Because I'm just that much of a geek. It was interesting to conduct interviews with camping console hopefuls to gain a sense of a strange and isolated subculture. It's a bizarre sort of person who would happily scamper to the first wave and play horrible launch titles.
Luckily for electronic hawkers, geeks are often exceptionally intelligent and have utilized this to gain a high level of disposable income. The market truly blossoms when the previously mentioned geekery inhibited local social growth, forcing them to latch on to a satellite community. More often than not the social network is one of fellow tech-savvy men/women*, and from there it's a metaphorical pissing contest to who has the latest merch.
Not that these were the people in line. The whole 'disposable income' thing comes with a price of a fairly heavy workload, and they can't waste time by sitting in front of a store for 42 hours like a slack-jawed welshman. That's when eBay kicks in.
*Ha ha! Who am I kidding?
