I’ll never forget the PS2 US launch. I visited the US for holidays and landed just the day before launch. I thought I was going to be able to get one unit the next day if I asked in a few shops if they knew they were going to have stock. After my sister took me to a few it was clear it was going to be next to impossible, some were going to get as few as a dozen of them and those were already reserved.

But in the last Best Buy we visited the person I asked about the launch told me the same as all the other stores we visited before but said “you really want one?” And he pulled out his wallet and started digging into a bunch of papers and gave me a receipt of his own PS2 reservation at another chain (I think it was Electronics Boutique?) and said “keep it, I don’t feel like getting it now I’ll just get one down the road”, he didn’t want any money for it, we insisted profusely, even though his reservation had like 15 dollars already paid. I was so lucky.

That other store was doing a midnight launch, they even had police in the parking lot keeping an eye. Picked up the console with Ridge Racer V, Tekken Tag Tournament, Kessen and a 2nd controller if I recall correctly.

Good times.