It’s apparently a big deal to be one of the first to buy a Playstation 3 video game console. It could be because you really, really want one and want to be able to lord it over the neighbors that you’re the first on your block to get one — or it could be that you can put it up for sale on eBay to someone else’s unhappy neighbors.

Whatever the reason, the problem is, to quote Tom Petty, the waiting is the hardest part. A man in Cary has come up with an idea around that — he’s paying homeless guys $100 a day to wait in line for him:

“A truck rolls up, one of those U-Haul type trucks, and seriously, 50 people rolled out, and he says they got them from the homeless shelter,” Rosatti said.

While WRAL was there, the truck used to transport the men from the homeless shelter returned with food for the men. Abdul Salem said he and a friend came up with the idea. They said they plan to pay the men $100 a day to stand in line for a ticket to purchase a PS3 unit that costs around $600.

“It’s got to be the eBay incentive,” Salem said.

The eBay incentive is all about money. The going price on the site for a PS3 unit is approaching $2,000. Salem called his arrangement with the men from Raleigh’s homeless community a win/win proposition.

“We thought we could lend them a hand, throw them a few bucks, and at the same time make a little something off of it,” he said.

The Target store manager declined to comment on camera, but he did say the store doesn’t plan to make any judgments about people standing in line. The tickets will be handed out on a first-come, first-serve basis at 8 a.m. Friday.

Update: I just checked on eBay; several PS3 units have current bid prices of over $1,000. One auction, closing in three days, is at $25,100! The prior winning bid before that was $10,000 — I think some poor eBayers were trying to post unreachable maximum bid prices and got busted. The leading bidder has no prior purchases on eBay. I wonder if it’s a kid?

Either way, I think when this PS3 mania dies out, there will be several people around the country with buyer’s remorse (some of them perhaps, parents remorseful for letting their kids have their credit-card numbers and PC access)!