I got to see Weird Al Yankovic in concert in Gulfport, Mississippi a few years ago.  The concert was mere days after the tragic accident that claimed the lives of both his parents, but his performance was still spot-on.  If he's touring near you, take a chance and go see his show!

Why do I bring him up?  The latest escapades with console pre-orders reminds me of one of his more recent parody songs, "E-Bay" (to the tune of "I Want it That Way").  I've seen local stores prepare their shelf space to make room for the PS3, knowing full well they won't have a console to sell much after opening on November 17.  However, come noon, just like after the EB GameStop pre-sales ended, you'll see most all of them up for sale to the highest bidder.

Personally, I'm all for free enterprise.  If someone's desperate enough to spend $1500 on a $600 gaming machine, I should be smart enough to sell to them, right?  That said, if the only people buying the machine are speculators, then something may be wrong ... either with Sony under-valuing the console (i.e., is it truly worth $1000-plus, since the market may well bear that price) or with the retailers--and Sony--not figuring out how to make sure that only final consumers buy them.

I've been on both sides of the argument here.  I have been trying to pre-order a Wii with no success, yet 5 years ago I lined up at a local Wal-Mart with the buddies from my favorite game store to buy as many of their Xbox consoles as we could so the store would have its own supply to sell.

So the question is this: how do you make sure that only consumers buy the consoles, but at the same time protect people who might eventually want to sell their console to someone else legitimately?  After all, I got my Xbox 360 from a friend of a friend who bought it and didn't like it.