Were these things really that hard to find?

The dozen or so people I know who got them just logged onto BestBuy/Amazon/GameStop, found them, and ordered them. No stalking Bethesda, or sitting around waiting. All at different times on different days. I was actually surprised to learn of the scarcity because everyone I know seemed to have found them so easy.

*shrug* i was going to wait until release day to pick it up at the store when it was announced, then i saw an article a week later or so from kotaku that said it was all sold out. so i was like "uuhhhh huh?! these things are limited?" so i went to online and looked at every game retailer i could think of worldwide, and it was gone, so i just followed them on twitter and a week later i got it. they probably just nonchalantly looked up the game when they were available. i just assumed this would be like the oblivion skyrim sets, ready to buy at the store on release day.

Actually yes. As far as I know their first stock was sold out in about two hours of being put on sale. They had a few other stocks that were put on sale later at various times.