Exclusive Target Wii DVD for only a penny

by Kevin Kelly { Nov 7th 2006 at 11:25AM }

Joystiq was checking out the games section of Target today, and we stumbled across a massive display of these Wii DVDs, stuck in the middle of the Wii accessories rack. It looked like a freebie, but the cashier told us it was a penny. Then she boggled at the price on screen and asked a manager. The manager was also puzzled, then shrugged her shoulders and said, "Wow. A penny?" Four dollars later, it was ours (we bought some beef jerky).

What do you expect for a penny? What you get is a white plastic (did Nintendo just get tired of colors or what?) DVD snapcase (hey, that's worth a penny at least), and inside is a disc emblazoned with GAME TRAILERS ONLY -- GAMES NOT INCLUDED. Well, dur. We feel sorry for the poor sap who races home with this thing, and then not only discovers that the Wii won't play DVDs, but they don't even have a Wii because it hasn't come out yet.

Anyhow, it's a nice collection of trailers, behind the scenes videos, and screenshots for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam. Check out the doppelgangers from The O.C. in the video after the jump playing Marvel and tossing popcorn around. You too can party like this, just hook yourself up with a Wii and wait for the party to go off the chain. Plus, you'll get to use the line "Hey, wanna check out my Wii?" over and over again.

If you want to pick your own up at Target, here's what to look for. If you don't want to pick one up at Target, check your local trash bin.

Yes, you too can "Live the Game" -- by, er ... watching it on a DVD.

The behind the scenes video is actually not too shabby. But check out the Wii Trailer for this one in the video above. Somewhere, a Gap commercial wants its cast back.

More or less ho-hum stuff that's been out on the interwebs for awhile.

Tags: DVD, launch, Marvel, Nintendo, Nintendo Wii, penny, Target, Tony Hawk, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, Ultimate Alliance, video, Wiil

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Kevin @ Nov 7th 2006 11:32AM

Hmm, I was wondering about this. The price tag at my Target Store says $49.99, haha.

Charlie @ Nov 7th 2006 11:37AM

What's the sales tax on a 1¢ item?

White Rose Duelist @ Nov 7th 2006 11:39AM

I suspect the penny sale price is just to make sure every disc goes through the system (and thus all concerned parties know how many of them sold where).

I feel like taking a penny and buying one (and nothing else), even though I have no interest in the game. Or perhaps a few dozen for 50 cents just for the cases.

Bergasa @ Nov 7th 2006 11:40AM

Man, I just saw these being sold on eBay. Some scammers are trying to sell them to the unwitted public I guess.

BTW, as for the one penny deal, Nintendo probably wants to keep track of how many copies the stores go thru, and the best way to do that is thru the computer system. If that is the case, the object has to technically be "sold," so they mark it up as the cheapest price possible: 1 cent.

BlindsideDork @ Nov 7th 2006 11:44AM

Yeah, I saw that and was going to get it but I'm not interested in either of those games, so I got the sweet Wii giftcard that glows blue!

Alan @ Nov 7th 2006 11:45AM

I bought 9 of these to use the dvd cases for my 360 backups. :)

Vanders @ Nov 7th 2006 12:10PM

These have been available for a couple of weeks now. I picked one up around 21st.

Community-Based Song Lyrics @ Nov 7th 2006 12:10PM

Yeah, I'll put that on my major Credit Card, please.

s @ Nov 7th 2006 12:10PM

I destroyed target on these. Already covered my deviousness on nintendowiifanboy.com... Summary: 150 of them and another 35 wii gift cards. Price? $1.98

They actually looked REALLY angry while scanning. Some of the other cashiers were laughing hysterically.

Odds Bodkins @ Nov 7th 2006 12:12PM

Yeah, I got this one the other day. It's not all that great. Shame Nintendo didn't collaborate with Activision and make a cool "Intro to the Wii" video showing more than just these two games.

epluribus @ Nov 7th 2006 12:22PM

In an alternate, yet not-far-removed universe, Blake Snow writes about Sony's one penny demo disk for the PS3:

"WHAT?! Sony is going to CHARGE us one penny for a demo disk?! Jesus, will Sony never learn to stop abusing its customers like this? It's incredible how clueless this company is. Man, I hate Sony! They're all stupid, and stuff."

(Nice to see Nintendo gets a free pass, tho.)

bandit @ Nov 7th 2006 12:27PM

am I the only one who finds it ironic that the wii cant even play this DVD?

BeckRokk @ Nov 7th 2006 12:29PM

I, being a Target employee, can shed some light on this situation. Things that are on the sales floor that are marked as one cent are for display only, and it's just a way for the store to keep track of items. What happened is that you got lucky and found a couple of ignorami that knew no better and walked out with the Wii video display that store was probably going to use until the 19th.

kevinski @ Nov 7th 2006 12:45PM

BeckRokk, I, too, work at Target, and I can assure you that these are, indeed, intended to sell for $0.01. There are a ton of them available, so I highly doubt that they'd have so many video display discs at one time. I even asked the electronics specialist at my store, as I was confused upon taking it to a price scanner and seeing that it rang up at $0.01.

LuigiHann @ Nov 7th 2006 12:47PM

Reminds me of the disc I got from Nintendo Power before the Gamecube came out. It looked like a Gamecube disc, but it was really a mini-CD-rom that just had a bunch of trailers. What was cool was that the paper case it came in was designed to look like the top of a gamecube. It was flat, but otherwise accurate, and gave a good impression of the size of the system.
Man I feel old.

zero2dash @ Nov 7th 2006 12:48PM

Does the disc come with crystal meth or anything, 'cause those people playing looked a little *too happy*, like they had that extra -edge-. LOL

A.J. @ Nov 7th 2006 12:49PM

None of my local Targets are selling Wii accessories yet and certainly aren't stocking these DVD's. I don't get it.

mykie @ Nov 7th 2006 12:58PM

Didn't I tip you guys off about this over a week ago?

http://www.insomnimania.org/modules/gallery/somethingfromtarget

Huzzah!! @ Nov 7th 2006 1:27PM

"We feel sorry for the poor sap who races home with this thing, and then not only discovers that the Wii won't play DVDs, but they don't even have a Wii because it hasn't come out yet."

That was me... :(

er... mii* :P

s @ Nov 7th 2006 1:46PM

LuigiHann? GC made you feel old? I remember my dad being an anti-fanboy in the '80s. He hated hearing about nintendo this and nintendo that, so when I asked for a videogame system we proceeded to go to the local grocery store and while there we picked up the "NES Killer" SEGA Master System! $200 I tell ya. Hell it even had the two games in the box that if you lost the cartidge to it didn't matter because they were part of the firmware anyways.

And then I grew up to be a nintendo fanboy despite my father's wishes. Hell froze over and one day I bought sonic the hedgehog for gamecube.

All that said I feel old and am only 24...

s @ Nov 7th 2006 1:49PM

Oh yeah, and "Safari Hunt" kicked "Duck Hunts" ass...

RUSKULL @ Nov 7th 2006 2:12PM

The Nintendo Wii's marketing will not be responsible for any success it may have, you can prety much bet on that. In fact, I would go so far as to say their ads will hurt sales.

Moogle @ Nov 7th 2006 2:37PM

kevinski, did you use your employee discount? :)

My target has nada yet. I'm a sad moogle.

tenchi221 @ Nov 7th 2006 3:54PM

just got one at the target near work .. Wii DVD + 6pak of Kool-Aid = $1.08

lloigor @ Nov 7th 2006 4:25PM

spend a penny = Wii ;-)

gunkan @ Nov 7th 2006 5:12PM

Oh god... just FYI, i work at Target, these are supposed to be freebie handouts, the penny-price is just a placeholder in the system. FACT: 78% of Target Electronics personnel know jack about what they are doing. Those discs arent supposed to be out yet even.

James @ Nov 7th 2006 5:12PM

I'm in canada, How come I don't get a Target?

Sub @ Nov 7th 2006 5:34PM

Wow, that video makes me REALLY not want to buy a Wii...

Dan @ Nov 7th 2006 6:03PM

Hopefully they limit to one per customer so some a-hole doesn't put down $5 and take them all.

satek @ Nov 7th 2006 10:07PM

Yes! One step closer to Wii games being in White cases. This will look sweet with the way the logo comes down on the cover art :0

Mr. Greg @ Nov 8th 2006 1:29PM

To my fellow Target Employees: No, this is not just a placeholder price like other displays. I assume you all don't have access to the Intranet Workbench on the company computers, because there's a note of them being originally marked for $49.99 (As someone else mentioned earlier), but they were marked down to a penny, and that is their official sale price. They're not just display placeholders.