Wii mania not extending to eBay

LOS ANGELES--While the previous few days have been filled with headlines trumpeting the thousands of dollars some people have seemingly been willing to pay for PlayStation 3s on eBay, the same mania doesn't seem to be extending to the Nintendo Wii.

The Wii--which retails for $250--launches tonight across North America. And on eBay, one can buy the rights to one of the pre-ordered consoles for roughly $500.

Now, that's double the retail cost. Which, extrapolated to the PS3's top-end $600 price tag equates to $1,200. And in fact, PS3s are now selling on eBay for just a little bit more than that.

But pure numbers show that the buzz--at least in terms of what people are forking over to get their hands on one of the consoles now--is still in the PS3 column.

On the other hand, that could well be because Nintendo hasn't been predicting the kind of supply shortages that Sony did. Thus, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a Wii in the coming weeks. The PS3? Not so easy.

Anyway, this likely means that the folks lining up across this great land to buy a Wii might actually be keeping their Wiis. Unlike the PS3 queuers, who said, en masse, that their newly-bought booty was going straight up for sale.

Ah, supply and demand.