Will you get a 3ds for sure if you preorder from amazon?

rlemmon

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Will you get a 3ds for sure if you preorder from amazon?

Hi guys. I'm thinking about ordering a 3ds system from amazon. What I'm wondering is if placing a pre order guarantees you a system on release day or if it's an opportunity to buy aka first come first served deal like gamestop. Thanks.
 
amazon is risky, because a lot of items are not housed with amazon, they are 3rd part shops.

stick with a retailer.

also, I wouldnt bother getting the 1st wave of these things, look what they did with the DSi. 5 month later they came out with the LL or XL (depending where your from)
 
amazon is risky, because a lot of items are not housed with amazon, they are 3rd part shops.

stick with a retailer.

also, I wouldnt bother getting the 1st wave of these things, look what they did with the DSi. 5 month later they came out with the LL or XL (depending where your from)

5 months later? Quite the exaggeration, try 5 years later! But I do admit that the DS Lite was far superior to the original DS in my opinion. The form factor for the 3DS is already very good, it's hard to imagine what else they would do besides make the screens huge and the technology isn't going to be there anytime soon at a reasonable price. You have to remember theyre making these for kids too they can't much more thin or fragile.
 
5 months later? Quite the exaggeration, try 5 years later! But I do admit that the DS Lite was far superior to the original DS in my opinion. The form factor for the 3DS is already very good, it's hard to imagine what else they would do besides make the screens huge and the technology isn't going to be there anytime soon at a reasonable price. You have to remember theyre making these for kids too they can't much more thin or fragile.


Sorry I think you misunderstood me.

"look what they did with the DSi. 5 month later they came out with the LL or XL "

Meaning the Time between the launch of the DSi and the DSi XL (or LL) was only a few months, screwing over everyone who bought the smaller DSi.

What i think YOUR talking about is the time between the DS lite and the DSi

Heres a little snippet of the USA launch date timeline for the DS.

DS- Q4/2004
DS Lite- Q2/2006
DSi- Q3/2009
DSi XL- Q1/2010
3DS- Q1/2011

With that pattern, I am betting there will be a 3DS XL by christmas.

Back on track.

I would NOT preorder through amazon. Use a retailer.
 

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Sadly, no preorder is a guarantee.

I personally would trust Amazon more than most retailers, simply because I've worked at a few retailers, and one of them specifically told us not to hold preorders on games and such.

Most won't do that, but it still happens.

Usually on the handhelds the retailers are pretty well stocked, though. They usually won't sell out right away.
 
Recently, I did a video game preorder that was sold and shipped from Amazon and it got sent on release day. They charge you once it's been shipped. To me "pre-order" means you put your order in and you are putting a hold for that item. You are taking up one item of the estimated stock.

I have Amazon Prime ($79/year shared between 3 "family" members, free 2-day shipping on all Amazon sold items). I'm not sure if that makes a difference in priority or guarantee. I don't think so though. I love Amazon and have had good experiences for the past 4-5 years. I'll probably end up pre-ordering through them to avoid any possible lines at Target, Walmart, etc.

Though, the $249.99 price point may deter people from rushing to get one especially if they already own a DS and the fact that it's a handheld. So there may not be as much of a craze as when the Wii launched (I waited overnight at Target with my brother). At the time, it was so worth it. Thinking back on it, it was idiotic. :D
 
i dunno, it all depends. That Ds lite Zelda addition sold out the 1st day and never came back!

That's a limited edition system release though, not a wide release.

If anything, compare it to the Virtual Boy, since it was a wide release, but failed... not saying the 3DS will fail, but if it does, I'm sure retailers will be sitting on stock for years and selling it super cheap eventually.
 
Though, the $249.99 price point may deter people from rushing to get one especially if they already own a DS and the fact that it's a handheld. So there may not be as much of a craze as when the Wii launched (I waited overnight at Target with my brother). At the time, it was so worth it. Thinking back on it, it was idiotic. :D

Exactly. For one, it's not a holiday season release, so it's not on the top of everyone's Christmas list.

I waited in line for the PS3 and the Wii... I didn't get a PS3 though... I got two Wii :D
 
amazon is risky, because a lot of items are not housed with amazon, they are 3rd part shops.

You can easily tell on the detail page if it's Amazon selling it or if it's a 3rd party based on the ships and sold message right under the price info.

For the 3ds you're buying from amazon directly:
"Ships from and sold by Amazon.com."

I preordered the Aqua Blue one earlier today. I had a bunch of gift cards and credits so after all that it worked out to less than $100 for me.
 
I asked on ther help chat thing and i got ths "Once released by the Publisher, Amazon.com will pick up the product and transport to any number of Amazon.com Fulfillment Centers (FC) located in various regions of the United States. Product from the Publisher to
Amazon.com FCs may arrive on the same day or up to several days from the product
release date. Once Amazon.com FCs receive the product, it is then shipped to
consumers based on their shipping option selected at the time of purchase.
Publishers will provide Amazon.com changes to a products release date that will
be reflected on the web site"

I think I will place the order Thanks guys.
 
If you pre-ordered a 3DS from Amazon, it would definitely get fulfilled by Amazon, not a Third Party, so I'm not sure where that came from. If you pre-order from Amazon, you are guaranteed, as long as the site continues to have them available. The only downside to pre-ordering from Amazon is that the 3DS is a Sunday release, so you won't get it on release date.
 
it came from the fact that I have pre-ordered in the past from "Amazon" and when it arrives its got Joe shomoe's invoice inside.

its called outsourcing or dropshipping, depending on the situation. Happens all the time in online retail.
 
it came from the fact that I have pre-ordered in the past from "Amazon" and when it arrives its got Joe shomoe's invoice inside.

its called outsourcing or dropshipping, depending on the situation. Happens all the time in online retail.

You're either talking a long long time ago, got really unlucky, or just weren't paying attention when ordering. Amazon often seems to list the lowest price item as default (maybe osver here can verify this for sure since it doesn't always seem to hold true), so even if you think you might be ordering from Amazon, it could be someone else. I've been ordering from Amazon across various email addresses since probably 1997 or so, have preordered numerous items, and have never once seen anything remotely close to what you describe.

Of course, if you ordered something that would clearly ship from the manufacturer or something, then I could see that. Regardless, I suppose it's possible, but I wouldn't consider it the norm from Amazon these days and I highly doubt something like that would happen with the 3DS.
 
You're either talking a long long time ago, got really unlucky, or just weren't paying attention when ordering. Amazon often seems to list the lowest price item as default (maybe osver here can verify this for sure since it doesn't always seem to hold true), so even if you think you might be ordering from Amazon, it could be someone else. I've been ordering from Amazon across various email addresses since probably 1997 or so, have preordered numerous items, and have never once seen anything remotely close to what you describe.

Of course, if you ordered something that would clearly ship from the manufacturer or something, then I could see that. Regardless, I suppose it's possible, but I wouldn't consider it the norm from Amazon these days and I highly doubt something like that would happen with the 3DS.

+1. Not to beat a dead horse, but I have to say in all my years of being an Amazon member, I've maybe had one or two shipments that arrived damaged that I was able to return for a full refund/replacement including return shipping. Other than that, the other hundred orders arrived on time or even earlier. I'm pre-ordering the 3DS for sure. I'll let you know how it turns out when I'm playing it that Monday or Tuesday night. :)
 
While pretty much anyone can sell on Amazon only certain sellers are eligible to compete for the buy box on the detail page. The others you have to get to through the "new and used" link under more buying options.

On the detail page it will always say who it's sold by under the price and availability:
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

vs

In Stock.
Sold by Hubbagames and Fulfilled by Amazon.

It should also say who the seller is again when you're on the checkout page.
 
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