Apple is very well-known for its launch days with people standing in long lines days before the “big day”, people fighting over who was there first and just general anger when people find out the store sold out of their desired item. Of course, the iPad 2 is no different.

While it did seem like a much quieter day compared to those crazy iPhone 4 days when everyone decided they wanted one after the world got to see the new model leaked early, it wasn’t without it’s interesting events. One such event places college student, Amanda Foote at the Apple store in New York. She was the first person in line after getting there on Wednesday night, but she wasn’t waiting for an iPad. According to her story (see video below), she heard about people selling spots in line in the past, so she decided to try her luck at such a feat. Apparently it paid off since she earned a cool $900 for her place. Considering she got there at 5pm on Wednesday and the store probably opened at 10am today, that means she was there for 41 hours–that’s almost $22 an hour–not bad for sleeping in the rain.

Long Lines

I can’t imagine waiting in a line like this! I mean, how far do you start walking back before you wonder exactly how many iPads can this tiny store actually hold? Also, is it somewhat of a better experience to wait in a physical line rather then ordering online at home?

Oh wait, I get it…you want everyone to see you walk out of the mall holding the fresh new box so they can drool with envy.

Backorders

Although Apple never tells you the truth, you can always get an estimate of how low their stock levels are by ordering from Apple.com. I just looked and sure enough, we have our first delayed shipping message: “Ships in 2-3 weeks”.

Maybe they should have done some pre-orders.

Is it worth the Hype?

After seeing and hearing all about how great the iPad 2 is and then verifying this belief by watching the videos above and reading the news in the next days about how many records have been broken for iPad sales, it’s not hard to fall into the same category as everyone else–that which forces you to own all of the latest technology you can get your hands on.

But, is it really worth it? Given that the majority of those iPads sold today will just end on eBay to all of the last-minute buyers who must now fork over 20-60% markups just so they don’t have to wait for Apple to replenish, you start to wonder if the iPad 2 is even worth all the hype. I don’t think it is. I already compared the iPad 2 to the iPad 1 and have made my judgment on selling my old one and not getting the new one, but that isn’t because I don’t like it. It’s simply because I don’t use it as much as I thought I was.

My only advice is to think about why you want to buy and what you plan to use it for before simply getting it because it’s shiny and new.