Target ding.

The morning I bought my Wii, I thought I signed up for a Target loyalty card, because the 10 percent off that purchase was sweet enough bait to get me to bite. I just learned that what I signed up for was a credit card, though. And I just got its first bill. Argh. (The Wii purchase made up its starting balance.)

I'm going to slightly blame Target for this one, because at no point did the guy make it clear to me that I was signing up for a credit card. I'm not even sure he said "card". He just smilingly let me make my own sleep-deprived assumptions.

It's still a net win if I kill it right now. Pain in the ass, though.

Edit I'm fairly certain that I went through the motions of paying for the games with my existing credit card, which is why I didn't suspect anything. But I was seriously wacky after getting up so early to go stand in the weekly Wii Line, so who knows.

HOWTO buy a Wii (in the United States)

Since multiple people have asked how I did it:

1. Wait until Saturday afternoon or evening.
2. Go to http://crayz.org/target_wii.php and type in your zip code.
3. If any of the results are green or yellow, call those stores and ask them about their Wii stock.
4. In the likely event that they say they're expecting some the next day, make plans to get to the store before it opens on Sunday. 15-20 minutes is fine.
5. Stand in line with your fellow gamers, and await further orders.

I have a post in development going over all the games in my little Wii library so far, and my general experiences with the console after a couple of weeks. Short answer: it's startlingly effective at getting friends and family to play video games together, even people who think they hate video games. It's the friendliest game console ever. I'd argue it's worth the price just for this aspect.