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Anecdotal Evidence: Possible U.S. 3DS Supply Constraints (Check on your preorders!)

This sort of makes me feel better about deciding to hold off until later this year. I have not so fond memories of trying to track down a Wii when it launched.
 
(posted this in another thread)

So a question for you people who have Gamestop preorders or work there, if you look at the receipt theres a Reserve order deposit: # at the top, then at the bottom theres a presell order customer #:.... Anyone know what these numbers mean?
 

Skiesofwonder

Walruses, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers and badgers.
A Twisty Fluken said:
Just called my gamestop, they're like 3 short and they said they're doing first come first served for those who reserved. Awful. They're hoping to get a few more in but seriously.

EDIT: This is the South Campus Gateway store near the OSU campus in Columbus Ohio, so it might just be an issue in cities named Columbus.

LOL @ your edit.

Is it a big Gamestop Store (or is it having a midnight/early release)? The small ones so far don't seem to be having this problem. But yeah that really really really sucks. :(
 
A Twisty Fluken said:
Just called my gamestop, they're like 3 short and they said they're doing first come first served for those who reserved. Awful. They're hoping to get a few more in but seriously.

EDIT: This is the South Campus Gateway store near the OSU campus in Columbus Ohio, so it might just be an issue in cities named Columbus.
I think that stores near colleges ALWAYS seem to have a ton of preorders for stuff.
 

FoneBone

Member
I don't anticipate this being an issue at all stores, but at the ones where they know it is, shouldn't they at least be, y'know, calling the people who preordered to notify them that this is an issue?

(Upside: the Gamestop where I preordered doesn't open early on Sunday, so in the event that it does turn out to be a problem, it won't be too hard to get there.)
 
Skiesofwonder said:
LOL @ your edit.

Is it a big Gamestop Store (or is it having a midnight/early release)? The small ones so far don't seem to be having this problem. But yeah that really really really sucks. :(

They are doing a midnight release. It's not a huge store but it's in a decently high traffic area.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Father_Brain said:
Called my GameStop, was told that they would have no trouble fulfilling preorders. Guess it varies from store to store.

As somebody who's worked at GameStop for a long time, it's possible this may change. People are notoriously dumb for waiting until the last minute to preorder. I always love working the day before a major game launch, because my preorder numbers shoot through the roof.

GameStop already stopped taking preorders on the blue 3DS. I guess it all depends on when they stop taking preorders for the black one.
 

Skiesofwonder

Walruses, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers and badgers.
Just talked to my Gamestop (they actually called me). Dude said my 3DS is in and I can pick it up within 48 hours of 9 AM Sunday. :) But I live in a small town so I was halfway expecting my Gamestop to have enough.
 

FoneBone

Member
ZealousD said:
As somebody who's worked at GameStop for a long time, it's possible this may change. People are notoriously dumb for waiting until the last minute to preorder. I always love working the day before a major game launch, because my preorder numbers shoot through the roof.
With the launch allocations already sitting in the backroom, wouldn't they know when to stop taking preorders?
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
As for anybody that doesn't understand why GameStop would do first-come-first-serve, understand that it's massively easier on the managers and employees to do it that way. If you did it based on who preordered first, there'd be a lot of extra steps and a few possible snags.

Mostly, they'd have to call each individual on the list to let them know their place in line. It's possible that the person may not answer, in which case the person calling would simply have to hope that the customer got the message. Then, there might be some people that couldn't pick up the system because they'd be out of town. Or some people just might say they'll come pick it up and not show up at all.

And so, you might end up having a situation in which you have people who have preorders, ask for the system, but wouldn't be able to purchase the system because #6 and #8 in line haven't called back to confirm that they will pick up their system. Then the managers would have to come up with some sort of grace period where they say "fuck it" and then go back to first-come-first serve.
 
ZealousD said:
As somebody who's worked at GameStop for a long time, it's possible this may change. People are notoriously dumb for waiting until the last minute to preorder. I always love working the day before a major game launch, because my preorder numbers shoot through the roof.

GameStop already stopped taking preorders on the blue 3DS. I guess it all depends on when they stop taking preorders for the black one.

As FoneBone says, they ought to know by now what their launch allocation is, and to stop taking preorders once they've reached it. But I'll check in again on Saturday.

...and I preordered the blue one. Did you mean that all stores have halted preorders on it?
 
FoneBone said:
With the launch allocations already sitting in the backroom, wouldn't they know when to stop taking preorders?

No. The dopes I just spoke to didnt have any clue what i was asking. I asked "Im hearing some gamestops oversold preorders and the system after that differs from store to store.Whats your policy? Do I wait early or am I good because I paid in full in December?" the answer I got was "Yeah we have the 3DSs in backroom, it goes on sale on Sunday" after that I proceeded to ask my questions again and got "well we didnt count anything yet so call back" lol
 

FoneBone

Member
JackFrost said:
No. The dopes I just spoke to didnt have any clue what i was asking. I asked "Im hearing some gamestops oversold preorders and the system after that differs from store to store.Whats your policy? Do I wait early or am I good because I paid in full in December?" the answer I got was "Yeah we have the 3DSs in backroom, it goes on sale on Sunday" after that I proceeded to ask my questions again and got "well we didnt count anything yet so call back" lol
Yeah, that's why I find it amusing that ZealousD is calling the late preorderers "dumb" - they're not the dumb ones in that scenario.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
FoneBone said:
With the launch allocations already sitting in the backroom, wouldn't they know when to stop taking preorders?

Corporate wants people to continue taking preorders, even if the number of preorders you end up taking exceeds your current allotment. The only time you stop taking preorders is when the SKU is removed from the preorder list.

It's not an ideal situation, but it happens for a couple reasons. Number one, not everybody who preorders something actually comes to pick it up. So you're guaranteed that at least a couple of the preorders won't be gone through. Number two, there's still shipments incoming on Thursday and Friday in which more 3DS's can show up. And lastly, number three, on the business end, GameStop wants people to preorder, because a preorder is pretty much a guarantee that the customer will ultimately purchase the system at GameStop. Snagging a preorder means that a customer likely won't try and purchase the system from another store.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
FoneBone said:
Yeah, that's why I find it amusing that ZealousD is calling the late preorderers "dumb" - they're not the dumb ones in that scenario.

When I say "dumb", I mean in general. I will literally be working a midnight launch and people will be asking if we're taking preorders on the game an hour before the game comes out.

At some point, especially for high demand / low shipment items like the 3DS, there's a cut off where you can't preorder the game anymore. The longer you wait on preordering something, the less likely you are to actually be able to preorder. And as I was saying, GameStop has already cut off preorders on the blue 3DS.


Father_Brain said:
...and I preordered the blue one. Did you mean that all stores have halted preorders on it?

When I was working yesterday, we received an e-mail that yesterday was the last day to preorder the blue 3DS. Did you preorder the blue one TODAY?
 

Somnia

Member
*copies from 3ds thread by me*

***ALL OF THIS IS BASED OFF YESTERDAY*** Based off e-mails and talking with my DM 95% of all pre-orders should be guranteed. The only ones that might have issues are the ones that were reserved this week as Nintendo is not shipping out as many as originally told. I know personally my store is getting the exact number I have reserved in my system (already have them). We were told to stop taking Blue reserves as of last night.


Now talking with my guys today we got an e-mail saying to continue taking blues for at least today as Nintendo sent an extra shipment that was not expected.

I think everyone will be fine if you reserved at GameStop.
 

Somnia

Member
ZealousD said:
When I was working yesterday, we received an e-mail that yesterday was the last day to preorder the blue 3DS. Did you preorder the blue one TODAY?

As of today you still can due to an unexpected shipment from Nintendo. Today will be the last day for Blues probably though.
 
ZealousD said:
When I was working yesterday, we received an e-mail that yesterday was the last day to preorder the blue 3DS. Did you preorder the blue one TODAY?

Placed my preorder the first day they became available (Dec. 26), switched to the blue a day or two after the official SKUs were entered into the system. (Jan. 21, I think...) I should be fine, but like I said, I'll check again on Saturday.
 

FoneBone

Member
I never bothered to switch after the SKUs were entered. I can't say I really care that much which one they end up giving me - was it black by default, or what?
 
FoneBone said:
I never bothered to switch after the SKUs were entered. I can't say I really care that much which one they end up giving me - was it black by default, or what?

Black was the default, yes.
 
FoneBone said:
I never bothered to switch after the SKUs were entered. I can't say I really care that much which one they end up giving me - was it black by default, or what?

Black by default. I dropped 50 then went a week later to payoff and specify "black" and was told it was already black
 
What the fuck gamestop, I just called mine and dude told me he couldn't say how many preorders they got so I then asked him if they had enough 3DS to cover the preorders, and he said "well we started to get them in today", but he wasn't sure. Sigh, he then told me that they got some email today about something with the 3DS, to which he then read it to me and it said something about they had to delay the 3DS event on the weekend due to some issue and it wouldn't be until April 2nd that they had the event. What the hell is the event? He doesn't even know, and it didn't specify the launch, it just said event. He told me that I need to call back later to make sure that they're still having launch on Sunday.. If I find out that they aren't, I'm canceling it and going to go to Walmart.
 

FINALBOSS

Banned
Gonna hold out for my Amazon order--which I'm selling anyways. But it'd be nice to get it on the first day to at least check it out.
 
StickSoldier said:
What the fuck gamestop, I just called mine and dude told me he couldn't say how many preorders they got so I then asked him if they had enough 3DS to cover the preorders, and he said "well we started to get them in today", but he wasn't sure. Sigh, he then told me that they got some email today about something with the 3DS, to which he then read it to me and it said something about they had to delay the 3DS event on the weekend due to some issue and it wouldn't be until April 2nd that they had the event. What the hell is the event? He doesn't even know, and it didn't specify the launch, it just said event. He told me that I need to call back later to make sure that they're still having launch on Sunday.. If I find out that they aren't, I'm canceling it and going to go to Walmart.

The "Event" is probably this http://www.gamestop.com/gs/landing/events/3dsdemo0402/ Just a 3ds demo event that has them on display to play with

EDIT: thats probably it cause my store and a shitload near me was listed yesterday and just now theres nothing listed there for my area
 
I spoke to the manager at my gamestop (canada) a week or so ago, he said they got a shit ton of pre-orders but everyone will get theirs.
 

Az987

all good things
So I preordered through Amazon like an hour after it went up on the site but then I had to change the shipping address and payment method last month. Does that mean I basically placed the order last month?
 

Mashing

Member
meltingparappa said:
First come, first served? Instead of the chronological order of who pre-ordered first?

Is it possible someone would have to wait in TWO lines for their pre-order?

This kind of savagery is why I'm willing to wait a few extra days for an amazon shipment.

That doesn't work either because then (potentially) only the store's staff will get 3DS'es.
 
JackFrost said:
The "Event" is probably this http://www.gamestop.com/gs/landing/events/3dsdemo0402/ Just a 3ds demo event that has them on display

EDIT: thats probably it cause it my store and a shitload near me was listed yesterday and just now theres nothing listed there for my area

Ah man thank you, that puts my mind at ease lol. He still told me that if I get there early I should get it, but never guaranteed me it. Doesn't sound like he knew what he was talking about.
 

antonz

Member
Az987 said:
So I preordered through Amazon like an hour after it went up on the site but then I had to change the shipping address and payment method last month. Does that mean I basically placed the order last month?
No changing info on the order doesnt reset position
 
Mine says March 29!

Wahoo!

uvjCe.png
 
yeah basically it's down to the store whether they dole them out in the order of systems or not. i know the Gamestops around here do. You can't tell on your receipt where abouts you are in the 'queue' but they can see the order in which the reserves came in.

what stores around here will likely do if indeed they have more pre-orders than systems is to call anyone that didn't pick up their system on sunday to check that they are still going to pick one up, that is if they don't start calling them before then. any that aren't going to be picked up will then be offered to the next person in the queue.

i know that the district manager here was telling managers not to sell into their pre-orders at all, so i'm sure that things are pretty tight with supply vs the number of pre-orders.

hopefully everyone will get one that has a pre-order!
 

RobbieNick

Junior Member
Somnia said:
*copies from 3ds thread by me*

***ALL OF THIS IS BASED OFF YESTERDAY*** Based off e-mails and talking with my DM 95% of all pre-orders should be guranteed. The only ones that might have issues are the ones that were reserved this week as Nintendo is not shipping out as many as originally told. I know personally my store is getting the exact number I have reserved in my system (already have them). We were told to stop taking Blue reserves as of last night.


Now talking with my guys today we got an e-mail saying to continue taking blues for at least today as Nintendo sent an extra shipment that was not expected.

I think everyone will be fine if you reserved at GameStop.


Sounds good then. I pre-ordered mine two weeks ago (had to trade in my DSiXL) and ordered blue. Wish I would have had the 50 bucks at the time to Pre-Order seeing as how I was getting near the end of Ghost Trick. XP I still have the game, just hate waiting to finish it.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Josh7289 said:
That's why stores should take a conservative number of pre-orders like they seem to do in Japan.

This is America. We don't do anything conservatively except say how conservative we are.
 
Thats odd if it was this much of an issue why would gamestop tweet to people telling them to still preorder their 3DS's on today...lol...

Anyway, my store is just doing a 9AM opening or something, hopefully me getting there 2 hours late wont mean me missing out.
 

kunonabi

Member
So are the games up for sale or just display? I might want to head out to Walmart early to ensure picking up samurai warriors.
 
Josh7289 said:
What's your avatar?

Xerxes Break from a anime called Pandora hearts


kunonabi said:
So are the games up for sale or just display? I might want to head out to Walmart early to ensure picking up samurai warriors.

I believe Samurai listed for 27th...???some others are already on sale
 

MrMephistoX

Member
Whoa, glad I kept my teal pre-order from Amazon that I placed back in January. I placed an order for a black one 2 weeks ago as well but canceled when I settled on a color. Probably still going to try my luck at Best Buy on launch day for the games though since I have a stack of giftcards and rewards zone certificates to blow through.
 

Carlisle

Member
Deku said:
You can walk in on launch day and get one.
Never gets old, especially for those of us who got up a little earlier to make sure they got one. I lolled at that all the way through Twilight Princess.

They said the same thing recently about the iPad 2 launch. Still sold out everywhere, and I continue to lol through Angry Birds HD propped up against my smart cover.

I know you're just joking, but there are people who continue saying stuff like this at every major launch and I wonder what in the world they're thinking. Either it's a weird kind of trolling designed to reduce hype, or they hope to reduce the amount of people in line before them by a few heads, or they're just idiots.

The only hardware I was able to walk in on the afternoon of day 1 and buy with no waiting was the original PSP. It had a defect and I was able to walk back in later and exchange it for another one.
 

backlot

Member
I just called my Gamestop and they said they hadn't heard anything about not having enough to fill the preorders. She "looked into it" after I asked her then assured me that even if they didn't get enough I would be fine since I was one of the first to preorder. I guess that means they aren't doing first come first serve.
 
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