This is my story...I shall try and make it as complicated simple as I can for you. It's one man's tale of triumph over adversity, of the power of hope and dreams overcoming all obstacles, of fate finally dealling the right hand of cards...
Person 1 pre orders 2 Wiis from shop A, dropping of deposits to secure them. One for me and one for him. Meanwhile, person 2 has a guaranteed preorder with shop B. He decides he doesn't want his and offers it to me. I decline as person 1 has already got mine on preorder from shop A. Time goes on. Person 3 who I work with needs to get a Wii for his little brother. He puts in 2 preorders just in case, one with shop C and one with shop D. Close to release, he's expecting shop D to deliver on time so asks me if I want the one from shop C. I say no as I have one waiting for me, thanks to person 1 and shop A. I tell person 3 to cancel the order from shop C.
A couple of days later, about a week before release, shop A phones person 1 and says he can't have more than one preorder because they are only getting in 9 (and by the way the staff are taking 3 before they hit the shelf). So person 1 phones me and tells me I'm out of luck. Great. Now person 3 is off work for a week, making him hard to get hold of except by email. I ask him if he has cancelled his order from shop C. Unfortunately he has, so I have to rethink my plan. However, he finds out that the order from shop C is too late to cancel as it has already been picked in the warehouse. What luck. But we discover that the order from shop D is now not going to come in time as they have not received their expected amount. So person 3 has to keep hold of the Wii that is coming from shop C and I will get the one that arrives just after release from shop D. I'm OK with that - as long as I get mine before Christmas that's fine. However, time passes and shop D still has not dispatched the order to person 3. In the meantime both person 1 and person 3 are happily playing on their Wiis from shops A and C respectively.
It's now just over a week before Christmas and I start to panic. I try and talk myself out of wanting one using the following logic: The main reason I want one for Christmas is a) Zelda (none of the other release games really interest me) b) I've never had a new console of Christmas day before and it will be exciting. So I decide that I will get Zelda on the Gamecube and forget about the Wii. After all, by the time the decent games out, all the good stuff on PC will be due and I'll not have the time to put into the Wii. So I tell person 3 to cancel the order from shop D. He does this. A day later I have a change of heart and instead of ordering the GC Zelda I order a few decent PC games just so I have something to play on Christmas Day. This means I still have a decent reason to get a Wii just after Xmas.
Person 3 then comes back to work and tells me that he cancelled the order but he has received confirmation from shop D that it has been 'picked' which means imminent dispatch. So some good news. But we find out that it is Zelda (which is part of the Wii bundle) that the confimation is for. So where is the Wii? Next day person 3 gets an email with a tracking order for the Wii itself. He's off work for Christmas in a day's time so if it comes I'll have to fetch it from his house.
So today he phones me at work. The Wii has arrived! But no Zelda! I say I'll give it until Friday then come get the Wii regardless. Luckily he phones a few hours later saying Zelda has turned up as well. So after work I take the 1 hour drive to his house, pick up my new Wii and Zelda, then drive the two and a half hour journey back home, shove it under my Christmas tree, safe in the knowledge that despite all the odds, things always turn out right in the end.
I bet the bloody thing doesn't work now.