I hope you're ready for a long story because this is the first, and it will probably be the only time, that I bought a system the day it came out and I'm still jumping off the walls about it!
Best Buy was having a deal today where if you traded in 5 qualifying games that you would get the DSi XL system for free. Well after finding 5 games that would work, including two from my collection :'( But it was awesome and totally worth it!!!!
I was one of 5 people there before the store opened. The first guy got there at 7 am, the next guy showed up at 8:45 and then I got there at 9:45, someone showed up at 10:15 and the last person got there at about 10:30. It was great to talk with the other people there. One guy had heard about it from another forum but the other people there had just read the ad online or in the flyer.
They were really well organized and before the store opened the manager came out and got your name and your games to check that they qualified, the first guy had to try a couple times but he was able to get it. The second guy in line got his with no problems and I didn't have any problems either. A woman with her 5 year old son and to try a couple times and the last guy to show up only had 5 games and 2 of them didn't work, more on what he did in a minute.
I traded in: Riddick PS3, COD 4 PS3, Race Pro 360, Wheelman 360 and Super Mario Galaxy PS2?
So they opened at 10:45ish which was really nice of them and I go and check out the 360 games to use the coupon for $10 off, I finally got Watchmen for a price I was happy to pay, 5 bucks. Then I go and join the lineup at Customer Service. I think I was the 4th person to get it. I choose the Bronze one and thinking that I was going to go with the Burgundy but after looking at both in person I decided that the Bronze would probably hide wear and tear a bit better. Now there was the guy who was missing two games, so he went and bought two games off the floor and traded them in all at the same time. It was pretty funny to see as the cashier had to open the games only to turn around and trade them in.
I was out of there in about 25 minutes which included the time that I spent looking at games to use the coupon on. During that time I think only 2 of the Burgundy systems sold so maybe I passed up a future rarity but I'm really happy with the one that I picked up.
You can check out pictures of me opening it here: LINK
I know this could have gone in the "Finds" thread but for me this is more a story about the whole experience rather than the deal that I got on it, but mods may feel otherwise. I would enjoy hearing other people's stories about getting a system on launch day.