Google Nexus 7 tablet hard to find; Sam's Club and GameStop are best bets

Google's red-hot Nexus 7 tablet is hard to get your hands on this weekend as the device has been flying off store shelves since retailers began selling it Friday.

Sam's Club and GameStop are your best bets at finding one right away at a brick-and-mortar store, though on their websites they list the device as out of stock or backordered, as do other online retailers like Staples and Office Depot. Best Buy's U.S. site doesn't list the tablet at all -- its Canadian site does, but it is sold out as well.

Calls to East Coast retailers on Sunday morning show most retail stores selling the Nexus 7 don't have it yet, are sold out, or only have a few left.

A Staples employee in Ohio told PCWorld the retail chain's stores haven't received the tablets yet, but should any day considering they just received brackets to display them.

A GameStop representative in Charlotte, N.C., said his store has one Nexus 7 in stock, but it's going to someone who reserved it ahead of time. If you order one through GameStop now, you'll be included in the third wave of reservations with a tentative delivery date of Aug. 7. You only need to put down $50 as a deposit, and if you change your mind you can get your money back.

And here's a great deal: GameStop has a promotion going on in which it will give you an extra 30 percent bonus on trade-ins of games, gaming systems and accessories. That means if you trade in a system worth $80, GameStop will give you an extra $24 toward the Nexus 7.

A Sam's Club in Portland, Maine, told PCWorld it had nine Nexus 7 tablets in stock, although an Edison, N.J., employee said her store previously had some in stock, but is now sold out. Your best bet is to call ahead to see if a Sam's Club store near you still has any left.

Two Office Depot stores -- one in Maryland and one in West Virginia -- both said they hadn't received the tablets and were unsure when they would be getting them.

Not sure what the fuss is all about?

After reviewing the Google Nexus 7, PCWorld's Melissa Perenson said of today's 7-inch Android tablets, the Nexus 7 is the one to beat, and the tablet resets expectations of what an inexpensive tablet can and should be.

One major issue she had with the Nexus 7 is that it lacks a memory card expansion slot, and for that reason she only recommends buying the 16GB version for $249; the 8GB model, which is $199, only gives you 5.62GB of user-accessible space when you start the tablet for the first time. That wont get you very far if youre downloading movies and television shows in high-definition, using apps optimized for high-definition displays, and loading up your high-resolution images for use in the gallery.

One place you're not likely to find the Nexus 7 anytime soon is Amazon, considering Google's new tablet directly stabs at the Kindle Fire. Even so, according to TechRadar, the online retail giant is in talks with Google about whether or not it will stock the Nexus 7 tablet.

Follow Christina on Twitter and Google+ for even more tech news and commentary and follow Today@PCWorld on Twitter, too.