I bought it. it was Wii U slim. He came from the future and needed money to buy plotoniom for his rather old vehicle.

... and people did this with Wii and PS3 in 2006... did work.

In fact, some PS3s sold for around two grand...

You have to keep in mind two things; first, there are people to whom $1000 is chump change.  Second, they don't know what the hell a WiiU is, all they know is that their kids are asking for it and it's already late November.  Of course these people are not simply going to be able to walk into a store at that point and buy one, so they turn to ebay in desperation just to make little Jimmy's Xmas morning special.

I think it's ridiculous as well, but as someone else pointed out earlier, there are people with more money than sense.

eBay is never a place to save money, just to get ripped off by people like SuperChunk.

I still love youSuperChunk!

Makes sense. Concert tickets go for 2-3 times the price too when compared to what they are intially sold for at ticketmaster. It is suppy and demand but as an economist i get skeptical thinking that some people who don't make too much money still end up spending on luxury items. There is no rush for a person who doesn't do drugs as good as instant gratification. 

Doesn't this happen with every new console?

Is it sold out every where in US. In canada pretty much every retailer has pre order stock. Limit 3 per household. If only it came with Wii Vitality Sensor.

I know you can still get the white version.  The first place I checked, Wal-mart, has a white Wii U + game bundle for preorder.

Actually, wait, they still have the black Wii U as well.  Same bundle +$50.

Yes, but if you notice, it doesn't ship until 12/31/12...

12/31 is a standard place-holder date for the end of the 4th Quarter.  When you see that, 95% of the time it just means that the actual shipping date is unconfirmed.  It will almost certainly be updated closer to launch.  It's possible that they want to have the physical product on hand before giving a concrete date.

Also, I believe Wal-mart has preferential status with Nintendo.  Their preorder cap is probably much, much larger than other retailers.  That status is considered by many to be part of the reason Amazon told Nintendo to go jump off a cliff.