Nintendo Wii on eBay

So this year I thought I would take an opportunity to use our annual visit to New York to visit the Nintendo World Store and pick up a Wii to sell on eBay. It seems that they are still hard to find over a year after they've been on sale in stores and Christmas is only making things worse.

So I decided to look up the current going rate on eBay that the ripoff sellers are getting and, actually, it's not that much.

Most consoles are being sold with 5 games or 14 games and two Wii controllers. This is obviously either the basic package box with the Wii Play game (5 mini games) or the basic box with Wii Play (9 mini games and a controller, $40 more in stores). The average markup is about $100 right now, which figures around $350 + $40 shipping. I think that's pretty reasonable for getting your kid a Wii for Christams.

There are some auctions for some reason that are getting $200+, but even the "14 game" auctions are only making about $130 on average.

Of course the big question is, what will the auctions be like after Christmas? What will they be like Christmas Eve?

I will go to the Nintendo store at Rockefeller like I always do (and not buy any awesome merchandise, again), but it will probably be a last minute decision on whether I try to make an easy buck on eBay with it.

I might just get one for my parents, who always ask about it when I talk to them on the phone. That would be the good-son thing to do, righ?