This is a much better idea than their fiasco last year...

What happened last year? This is a ton of fun, I agree.

Question I forgot to ask though...if they have 1,000 Wiis, are they just shelving them for the game? Why not say you have 800 on shelves, sell the other 200 for full price?

Instead of being pissed that you can't purchase the item, you can now be pissed that you weren't randomly picked to purchase the item.

@CaffeinatedSquint: Last year they sold an xbox 360 core for $100. All of the people trying to get it froze the Amazon homepage for 20 minutes.

@Jeff_McAwesome: Were people misled to believe that EVERYONE who voted for the XBox would get one? Is that was is different this year, Amazon making it random selection?

I mean...they give you a whole day to buy it. If you're selected, you're guaranteed one as long as you buy it by the end of the offer time, right? They have 500, they select 500 people. If that were the case, I'd just try again later, because I definitely have a spot reserved. Or am I wrong?

My Picks:
1) PS3
2) Panasonic SD-1 High-Definition Camcorder
3) Jakks EyeClops Bionic Eye
4) Samsung BD-P1400 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
5) HP Pavilion TX1305US 12.1" Notebook PC
6) KitchenAid Pro 600 Series Stand Mixer (Meringue)

Hoping for 1, 5, or 6.

Don't know what went wrong last year - I was one of the lucky ones who "won" a chance to purchase a Wii at normal retail. I already had one so I eBayed it and donated half the proceeds to the Red Cross.

Not sure why they are doing this if it really taxes their servers, though. I see more people reacting negatively if servers go down.

And I have a Kitchen Aid mixer just sitting in the pantry collecting dust. I'll sell it to ya, Meghann.

Maybe they've figured out a way to handle the server traffic. I think possibly a better way would have been to email all of the people (they do that anyway) with a simple "yes you won" or "sorry, but buy this instead" ...yeah it might still cause a lot of server traffic, but you have people doing some things for a specific reason and then no one is overloading one part of the website in order to find out if they've won, you know?

Last year, it was first come, first serve. So when the Xbox 360 deal started, amazon.com got hammered and a lot of people waited 20 minutes for a page to load telling them the system sold out within 30 seconds.

When they first started this last year, it was a cluster-f***. They advertised the Xbox 360 for Thanksgiving day at 12 Pacific time, but there was no random selection process, no order, nothing. First come, first serve. Just like Black Friday morning @ Walmart, except there was about a half million people trying to get a deal. Servers crashed, people bitched, children cried dogs and cats living together....MASS HYSTERIA!

They came up with the voting system in the following weeks to make it easier and more organized, though plenty of people still found things to complain about (it's not fair, everyone should get a chance to buy it; it's going up on Sunday morning when we're @ church so amazon hates Christians, etc...)

@CaffeinatedSquint: I believe you're wrong. They're not going to just pick 1000 people beforehand. There's a good chance not all 1000 of those people will remember to check. They put something in the write up that says something along the lines of "you'll only have a limited time to buy..."

@HootieMac: So what they'll do is pick like...1,500 people, and like give them a block of time to buy? People with last name A-H claim your prize between 3 pm and 5 pm, I-R claim your prize between 6 pm and 8 pm? That kind of deal? Cause from the indication I got on their FAQ, it was like they picked 1,000 people and you had one whole day. If you check the day after and it turns out you were one of the lucky people, too bad for you, you didn't get it.

I voted for the winning item in every category but the last. 'Fraid people seem way more into that Samsung TV than the Stand Mixer, sorry :(

@tozmervo: I only picked the mixer because I'd have nowhere to put the TV. :)

Thanks for posting this, I somehow had not heard of this before even though I use Amazon often.

@CaffeinatedSquint: FAQ is probably right. I didn't read it THAT closely, as I have very few illusions of being one of the few people selected out of the few millions that will likely try.

@DrGirlfriend: Me too!

Anyone know what time the winners list will be posted?

I voted for the cheaper stuff that they have more of. Just spreading the love.

@arkisman: That changed it to the current format last year after the first week. So, its now tried and true.

Anyway, I played along last year and wasn't ever given a code. So, I'm ready to be chosen this year!

@CaffeinatedSquint: You need to go in to the voting page every day between 11/22 and 11/28, as I understand it, to see if you were picked for that day's deal.

Slim chance I'll get picked, but who knows?

How about they just sell Wiis at the normal price? That'd be a change for once.

The 360 offer last year was a total fiasco. I still contend that Amazon did it on purpose to create hype. I don't see how 1000 people could have signed in and bought their 360s when the entire site was down for 20 minutes.

I believe it was the following week that they cleaned up their act and offered a portable DVD player for $25, which I was lucky enough to get. That time, though, there was no mass freeze on Amazon.

@CaffeinatedSquint: It was supposed to be a first-come first-serve deal. On thanksgiving, no less. People sat at their turkey dinner with a laptop in hand.

@uricmu: They changed it last year, apparently. They're choosing people now, which is fine with me.

I love randomness. I think I'd rather "randomly" win the lottery, but this is fun too.