll be adding all released Wii games to my eBay tracker soon so that finding a bargain is a little easier!

If you find a cheaper store, leave a comment and I'll add them to this post.

Online Browsing on Wii

Happy New Year Wii fans! As the New Year rolls in, I can't help notice in that it has become acceptable to say "I have to have a Wii" in a conversation without fear of a barrage of urine-related attempts at humour!

I've just installed the Beta Opera Browser on my Wii and I must say I'm quite impressed with the result. Not only does it take two minutes to set up if you have a wireless network in place but Flash and Ajax sites render perfectly too. Navigation is straightforward - you can zoom in on the page with + and scroll with B if your TV is too low res (which it probably will be). Nintendo really need to bring out a keyboard though as even typing in web addresses with the Wiimote/onscreen keyboard is a challenge! It seems that regular keyboards will not plug and play with the console so it would appear that Nintendo want to release a first party keyboard of its own or it will release drivers at a later date. If you own a Wii-related website look out for the user agent:

Opera/9.00 (Nintendo Wii; U; ; 1309-9; en)

in your logs to see if anyone has navigated to your site with a Wii.

So what sites are worth browsing on the Wii? Well, the blogosphere seems packed with posts along the lines of - "wow, surfing porn on my Hi-Def TV through my Wii is so much better than before." (I won't be so foolish as to debate the merits of that argument here) Indeed Google Blog Search for Wii Porn yields over 10,000 results suggesting that this is a popular point of discussion, much of it related to a rather exaggerated story decrying the Wii as a "porn gateway" for kids.

Here's an interesting site I stumbled across during my online adventures - Wiicade.com. The premise is simple - a collection of mouse-only flash games to play on the Wii. My personal favourite is Tactical Assault. While it isn't Red Steel, its a stylish, fun flash shoot-em-up. Check it out.