Thornton – Six gamers camped out in two tents with a TV on Wednesday at Circuit City near Colorado 7 and Interstate 25 as they waited for the Friday- morning release of Sony’s new PlayStation 3.
Friends stopped by with food and news of lines forming at other retail locations around the metro area.
Dmitriy Tsimealist, 18, said he plans to buy one of the new video-game systems for $500 and sell it quickly.
“I’m hoping I can make a good $1,000 profit,” Tsimealist said. “I’ve been watching eBay for a week.”
EBay is allowing only established vendors – those who have comments from at least 50 previous customers – to list the PS3s before Friday. Vendors must include a photo of a preorder receipt.
But only six of the new video-game consoles are expected to be released at the Thornton store at 8 a.m. Friday, according to those in line and a sign posted on the front door.
“We felt that’s the most honest thing to do. We posted the signs with the knowledge that they’re in short supply,” said Jim Babb, a Circuit City spokesman in Richmond, Va. “We don’t want several hundred people waiting in line for a limited supply.”
The basic PS3 has a 20-gigabyte hard drive and costs $500. For another $100, gamers can buy the premium model with a 60-gigabyte drive, built-in wireless and a high-definition DVD player.
Sony has announced it will initially sell just 400,000 of the new game consoles across the country with an expected 1 million units by year-end. The limited release has driven up demand and created a price frenzy on the Internet.
Tsimealist said he took off time from work at a family-owned granite company to wait with his friends. He said he’ll try to buy one for himself at a later date.
Game addicts lined up at retailers across the country. Along Colorado’s Front Range, lines were reported at the Circuit City in Fort Collins, a Best Buy in Colorado Springs and several stores in between.
At Park Meadows mall, gamers were waiting in their cars, said Tim Price, a Best Buy business sales supervisor. The Sony store at Cherry Creek Shopping Center had no line because customers are not allowed to camp out overnight when the mall is closed, an official said.
At the Brighton Wal-Mart, Sherri Tretter, 41, of Fort Morgan said she was a veteran of camping out for popular toys – buying “a couple” of Tickle Me Elmo dolls a few years ago.
Tretter said she planned to play with the new PS3 if she was able to buy one Friday, even though she added that she hasn’t played any video games since “Pong” came out more than 20 years ago.
Tretter’s daughter Alex Talbot, 18, of Golden said she changed her work schedule to wait in line.
Wrapped in a quilt in the Wal-Mart line, Shelly Sanchez, 38, of Longmont said the PS3 price was high but that she’d be able to count it as a Christmas gift for her two sons.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
