Amazon.com PS3/Wii lottery rules

What a retarded way to do it, but I guess this is the fairest way.

At the same time, it sure would have been nice of them to use this method for those $100 Xbox360 that sold out on Thanksgiving day in less than 30 seconds...

I guess they figured they don't want their site crashing/lagging from tens of thousands of people constantly refreshing the page waiting for the opportunity to buy the consoles.

I always wondered why all preorders and new console sales aren't done this way. It would discourage fights in lines, help prevent ebay selling(People without jobs waiting in line), prevent people from being mugged while waiting in line, and allow people who have jobs and responsibilities to still have a chance of getting a console.

Actually, this method did evolve specifically in response to the $200 XBox360s they sold. Those were part of a "customers vote" program (amazon.com/customers-vote). That first round - unfortunately with the 360 - was a first-come-first serve, and as a result their servers went down for awhile when the 360 became available.

Sure enough, the following week they changed it to be something like this, where amongst the people who voted for the winning discount in customers-vote, a random selection were given tickets to purchase it at the discount price. This eliminated the crash due to throngs of buyers.

I'm not surprised they've adopted it here. Frankly, I think it makes at least as much sense as doing it the normal way, seeing as under that kind of load on the servers it becomes random whether or not you'd get to buy one.

How do these things sell out in 30 seconds?

Do people "camp out" on these websites, periodically refreshing every 30 seconds, or what?

(seriously, i would like to know how this sort of thing works)

I think it's the best and most fair method given the availability of these items, but why the hell do you have to make an entry about it damnit??? the less people that know about it the better (for me at least xD ).

Mr. Khan, replace "periodically refreshing every 30 seconds" to "constantly pressing refresh untill the object of desire comes up" and thats it.

Those odds are looking pretty damn good right now, but I seriously think that it's going to change fast, especially as more people know about this.

It's on the main amazon page. You really can't miss it. I caught it this morning while browsing some other items. I'm sure amazon is well visited.

Basically they're giving everyone a fair chance at buying a new console. Not a bad idea actually. Too bad they weren't offering the 360 again. I still want one at $100

Can you sign up for a wii and a ps3, or just one or the other?

One or the other. The best way to actually win something is to vote for a 20GB PS3; most people want the 60GB version so the odds for that are much worse. Wii's between.

They should have done this from the beginning.

2 minute sales where everybody is machine-gunning F5 or the refresh button, or running a Bot to hammer the site is just stupid and unfair. If we all show up on the web site at 11:00, what is the point of making everybody do the refresh-dance for 5 minutes so that the people who are running Bots can get the Wiis and PS3s?

Plus it crashes the web site.

Doing this is way better than other systems in my opinion, and they should have done it the first time around.

Odds on a Wii was 4:1 when I signed up last night. Currently its 19:1. It will be over 100:1 by this evening I'm guessing.

"How do these things sell out in 30 seconds?

Do people "camp out" on these websites, periodically refreshing every 30 seconds, or what?"



People REFRESH every second or even faster. It's just like when Ticketmaster offers up certain online ticket sales, you just have to pound that button, open multiple windows to refresh, or use a Bot.

It's a zoo, and it's unfair and unnecessary.