Joshua McCoy/Daily NewsVaughn Blackman of Bowling Green holds up a PlayStation 3 early this morning in a Wal-Mart storage room.

The nationwide release of 400,000 Sony PlayStation 3s was felt in Bowling Green this morning as gamers and those looking to capitalize on the short supply of consoles gathered at Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy.

A group of about 15 people in Wal-Mart’s layaway section counted down the last seconds of Thursday and cheered when they could finally buy the system many had waited days for.

Bowling Green native Jonathan Allen waited 55 hours to pay $751.18 for the complete system and took home the first PlayStation 3 sold at the Wal-Mart near Campbell Lane.

Allen said he’s keeping his console for personal use.

But the same can’t be said for college students Jason Bellew and Nate Morguelan, who talked economic theory while waiting in a warmed-up car in Target’s parking lot a little after midnight.

&#8220The retail price is $600, but the average on eBay is $2,500 right now,” Bellew said. &#8220Keeping a limited number out there, they can sell them for a higher price. Everybody wants to get them.”

Bellew said the PS3 is a hot commodity for the holiday season. The $600 version of the game system has a 60-gigabyte hard drive, built-in wireless and a Blu-ray player for high definition video. The $500 version of the console has a 20-gigabyte drive and fewer features.

Bellew, a Henderson native and senior marketing major at Western Kentucky University, said he had waited since 2 p.m. Wednesday to get the second slot in line to buy the console.

&#8220Camping supplies – $58. A PlayStation 3 -$559. The amount of fun I’m gonna have in Vegas with the money I got from selling a PlayStation 3 – priceless,” Bellew said.

This morning, PS3s were selling for as much as $3,800 on eBay.com.

Bellew said those waiting to buy the game console had formed a bond while playing board games and hanging out in tents.

&#8220We formed our own government and we decided to stick together,” Bellew said. &#8220That way, none of us loses.”

Bellew brought a foam pillow and two vehicles – one to sleep in and the other to watch DVDs – wrote love letters to a girlfriend and received free food from several local businesses while waiting the most lucrative wait of his life.

Someone even brought him brownies.

&#8220It’s not bad out here,” Bellew said. &#8220People think we’re roughing it. Sure it was raining earlier, but I was in my car.”

Morguelan, a psychology sophomore at Western, said he’ll probably have to wait to next year to buy another PlayStation 3, since it will be at least another month until the next shipment.

At Best Buy, the gaming township of tents was still up early this morning as more than 20 waited outside the store’s doors.

Kyle Gerkins, operations manager for Best Buy, said last year people were willing to wait 18 hours before they could buy the Microsoft Xbox.

&#8220The demand for this is much higher than the 360,” Gerkins said.

EB Games at 1625 Campbell Lane had taken presold orders a month ago, but were already sold out before this week began.

Gamers are also awaiting the launch of the Nintendo Wii, a less pricey console of about $250 that will be released Sunday morning.

Managers at Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target said they’ll have more of the Wii consoles than there were of Sony’s PlayStation 3.