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The lack of Wii systems on store shelves since launch, coupled with the overabundance of them on eBay in suspiciously polished bundles has made me believe that retailers are not bothering to sell the systems in stores, and instead just listing them for auction. An employee at an Illinois retailer called Slackers has contacted Ars Technica to let them know that the store has sold nearly all their Wii systems on eBay since the platform’s launch at prices of $399 or higher.

I hope this is looked into and, if it’s true, the retailer doesn’t receive any more of the systems. If I were Nintendo, I’d be pretty pissed off right now.

Ars Technica contacted the St. Louis Slackers location for confirmation of the practice. When asked if the allegations were true, there was a long silence. “That is something you’ll have to speak with the owner about,” we were told. We have since attempted to contact Slackers’ owner multiple times, but have been unsuccessful. Nintendo has also not responded to our requests for comment on this story.

Since the publication of the article, Slackers has posted a statement on their website, an excerpt of which follows:

Does Slackers’ sell Wii systems on eBay? Yes. This holiday season, Slackers has sold a total of 5 Wii systems on eBay at a price of $399.99, while a couple units remain in stock. Why do we sell the Wii systems on eBay? Like all small retailers we are trying to improve our profile on the web. We have a website and an eBay store site. By offering even a small quantity of a hot system like the Wii on-line drives many hits to our sites. As for the price, Mr. Kuchera claims we are “scalping.” At the price Slackers offers on-line, when you factor our cost for the unit and shipping, and after eBay and PayPal take their cut, Slackers makes less than $75 per unit we sell on-line. For this holiday season, we made a whopping $375 from the eBay sales – that’s it. We gave away 2 systems at a cost of $500, and on every other system, we either broke even or lost money. Slackers does not make money on the sale of Wii systems.

Source: Ars Technica.