Let's go over the details...
Feel free to correct anything I got wrong. This is all coming from memory.
6/26/2017 Nintendo announces SNES classic edition
A few landing pages appear online (maybe Wal-Mart and Best Busy). Nintendo gives brief comment saying they will produce more than NESC. Most people panic and don't believe them as Nintendo has a history of low stock.
Europe pre orders start to trickle out and people start ordering from all over the world. G L O B A L B O Y Z. The debate rages on between which model looks better. Meanwhile USA stays up late night for about a week hoping pre orders go live. Nothing happens. Then....
On hot Friday July evening (7/21) pre orders go live on Wal-Mart around 11pm eastern. The pre orders last about 20-30 mins. People are celebrating while others are devastated and believed they have zero chance of getting one.
A week later Wal-Mart decides to cancel everyone's order as it was a mistake. Scalpers and fans are all pissed. The took my classics!!
Nintendo then announces they will do pre order late August. No definite date is given so around Aug. 15th hundreds if not thousands are constantly checking retail store web sites.
On Aug. 22nd the pre orders go live and here is a summary of how each retailer went down in the US.
Best Buy - Went live at 1 am eastern and lasted about 20 mins. Most people on east coast missed out.
Amazon - Later that morning around 4am eastern amazon puts up a different page for the SNES classic. People pre order it anyway and believe it's real.
Later that day rumors start to spread that 1pm eastern Wal-Mart is going live. Other retailers could be as well.
Target - Went like at 1pm eastern. Site struggled to let people check out for hours. People eventually wrote a script to keep adding the item to their carts.
Wal-Mart - Went up for maybe 30 seconds at 1pm eastern. If you got one you were the Flash.
GameStop/ThinkGeek - Went live at 1pm eastern and site struggles for hours. Eventually people are redirected to ThinkGeek to buy bundles with stupid Mega Man hats. GameStop also announces they're doing pre orders in store at 1pm. People speed to GS to try and get 1 of the possible 10 units (avg).
TRU - Announces they will no do pre orders and in store only 9/29.
Wal-Mart part 2 - Later that week on 8/25/2017 WM decided to re open pre orders again around 5pm eastern. This time the landing page is different. It last about 20-30 mins before the page goes down.
The salt at this point could cover half of the US. However, Reggie comes out and says "Don't Pay more than 80$ for one". People don't believe them as he gives no specific numbers and his past history.
As September rolls on a few pre orders open for other retailers and military exchange sites.
The week before 9/29 we start to hear rumblings of how much stock. Best Buy even starts to ship a few pre orders early. Brick Seek and Zooalert start to show how much each store has for Target and Wal-Mart. Things are looking pretty good.
Launch Day
Best Buy - Everyone who pre ordered either has the classic in hand or shipped. GG BB. Stores Open to first come first serve. Tickets handed out at 7am (for the most part).
Target - Looks to have a lot of stock and opens to first come first serve. Most locations if you showed up at opening you could score one. Pre orders started to ship
Wal-Mart - Most WM had decent stock and some opened at Midnight. Pre orders on the other hand were shipping out slowly. Even the 8/25 orders were reporting to be shipping before the 8/22 pre orders creating some salt. Some pre orders at this moment still not shipped.
Amazon - No pre order updates what so ever. No one even knows when they are shipping because of no official word from amazon. A few reports of CS reps saying Oct. 11. Meanwhile they have plenty of stock for Treasure Tucks around the US in major cities.
GameStop/ThinkGeek - Pre orders start to ship out slowly and ThinkGeek even put more single console/Bundles early in the AM. Stores open and pre orders are given out along with some extra units to first come first serve.
The Scalper Market - Secondary markets start to populate with units avg around 150$ to 250$.
All stock is sold out for probably 99% of the country (maybe WW) and some pre orders still unfulfilled. A better launch than NESC??? Most likely a better start, but still a ton of missteps a long the way.
Feel free to correct anything I got wrong. This is all coming from memory.
6/26/2017 Nintendo announces SNES classic edition
A few landing pages appear online (maybe Wal-Mart and Best Busy). Nintendo gives brief comment saying they will produce more than NESC. Most people panic and don't believe them as Nintendo has a history of low stock.
Europe pre orders start to trickle out and people start ordering from all over the world. G L O B A L B O Y Z. The debate rages on between which model looks better. Meanwhile USA stays up late night for about a week hoping pre orders go live. Nothing happens. Then....
On hot Friday July evening (7/21) pre orders go live on Wal-Mart around 11pm eastern. The pre orders last about 20-30 mins. People are celebrating while others are devastated and believed they have zero chance of getting one.
A week later Wal-Mart decides to cancel everyone's order as it was a mistake. Scalpers and fans are all pissed. The took my classics!!
Nintendo then announces they will do pre order late August. No definite date is given so around Aug. 15th hundreds if not thousands are constantly checking retail store web sites.
On Aug. 22nd the pre orders go live and here is a summary of how each retailer went down in the US.
Best Buy - Went live at 1 am eastern and lasted about 20 mins. Most people on east coast missed out.
Amazon - Later that morning around 4am eastern amazon puts up a different page for the SNES classic. People pre order it anyway and believe it's real.
Later that day rumors start to spread that 1pm eastern Wal-Mart is going live. Other retailers could be as well.
Target - Went like at 1pm eastern. Site struggled to let people check out for hours. People eventually wrote a script to keep adding the item to their carts.
Wal-Mart - Went up for maybe 30 seconds at 1pm eastern. If you got one you were the Flash.
GameStop/ThinkGeek - Went live at 1pm eastern and site struggles for hours. Eventually people are redirected to ThinkGeek to buy bundles with stupid Mega Man hats. GameStop also announces they're doing pre orders in store at 1pm. People speed to GS to try and get 1 of the possible 10 units (avg).
TRU - Announces they will no do pre orders and in store only 9/29.
Wal-Mart part 2 - Later that week on 8/25/2017 WM decided to re open pre orders again around 5pm eastern. This time the landing page is different. It last about 20-30 mins before the page goes down.
The salt at this point could cover half of the US. However, Reggie comes out and says "Don't Pay more than 80$ for one". People don't believe them as he gives no specific numbers and his past history.
As September rolls on a few pre orders open for other retailers and military exchange sites.
The week before 9/29 we start to hear rumblings of how much stock. Best Buy even starts to ship a few pre orders early. Brick Seek and Zooalert start to show how much each store has for Target and Wal-Mart. Things are looking pretty good.
Launch Day
Best Buy - Everyone who pre ordered either has the classic in hand or shipped. GG BB. Stores Open to first come first serve. Tickets handed out at 7am (for the most part).
Target - Looks to have a lot of stock and opens to first come first serve. Most locations if you showed up at opening you could score one. Pre orders started to ship
Wal-Mart - Most WM had decent stock and some opened at Midnight. Pre orders on the other hand were shipping out slowly. Even the 8/25 orders were reporting to be shipping before the 8/22 pre orders creating some salt. Some pre orders at this moment still not shipped.
Amazon - No pre order updates what so ever. No one even knows when they are shipping because of no official word from amazon. A few reports of CS reps saying Oct. 11. Meanwhile they have plenty of stock for Treasure Tucks around the US in major cities.
GameStop/ThinkGeek - Pre orders start to ship out slowly and ThinkGeek even put more single console/Bundles early in the AM. Stores open and pre orders are given out along with some extra units to first come first serve.
The Scalper Market - Secondary markets start to populate with units avg around 150$ to 250$.
All stock is sold out for probably 99% of the country (maybe WW) and some pre orders still unfulfilled. A better launch than NESC??? Most likely a better start, but still a ton of missteps a long the way.