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Are you absolutely desperado to get your hands on an Xbox 360, no matter the cost? Well if so, then maybe you should head over to eBay, where some people are selling theirs for prices along the lines of $5,000 and more! Yes, some people have been already turning over a very tidy profit by buying up a brand spanking new Xbox 360 and putting it up for auction. Sales by these means are going well, thanks to news that a lot of retailers won’t get their hands on the next generation games consoles until early next year.

Auctions on eBay for the machine are escalating fast. Early Tuesday morning, core systems were selling for as little as $650, a notable markup from their $299 retail price, but not outrageous by eBay standards. Premium systems (with a wireless controller, hard drive and cables for high definition TVs) were selling for closer to $1,000, a $600 markup from their $399 in-store price.

By mid-morning, though, one premium system sold for $3,050, with well over a dozen following suit, coming in between $3,000 and $4,000. By mid-afternoon, one buyer was so eager to own one of the new systems paid $5,100 for a hard-drive enabled machine and a copy of "Need for Speed: Most Wanted" - and the eager beaver will have to wait another two weeks before the console is shipped, according to the seller.