I’ve been hearing news reports all week of retailers running out of supplies of this season’s hot video game platform - the Xbox 360. I’ve also heard an equal number of reports that the boxes are crashing like crazy. (It’s a Microsoft product — go figure!)

Those who know me well enough will say I’m never one to pass up an entrepreneurial opportunity. So, with the help of some friends, and my American Express card, we ran around to retailers and purchased 10 of the devices. We ended up walking away with 8 Premium models, and 2 Core models. The systems retail for $399 and $299, respectively.

They’ve all been posted to eBay and Craigslist, and we’ve sold four of them already, grossing a total of over $5,000. Not bad. We’ve practically paid for them!

We plan on dividing up the profits, and based on my estimates, we should be walking away with $6,600 (or more) in cash when all is said and done.

UPDATE: I removed the links for the auctions to prevent excess traffic to my site. Comments are also disabled for this post, and are being moderated site-wide, even for users who’ve been approved. The reason for this is that I’ve started receiving enormous amounts of flame mail from hardcore ‘gamers’ about selling the systems, and other messages have said that ‘people like me’ are taking advantage of the situation. Ah well, it’s the law of supply and demand. Shut up and get over it. If you want a link to the auctions, please e-mail me.

UPDATE 2: I’m not the only one. Other eBay Sellers have received similar e-mails. People need to grow up. Seriously.