So Tiff and I already planned on going to the grand re-opening regardless of whether or not I obtained my special edition. I'll take about my whole special edition fiasco at the end of this post. I will be upfront and say I am extremely grateful to have gotten because a lot of folks haven't been able to get one.
We got to the store around 9:30 and to our surprise the line was super long. I have a feeling that some people camped out overnight. It was super cold and we tried to dress accordingly. I even had a blanket big enough for us to share which we ended up doing later on. The blocks in that area of town are quite long. So we headed to the back of the line. I received an email from Best Buy's eBay letting me know that my item was ready for pickup. I had selected a Best Buy two subway stops away from Rockefeller Center. So I called to double check that it was for the right item and it was! So I left Tiff in line to hold our place and then went to Best Buy. I was SO happy when I got my hands on it. I will say the box was smaller than I expected lol The trip only took about 20 minutes total.
Voice Actor of Mario, Charles Martinet
I was able to snag this picture of him upstairs without standing in the long ass line to meet him. I think you needed to have a wrist band in order to participate in the meet and greet, but since the area was so open I figured I'd grab a pic.
Took these when we were finally by the store and thoroughly freezing our butts off
As soon as we got on the same block as the store that's when everything slowed way down. We went from moving up every ten minutes or so to standing still for about 40 to 50 minutes. We really wanted to quit but we kept getting closer and closer and had made line friends lol We all decided that if we left we should have left at the three or four hour mark.
Shortly after I took the photos above of the outside video display we were let in. Tiff and I rushed past so fast to make sure we weren't cut off from each other. It's interesting because there weren't too many people inside the store. It wasn't to capacity at all. I wonder if they didn't have enough staff to watch the store so they didn't want to flood. They have a lot of items that are just out everywhere.
I think it was around 5:15 when we finally got inside. We had been in line 7 hours total ugh -_- We looked around some and to be honest we preferred the old look of the store better. While I didn't hate the new look, it did look a little more minimal and like there was less stuff. On the plus side it felt like there was more room inside.
Shortly after I took the photos above of the outside video display we were let in. Tiff and I rushed past so fast to make sure we weren't cut off from each other. It's interesting because there weren't too many people inside the store. It wasn't to capacity at all. I wonder if they didn't have enough staff to watch the store so they didn't want to flood. They have a lot of items that are just out everywhere.
So like I said earlier in this post I really just needed to vent about this whole mess trying to get the this game. And as I said before I know I'm lucky to have gotten it, but sometimes you just gotta let it all out lol Feel free to skip to the end of my post haha
I was trying to track down the game from early December. Tiff and I had a big weekend hang out at her place and she mentioned the special edition. I was gonna pre-order that day since Fire Emblem is my ish but saw that it was sold out. I found a website that let's you track items and set text messaging and email alerts. Silly me didn't turn alerts and missed the next GameStop online restock a few days later by a day. I literally went on the next day at the same exact time the restock had happened -_-
After that I decided to turn the alerts on lol
So I checked the tracking website every day or two and read the comments on the disqus. One day somebody wrote about there being a in store orders available for GameStop. By this time it's around late December. So I called a few in the city and rushed in to make my preorder. So I'm thinking the battle is won and I'm good. Nope not really. I see a post in the comments section of the tracking site saying that the in store preorders are a glitch. I promptly call my GameStop but they say my preorder is fine.
To be on the safe side I still continue paying on my pre-order and checking the tracking website. During early February I think there's a Walmart only stocking of the Special Edition. I thought about preordering another one just to be on the safe side, but decided against it.
Now fast forward to this Wednesday two freakin days before the game comes out. I receive a call from the GameStop that I preordered from. Homeboy was like "We got our special editions in and we only have 18 and 21 people pre-ordered. You were one of the last three people that preordered." Then he tells me he's going to email the distributor to see if they can get anymore and check to see if other GameStops in the area had extra come in. Now of course I was nice but in my head I'm like I ain't relying on y'all for shit. Like ima get this on my own. So I keep my preorder with them just in case but get back on my hunt because I never stopped checking the tracker because I had a feeling something like this was gonna happen.
Thursday, the next day, I get a call back from the guy in the afternoon and he's like apparently it was a glitch and I'm sitting there thinking like um yeah I already asked you about this awhile back. So I just politely listen and then I ask him about other stores and he's like I haven't heard back yet. So I get home from work and post up by my computer. Somebody wrote on the tracker about a possible Target stocking at 12 AM PST which is 3 AM my time. I decide to stay up until 12 AM my time to see if maybe it will happen earlier knowing full well I'm meeting Tiff the next day for Nintendo NY's opening and for me to try to get the Special Edition through them as back up. I figured if I could get it before then I could enjoy waiting in line for the re-opening more. At 12 AM nothing happens so set an alarm for 3. My text message tone wakes me up at 1:40 in the morning with a text from the site saying that Best Buy has more stock. I go to their page on their website and it still says sold out. I go back to the Disqus and some kind soul lets us know that it's Best Buy's eBay. So it sells out before I can get in my cart wtf. But then another link is posted by a person on the tracker and it's for Best Buy's eBay again only this time it's an in store pick up which I prefer. The reason I preferred in store pick up was that if the order wasn't real or a glitch I would know very soon, but if it was a mail order then I may think it's coming only for it to be canceled a week or two later which means you missing an in store copy or an online restock. So I snagged the in store pick up off Best Buy's eBay. I stayed on the tracker a little while longer and saw that some people's pre-order were getting canceled right after they received a confirmation email. I waited a bit to see if I would get one and then finally went to sleep at 3:30 AM. Then you already know the rest from the beginning of my post. Personally I really don't want to order an exclusive from GameStop again. This was my first time dealing with this kind of situation but from what I've heard they seem to have a track record of pre-order drama not that Nintendo helps. Apparently people have been complaining a lot about how much stock Nintendo has for some of their items. I also realize I am super lucky with the GameStop at least calling me because I heard a lot of folks went in the day of and were told they didn't have one.
I went to the GameStop with Tiff after the re-opening to get my money back. The lady at the counter was like I have a copy for you. And I'm like I don't need it know because I got it on my own. So I don't know if the guy was wrong or she was but it didn't matter because I got my Special Edition! *We are the champions plays in the background* End rant lol
I went to the GameStop with Tiff after the re-opening to get my money back. The lady at the counter was like I have a copy for you. And I'm like I don't need it know because I got it on my own. So I don't know if the guy was wrong or she was but it didn't matter because I got my Special Edition! *We are the champions plays in the background* End rant lol
So we both decided to buy something since we waited in line for so long haha And then we stuffed our faces in K Town. We originally thinking about attending the Pokemon 20th anniversary event at Nintendo NY next Saturday but after this I'm good haha Especially consider how Pokemon is SOOO popular, I'm not even gonna try it. Thanks for reading!
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