carpeaqua

I have a bit of a reputation of buying anything that has a fruit logo on it. Every year when the new iPhone launches, I’m there waiting to pick it up. OS X release? I’ve got all the t-shirts. With the iPad 2 it was going to be no different.

There’s no legitimate reason I needed to get an iPad 2 on the launch day rather than waiting a few days. Certainly I need to ensure that my iOS applications runs properly on the new hardware, but since my applications aren’t generally that complex it is safe to say they will.

My initial plan for the launch was to play my chances and hit up AT&T, Target and Best Buy Friday afternoon around 5PM and see if I could score my prize.¹ When I woke up Friday and saw that the ship times for pre-orders that started at 4 in the morning had already ballooned to a week, I started to panic.

There was no way I was going to sit out in front of the Apple Store all day this time as I was just coming off of an illness and had way too much work to do. That’s when it hit me.

Craigslist.

I hopped online, put a two sentence ad under the Gigs section offering $10 an hour plus lunch to anyone who would stand in line for me from 11AM to 4:30PM. No more than 10 minutes later I had five people willing to do the job. Thirty minutes after that, he was in line while I was at home enjoying my day.

As 4:30 came around, I waltzed into the mall, exchanged cash with my new Craigslist friend and claimed my spot as #20 in line. By 5:02PM I was out the door with my new iPad.

Was it worth an extra $60 plus lunch to not have to stand around twiddling my thumbs all day? Absolutely. I may never stand in another Apple line again.