It's been only weeks since Wii U pre-orders came and went, and price gougers are already reaping the rewards of their investment.
Wii U pre-orders are fetching a pretty penny on sites such as eBay and Amazon where the deluxe version in particular can be found for no less than $549, a $200 price hike from its MSRP. Currently, the lowest price on Amazon's market is $624.94, and even that is substantially less than the $749 package that sold on eBay a week ago.
This is hardly a surprise for anyone who's looked for a console around its launch window, though. The Wii was price gouged for up to triple its sticker price for months following release. Virtually all other consoles from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have shared the same results of scarcity, such as $1000 PlayStation 3s.
If you're looking to get a Wii U and haven't already pre-ordered a unit, you might want to consider waiting a few weeks for the market to reach equilibrium. The Wii U's demand is especially high since it's the first console for a new generation of hardware, but the overabundance of online sellers leads me to believe that its demand is far less than current figures would lead you to believe.