darkSpyro

Quote: SkyDaddy

Quote: PlayableMoogle

Quote: bhepdogg

Vigorously writing a shell script to watch that page on gamestop and text me whenever the content on that page changes...heh heh. Do you think Gamestop will blacklist my IP if I hit that page every minute in my script?

Nah. If you hit it literally once per minute, it's not frequent enough that they're going to shut you off. They're worried about if you're trying to attack them to deny others service, and at one-hit-per-minute, you're clearly not doing that.

shell script? Use PHP and the file_get_contents or cURL module. I have one and it works like a charm.

I was just doing bash with curl - saving the output as html and comparing against the last run with diff.

Kesrael-I know about the Waves. Why are you so defensive Kesrael? A simple I don't buy them would have been enough, but you had to go and get defensive about it did you? How many Camo and Warnado and Wham Shells have you bought latley? You can tell us? I have three sets of Zook Ignitor and Lightening Rod. I had two sets of Camo and Warnado and I sold one to buy Wham-Shell from Austrailia from Southernchigga from ebay because I knew employees such as yourself would do this, so cmon Kesrael tell us!

I have one each Camo and Warnado and I ordered a Wham from amazon this morning. I have 2 Bash (he's my favorite) 2 Blue Bash, 2 Cynder and as of tonight, 2 Drobot. And if you want to look me up on eBay, my user name is the same as on here. Haven't sold anything in months, let alone Skylanders. The only Skylanders I've sold have been here on the forums at cost. Looks like you're buying more than me!!

http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/27/

Quote: bhepdogg

Quote: SkyDaddy

Quote: PlayableMoogle

Nah. If you hit it literally once per minute, it's not frequent enough that they're going to shut you off. They're worried about if you're trying to attack them to deny others service, and at one-hit-per-minute, you're clearly not doing that.

shell script? Use PHP and the file_get_contents or cURL module. I have one and it works like a charm.

I was just doing bash with curl - saving the output as html and comparing against the last run with diff.

Dang - looks like that won't work. It appears Gamestop is running some sort of application cluster and probably using a Load Balancer to distribute traffic to different nodes in the cluster. Most every time I run my script it pins me to a different IP address. Check out from my diff the IPs in the meta tag:

< <meta name="WT.sv" content="172.20.202.35" />^M
---
> <meta name="WT.sv" content="172.20.202.34" />^M

It looks like they put the internal IPs of their app servers (172.20 looks like an internal network to Gamestop)...wow. Maybe I'll just grep for "Add to Cart" - one of the pages that has a figure available has "Add to Cart" in the output (instead of "Not Available")

Yes, I'm 34, work in software, and am as obsessed (maybe more) with Skylanders as my 10-year old son. We only need one left to complete our collection. We have 36 of 37.

Kesrael, but I admit it

Quote: AboveSkylands

Kesrael, but I admit it

...and I just 'admitted it' too?

Kesrael I still don't really believe you bought Camo and Warnado at Amazon, but that's understandable if you don't want to tell us. My point is employees should not be allowed to buy these until they have them all available to the public, they should hold them for customers with open arms. Until they do this I will keep buying more than one at a time

honestly who cares if employees buy the skylanders.... perk of the job... everyone will get all the skylanders they need...

Honestly who cares if people buy more than one. If I ever see Wham-Shells out at my Wal Mart I plan to buy them all too...

It would almost be silly not to at this point. Blame Activision.

Quote: AboveSkylands

Kesrael I still don't really believe you bought Camo and Warnado at Amazon, but that's understandable if you don't want to tell us. My point is employees should not be allowed to buy these until they have them all available to the public, they should hold them for customers with open arms. Until they do this I will keep buying more than one at a time

Last time I'm going to feed the troll. I bought Camo and Warnado at GameStop. One that's 45 miles from me. And yes, the manager held them for me for an hour until I could get there.

You just admitted to being a scalper! You said you've bought and sold Camo and Warnado on eBay! According to your logic, you shouldn't have been allowed to buy them. They should have remained in store to be purchased by customers with open arms or whatver you said.

Quote: bhepdogg

Quote: bhepdogg

Quote: SkyDaddy

shell script? Use PHP and the file_get_contents or cURL module. I have one and it works like a charm.

I was just doing bash with curl - saving the output as html and comparing against the last run with diff.

Dang - looks like that won't work. It appears Gamestop is running some sort of application cluster and probably using a Load Balancer to distribute traffic to different nodes in the cluster. Most every time I run my script it pins me to a different IP address. Check out from my diff the IPs in the meta tag:

< <meta name="WT.sv" content="172.20.202.35" />^M
---
> <meta name="WT.sv" content="172.20.202.34" />^M

It looks like they put the internal IPs of their app servers (172.20 looks like an internal network to Gamestop)...wow. Maybe I'll just grep for "Add to Cart" - one of the pages that has a figure available has "Add to Cart" in the output (instead of "Not Available")

Yes, I'm 34, work in software, and am as obsessed (maybe more) with Skylanders as my 10-year old son. We only need one left to complete our collection. We have 36 of 37.

I thought about it but I'm just using the firefox extension check for change, though SMS notification would be outstanding

Quote: bhepdogg

Quote: bhepdogg

Quote: SkyDaddy

shell script? Use PHP and the file_get_contents or cURL module. I have one and it works like a charm.

I was just doing bash with curl - saving the output as html and comparing against the last run with diff.

Dang - looks like that won't work. It appears Gamestop is running some sort of application cluster and probably using a Load Balancer to distribute traffic to different nodes in the cluster. Most every time I run my script it pins me to a different IP address. Check out from my diff the IPs in the meta tag:

< <meta name="WT.sv" content="172.20.202.35" />^M
---
> <meta name="WT.sv" content="172.20.202.34" />^M

It looks like they put the internal IPs of their app servers (172.20 looks like an internal network to Gamestop)...wow. Maybe I'll just grep for "Add to Cart" - one of the pages that has a figure available has "Add to Cart" in the output (instead of "Not Available")

Yes, I'm 34, work in software, and am as obsessed (maybe more) with Skylanders as my 10-year old son. We only need one left to complete our collection. We have 36 of 37.

Ok, script complete and running every minute in cron. Searching for "Add to Cart" wasn't enough, because they have all of those suggested items at the bottom of the page as well that sometimes say Add To Cart and sometimes don't depending on their stock. The suggested items all end in </a> tags, whereas the button for the main item is surrounded by a span. Searching for this: "<span>Add to Cart</span>" did the trick...now let's hope I get woken up in the middle of the night ;-)

Quote: bhepdogg

Quote: SkyDaddy

Quote: PlayableMoogle

Nah. If you hit it literally once per minute, it's not frequent enough that they're going to shut you off. They're worried about if you're trying to attack them to deny others service, and at one-hit-per-minute, you're clearly not doing that.

shell script? Use PHP and the file_get_contents or cURL module. I have one and it works like a charm.

I was just doing bash with curl - saving the output as html and comparing against the last run with diff.

Just read the string and look for the elements that tell you when the item is in stock. You should be able to identify them from the class names.

Yeah Walmart has the picture of wham shell too.

Kesrael Ok first of all everybody sells these. I was tired of looking so I bought Wham Shell on ebay for $30.00 ea. I am a customer just as much as a seller. I paid $800.00 for my initial set that I am keeping and am trying to make my money back so that I can support Activision and buy Giants. If I can not make my money back from this set than I probably wont go in another $1,000.00 or so in Giants. It's as simple as that and that is the way I look at it and am sure a lot of other people do too. BTW I know how the stores are in MI. I just called some 24 hrs Wal Mart's and they didn't even put any out yet for the morning. I was tired of calling dealing with employees such as yourself and such. I can rest assure everybody when Giants comes out it is going to be the same nonesense with these figures trying to get them at the store. Oh please there are going to be 52 or whatever to get this time. All I have to say is good luck to everybody....

Quote: Kesrael

Lol, with the way you guys are talking about Walmart employees, I dont blame them for not helping you. Walmart employees are people too. Sure, there are some jerks but we're not all. I've gone out of my way to help people on this forum. Lighten up.

I don't talk bad or mean or them to their bored faces. Only behind their back. I work at retail as well, I know the dance. Same with customers. You are never rude to customers faces. You wait till they leave before you snicker.

And of course not all Walmart employees are ass hats. Just the ass hats are. If you are not an ass hat you have nothing to worry about.

@AboveSkylands: Not everyone here hoards or resells Skylanders figures, that is a gross overestimation I think. ...and yeah, you're a scalper, dude.

You buy hot commodity items for standard retail, depleting stock when and where you can and you try to make an obscene profit off of it. Whatever your reasons are doesn't matter, in the end, you're still a scalper...you're not exactly doing this for charity...unless your name happens to be Charity.

...and you know what? You don't need to justify it to anyone what you do with and how you make your money, that's your business. Someone calls you a scalper, it is what it is, it's what you do.

Yeah Sykotek. You caught me. I can show you a bunch of people on here selling these as well, but I wont because I know you dont understand. I paid for my initial set around $800.00 I supported Activision and now it is in my right to make my money back. BTW my Wham-Shells are in MI today the tracking number just updated. I am not cheap like some people. I paid $30.00 a Wham-Shell to get it early. Best of luck in the hunt. I hope it takes you a few months to find one

Lol, spending nearly 100% more for your initial set of skylanders isn't being "not cheap". It's stupid.

Domer

Domer I bought a Metallic Cynder that is why my set is worth $800.00

Congratulations on the Metallic Cynder...

Domer

Thank you domer. Pictures coming today after I get Wham-Shell in the mail to fill the missing spot

I got my remaining 3 Wham Shells today. You paid 30 for yours, Above? I guess it was my lucky day. Chig charged me 25 a Wham. That's only 10 dollars more than the price, which looking at price tags over there on Skylanders, seems to be 14.99. Then he did it via Paypal, so he took a fee on Paypal and Ebay, plus had to buy customs form.

Chig did me a great favor, as did mrmusicman14. I NO LONGER HAVE TO HUNT FOR ANNNNNNNNY SKYLANDERS!

I... AM... DONE!

I mean, I have 5 Whams coming from Amazon, and I know of 3 I am giving those to. My friends Jeremy and Anthony. I am giving one to my 2 year old daughter to gnaw on and play with (CRABCAKES). The 4th is going to my neighbor across the street. I had an idea about the 5th, but I'm not sure, and it's a sensitive subject to me. Let's just say I hate feeling like I'm being used.

Mildland Walmart got 5 wham shells in this morning, all are now gone. figured i would let my fellow Michigan people know to check their walmarts.

I agree GameMaster. I am going to give Chig Positive feedback as soon as I receive mine. I am going to use mine to hopefully pay for my Mettallic Cynder that I got awhile ago, and my set. I am going to keep one for my initial set since that was paid for by profit anyway. I think there is one going for $111.00 still. I still have not seen any in MI. The rarity ratio must be way lowr than Ignitors 1 in 2.5 boxes or 5 per six boxes...

Just left my feedback to him. He packed them very well.

Every new character is 1 to a box.

In the L. Rod, Zook, Ignitor wave, one case always consisted of -

1 L. Rod
1 Zook
1 Ignitor
1 Bash
1 Stealth Elf
1 Sonic Boom

One of my Walmarts yesterday, had 4 L. Rods, Zooks, and Ignitors.

Brother Wham-Shell is home next to his individual brothers. I am hoping they make individual brothers of Sunbrn, Ghost Roaster, Slam, Bam, Terrafin, Gill Grunt and Dark Spyro.

They will have to, seeing as the adventure pack levels don't work with Giants. This means the adventure pack Skylanders will have to be released seperately. I also see them releasing singles and triples for Spyro, Gill Grunt, and Trigger Happy. Single pack Dark Spyro is in a lot of countries but the US. So, it is only a matter of time before he is available here.

I cant figure out how to add a picture

Has anyone in the NJ Region seen a Wham Shell? I keep calling mid-afternoon, so they could be getting sold, but I can't seem to find him still.

So are people actually finding wham-shells in the united states? or are you people just bickering about scalpers and other none whamshell related affairs ?

WHERE IS WHAM-SHELL THATS WHAT ITS ABOUT WHERE IS HE?

Wham-Shell is in MI becuase I have three that I bought from Austrailia. I am willing to trade two! The only things I need now are gold and silver figures.

what store in MI? i dont collect variants so im just looking for 1 whamshell to complete the 37. nobodys been talking about where it actually is, and whos found it in the US and what store they found it at. so, please where?

Somebody said they found them in Midland Mi Wal Mart there were five but they got sold out with in minutes.

@exosquad: Sadly, it seems since quite a few people have either Wham-Shell imported or pre-ordered, news has slowed quite a bit and this is becoming quite off-topic. You're right though! We have a job to do, we must find Wham-Shell and bring him back home! Bring this along with you on your hunt and do your part peoples!



Click here for larger version.

Nothing in my area yet btw...

ive been calling all the gamestops here, and of course its 4pm and they get their stuff at 11am-noon, so nobody has anything new. and the employees dont even remember if they ever had a whamshell. one guy said yes, he was sure of it, but everyone else didnt know. (and i know im expecting too much for someone to remember a whamshell.) ill try tomorrow with two of the gamestops that i know get shipments everyday.

youre milk carton looks great, but i dont have any color ink in my printer ( frowny face (i love paper craft)

I noticed MI finally got Ignitor Lightening Rod and Zook Monday and Tuesday at target and Wal Mart and I believe next month we will see a steady flow of Camo and Warnado. It won't be till June that we see a steady flow of Wham-Shell, but some may be lucky and find some in spurts until then. that is just my opinion you can think what u want but that seems to be the pattern.

Don't get excited! Wham-Shell is currently NOT in stock at any of the following places, but I thought I'd at least try to make it easy to check for those who are still looking for him online. No link available yet for TRU...presumably once that goes up, they'll allow orders on it until they're sold out online, so there's that to look forward to.

Amazon $8.99
GameStop $9.99
Walmart $8.96

everyone my wal-mart in midland said they didn't have anymore coming in anytime soon. But i will check saginaw and Mt pleasant wal-marts. If i find any ill let everyone know.

He has been found.......

I got him from Gamestop.com tonight online order I can't wait

Okay, I have avoided this thread as I did not think it pertinent to me, given that I was not hunting for Whamshell.

I will re-iterate my public offer to anyone who cares - approx $US26 (give or take, depending on the exchange rate) gets you a Whammie. That is based on $A14.88 cost for the fig and $A10.50 for shipping. That is what I have to pay and based on a discount store price, at that (standard price is $A16 here in Oz).

Disclaimer: That is what shipping cost me when I sent a single fig earlier in the week. It all depends on box size so the next size up (if I can't find enough boxes for the demand) may cost a few bucks more. The box I used earlier in the week was jus the perfect size for a fig but I have no hope of finding more like it as it was the box y electric razor cleaner came in.

Oh, yeah, shipping has no tracking id from Oz for that price. Tracking id makes shipping more like $20, or so, and I don't think it is worth it but your call...

For the record, even if I had paid heed to this thread earlier, I would not have satisfied his request as karma is a bit.. ..ey dog and GM did not help a friend of mine for no good reason late last year.

Quote: trixster68

He has been found.......

I got him from Gamestop.com tonight online order I can't wait

Are you serious?

Quote: Laurix

Quote: trixster68

He has been found.......

I got him from Gamestop.com tonight online order I can't wait

Are you serious?

Quite be the case and I helped out last night when I saw them up for sale on the Web right here on the Online Avail thread. Congrats to all who got to order theirs.

I didn't use the GS wishlist hack that some of the others were able to do. Instead, my script woke me up with a text at 5 in the morning once the stock officially showed as available on the product page. They were still available and I was able to order before they went out of stock about an hour or so later. Sounds like overnight shipping won't get here until Monday, though

Quote: sykotek

@AboveSkylands: ...and yeah, you're a scalper, dude.

You buy hot commodity items for standard retail, depleting stock when and where you can and you try to make an obscene profit off of it. Whatever your reasons are doesn't matter, in the end, you're still a scalper...you're not exactly doing this for charity...unless your name happens to be Charity.

Someone calls you a scalper, it is what it is, it's what you do.

Quote: domer

Lol, spending nearly 100% more for your initial set of skylanders isn't being "not cheap". It's stupid.

Domer

I'm so glad people agree with me.

Anyways, more on-topic, I'm glad your scripting worked, bhepdogg.

Quote: chaosworrier

Okay, I have avoided this thread as I did not think it pertinent to me, given that I was not hunting for Whamshell.

I will re-iterate my public offer to anyone who cares - approx $US26 (give or take, depending on the exchange rate) gets you a Whammie. That is based on $A14.88 cost for the fig and $A10.50 for shipping. That is what I have to pay and based on a discount store price, at that (standard price is $A16 here in Oz).

Disclaimer: That is what shipping cost me when I sent a single fig earlier in the week. It all depends on box size so the next size up (if I can't find enough boxes for the demand) may cost a few bucks more. The box I used earlier in the week was jus the perfect size for a fig but I have no hope of finding more like it as it was the box y electric razor cleaner came in.

Oh, yeah, shipping has no tracking id from Oz for that price. Tracking id makes shipping more like $20, or so, and I don't think it is worth it but your call...

For the record, even if I had paid heed to this thread earlier, I would not have satisfied his request as karma is a bit.. ..ey dog and GM did not help a friend of mine for no good reason late last year.

That's actually quite kind of you to offer that to fellow forum goers!

Its not worth arguing with u people about scalping it really isnt because you dont understand. I am trying to make money back on my set plus I got my first initial Wham-Shell for only $10.00 because I made a PROFIT off of my extra set of Camo and Warnado...That Is what I do. I am selling these till I make money back for my set. I do not care what people think because I know the ones that are most defensive about it do it too, but I admit it.

I don't condone scalping, but I will no longer say who should and shouldn't. If people are arguing with you, Above, just let it go in one ear and out the other. Just remember their name and don't give them the time of day. Don't even answer their simplest questions.

It helps keep whatever sanity this forum have left, intact.