Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Will Best Buy have the iPad 3 on launch day?

D

dgstan

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
In the past, did Best Buy get the iPads at the same time as the Apple Store or was there a delay of some kind? The reason I'm asking is I have a $450 gift card from selling my 2006 MacBook and would like to use that to get the new tablet.

Thanks.
 
Can't answer your question OP but I really hope Best Buy releases them the same as Apple. I have close to $500 in gift cards and reward certificates and been saving them to purchase the next iPad. Having to wait longer for Best Buy's own release date would make the wait suck even more, knowing it's has already been released.
 
Best Buy usually has limited stock on launch (in major cities) which are generally reserved in advance (from local experience and complaints). Call ahead to see if you can reserve, don't tell them you have credit.
 
Best Buy will have them. Unfortunatley employees are forced to not tell anyone if they will have them or not. You need to show up early and get it. From what I have seen they have never done reservations because people get upset at that. Usually its first come first serve and maybe handing out tickets to those in line early.
 
macguy360 said:
Best Buy will have them. Unfortunatley employees are forced to not tell anyone if they will have them or not. You need to show up early and get it. From what I have seen they have never done reservations because people get upset at that. Usually its first come first serve and maybe handing out tickets to those in line early.
Click to expand...

I can't speak about immediate launch, however the first few weeks and even months I remember my local best buys had a reservation sheet where they would contact you when iPad 2 came in stock. They would let 1-3 be sold on the Sunday ad but the rest were held for this list.
 
as of now no communication has gone out yet about the Ipad 3 in stores. And probably wont until next weeks announcement. Also for the Ipad 2 there were preorders and they had dibs on the stock first. Once those were fulfilled then that model would be open for purchase. So IMO once you hear about preoder go in and do it.
 
I got my ipad on the first day it was available at bestbuy and that was march 11 2011. They went in sale at 5pm. Line in store started around 3pm. They had just 10 of each model color and 3g. So 10 white 16 gb wifi and ten black 16gb and so on and so on.

----------
vegastime said:
Bought mine at Best Buy on launch day.
Click to expand...

They werent on sale on launch day. March 11 was the first day.
 
Jabba1221 said:
Also for the Ipad 2 there were preorders and they had dibs on the stock first. Once those were fulfilled then that model would be open for purchase.
Click to expand...

This is 100% completely and totally wrong.

iPad2 release consisted of online orders opening up early morning on March 11th and retail sales commencing at 5pm on the same day. Online order for instore pickup was NOT an option. No preoorders; the best an online order did was get you an ipad the following week, and by late on the 11th delivery times were in the two or three week area.

See my second link above for the MacRumors for comfirmation.
 
Bought the iPad 2 on launch day early morning from Best Buy. So yes, they stock them. However, they had a limit of 1 per customer. I believe the Apple Store has 2?
 
deeddawg said:
This is 100% completely and totally wrong.

iPad2 release consisted of online orders opening up early morning on March 11th and retail sales commencing at 5pm on the same day. Online order for instore pickup was NOT an option. No preoorders; the best an online order did was get you an ipad the following week, and by late on the 11th delivery times were in the two or three week area.

See my second link above for the MacRumors for comfirmation.
Click to expand...

How do I make a reservation?

We are not currently accepting reservations for the iPad 2. We suspended reservations for the time being due to inventory constraints.

Which means we did do them as I stated above..................and my point still remains valid. But again no info has gone out about the Ipad 3 yet
 
went to best buy on ipad release. i was still skeptical abou the big ipod thing and not interested in buying. poor guys in line waited hours, got inside, and found out there were only a handful in stock. some who planned to buy 16gb walked out with 64gb 3g because that was all they had. it sucked.

not bb's fault i guess. but, if you stand in line, make sure to go early 🙂
 
Jabba1221 said:
Which means we did do them as I stated above..................and my point still remains valid. But again no info has gone out about the Ipad 3 yet
Click to expand...

With all due respect, notice the "last edited on 05-02-2011 10:10 PM" on that FAQ. In other words, it is not the same text as it started with. Best Buy instituted the reservation process AFTER the first day:

http://www.gizmocrunch.com/apple/5869-best-buy-ipad-2-reservation
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1117589/
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I would assume so, I got both iPad and iPad 2 at bb on launch days. My bb had 1 full rolling book Cart for the iPad and had a couple of loads of the book cart for the iPad 2. (and they had a TOn of smart covers!)
 
i also have a GC for trading in my macbook. BB will probably have less ipad 3s in stock and will be gone on launch day. if it wasn't for that bb gc then i would probably wait till macmall or some other online store has it tax-free.
 
No Best Buy Pre-Order yet

I am another that has a Best Buy gift card, and am hoping to get the new iPad there when it comes out. I called my local Best Buy today to ask about pre-ordering one. I was told they are not doing pre-orders, and don't know when they will have them for sale. If anyone is able to pre-order successfully please let us know.
 
Best Buy does get them on release day. But there is never enough stock for demand. Definitely get there early and keep checking to see if they start a preorder process.
 
At the moment no official information has been pushed out to the stores. They were going through district by district doing conference calls to management about iPad. I would expect to see BBY begin to reflect Apple pricing on iPad 2 as early as tomorrow, no later than Friday.

Most Best Buy stores, at least those that are not community stores should likely receive a drop shipment of their stock early morning on the 16th. They should get their demo models in (but not on display) the 15th or early the 16th.

Preorders won't necessarily be implemented company wide, but many stores (like mine) have done them in the past for iPad launches.
 
irod87 said:
Best Buy does get them on release day. But there is never enough stock for demand. Definitely get there early and keep checking to see if they start a preorder process.
Click to expand...

What do you think would be an appropriate time to get to the store? The night before? or early that morning before the store opens? I really would like to get mine on launch day so I'm attempting to plan accordingly.
 
Best Buy has yet to push down information to stores. Most stores will have info about how they're handling launch day sales at the beginning of next week at the latest. Some stores will ticket, some will do preorders, some do both. Check your store to make a decision either way based on how they're doing it. If ticketing, I say show up night before.
 
I would say to keep checking with your store because it will depend on how they are doing things as to when you should show up. Im trying to say one of the previous iPad's had a weird 5pm release time. So people lined up like 5 or so hours early to wait.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back