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The Game is on: Finding a New Xbox in S. Florida

Posted on: Wednesday, 23 November 2005, 18:00 CST

By Evan S. Benn, The Miami Herald

Nov. 23--Forget Cabbage Patch Kids, Tickle Me Elmo and GameBoy.

Xbox is the hot must-have of the 2005 holiday shopping season.

And there are none to be found in South Florida.

Major retail outlets like Best Buy, Target, Circuit City and Wal-Mart sold out of the high-tech gaming systems first thing Tuesday morning, within minutes of their release. It was a similar scene at stores across the country.

"One person in front of me sold his spot in line for $800, cash," said Jamie Martinelli, 21, of Coral Springs. "Then he still had to pay another $400 on top of that for the Xbox."

She drove to a Plantation Best Buy at Flamingo Road and West Sunrise Boulevard on Monday afternoon. She was 14th in a line that would keep growing until the predawn hours of Tuesday.

As the Xboxes flew off the shelves, some customers put the game systems up for auction on eBay.com.

About 12,000 auctions for the Xbox 360 systems had popped up on the website by Tuesday afternoon. Many hopeful customers bid more than $1,000 for a single unit.

At 2 p.m. Tuesday, a person in Fort Campbell, Ky., sold a system for $1,625 to an anonymous high bidder. The bidding had started at $650.

The manufacturer, Microsoft Corp., would not say how many Xboxes it shipped to stores or whether it purposely supplied fewer units than customers would demand. Analysts estimate there are about 2.5 million new Xbox units worldwide.

There are two versions of the new Xbox 360 system, which are upgrades of the original released in 2001.

The premium version costs $400 and includes a detachable hard drive, a gaming headset and a wireless controller. The "core" version comes without those features and costs $300.

The new Xbox has state-of-the-art graphics and technology, with games expected to be just as advanced. Microsoft's major competitors -- Sony, which makes PlayStation gaming consoles, and Nintendo -- are planning to release new versions of their systems sometime next year.

The original Xbox had a shaky start, with controllers that many gamers said were uncomfortable to hold and a design that was big and boxy.

Die-hard customers camped out overnight Monday at several South Florida stores. Martinelli brought a lawn chair for comfort and a few sodas to stay awake.

Shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday, she walked away with a $399.99 Xbox 360 Premium and a $59.99 game called Quake 4.

She took it out of the box as soon as she got home.

"There was a lot of hype and a lot of talk that it would be a flop," Martinelli said. "But I'm really impressed. I mean, even the graphics on the menu are amazing."

Some customers may have to wait awhile before stores have replenished their shelves of Xboxes.

"I'm honestly not sure when we'll get another shipment," said David Nourie, a store manager at the Best Buy in Plantation. "Definitely not before this weekend though."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Miami Herald

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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MSFT, BBY, TGT, CC, WMT,

Source: The Miami Herald

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