Update: as pointed out to me, it's Columbus, GA. This story was tipped off to me and I thought it too cool not to post, and in my rush never caught that the newspaper story was in GA, not OH. Snap! My bad. -Tobias

The competition to get ones' hands on a Playstation 3 is so fierce that a dentist who hired 60 temp workers to stand in various lines to try and buy several Playstation 3 consoles for him, gave up. All this week dedicated fans of the new Playstation console have been lining up outside stores in chairs, taking days off work or school, to try and snag the few units that are being shipped out to stores. I myself indulged in trying to set up plans to head out early today and wait, thinking that in mid-West Ohio there might be a chance. No such luck, people were already in long lines at stores that had initially said they would have 20 consoles to sell, now they had only 4 to sell.

As a result of this pent-up demand, with limited and falling supply (remember your econ 101), the price outside the retail environment is shooting up. On eBay consoles are going for literally $1-2,000. Many of the people lining up are doing so out of a simple desire to turn a profit and sell their systems on eBay. And if a dentist plus 60 hires isn't getting them, it isn't surprising my own plans failed as well!

The dentist, Murray Newlin, was hoping to surprise his younger relatives with the console for Christmas. My advice: get them Nintendo Wiis or Xbox 360s. Much cheaper. And if they throw a fit over not getting PS3s the brats don't deserve the $600+ machines! They should go run around outside, the graphics are pretty amazing, I hear, and the force feedback packs a real punch!

People complained to the stores and employment agency, which is why the plan was canceled. Newlin should consider himself lucky. People have already been shot by BBs in line and there have been reports of fights in the lines.

Nonetheless, kudos to Newlin for trying to out-think the line. He should have kept the whole thing a little more on the down low, though: he might even have succeeded.