With the Sony Playstation 3 launching officially Friday morning amid insane madness outside many, many Best Buy and Circuit City stores -- among other retailers -- the holiday shopping season has officially begun a week before Black Friday even gets here. The sheer popularity of a once-in-a-few-years game console launch reminds me of the stories I hear occasionally about the newest Apple iPod release (it's a major upgrade).
Fans and eBay resellers (mini-entrepreneurs) line up outside consumer electronics chains and discount retailers like Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) to be one of the first to buy-and-use or buy-and-resell-at-a-profit customers to get a hand or both hands on as many consoles as possible.
At $500 or $600 a pop, though, the Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) Playstation gaming console is more expensive than many home computers and even some laptop computers.
In an attempt to capture the nation's gaming madness with all these game console releases this season, online retailer Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) will 
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