Chicago (IL) - If you have missed today's pre-order frenzy of Sony's Playstation 3, but want the console in front of your TV before Christmas, you will be looking at a hefty premium over the already not so cheap price. The launch allocation is pretty much gone, but Ebay sellers are already putting their pre-order guarantees up for auction.

See the Sony Playstation 3 in detail ...

All criticism about Blu-ray and a steep price tag have not kept gamers and probably a substantial number of speculators to pre-order Sony's upcoming Playstation 3 (PS3) today. In fact, pre-order processes were wrapped up within minutes on many etailer sites: Gamestop/EB Games, for example, had sold its entire supply, before the company was able to remove the pre-order sign-up notification from its PS3 pages today.

The retailer took a $100 "reservation deposit," which, however, does not "guarantee receipt of a system available to purchase at launch." Less than one hour after the pre-order process had begun, the company posted a message that its supply was gone: "Due to high demand and limited quantities, our U.S. in-store pre-order for the PlayStation 3 has ended. Information regarding the launch date of our Canadian in-store pre-order will be posted when available."

But if you are desperate for a PS3 and were not able to pre-order a console, there's always Ebay as another source. The auction has turned out to be a goldmine for people that were lucky enough to get their hands on an early Xbox 360 last November and it apparently will not be different with the PS3. First consoles surfaced early Tuesday afternoon and sellers are very optimistic that gamers are willing to shell out a big premium over the already steep $600 (60 GB version) retail price. "Buy now" prices ranged from about $1200 to $2500 at the time of this writing. At least that includes free overnight shipping in most cases.

Last month, Sony announced that it was cutting the worldwide launch allocation of the PS3 from an original 2 million to just 500,000 units. 400,000 units are promised to ship to the U.S.