Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has praised US 360 shortages lead to eBay sale surge

With demand for Xbox 360 outstripping supply on both sides of the Atlantic, the boss of the US arm of eBay has claimed that her site has seen 40,000 360s sold since the machine launched over there.

Meg Whitman, chief executive of eBay, revealed on Thursday that users of her nerd-powered version of the car boot sale had bought and sold 40,000 of the next generation consoles during the 10 days since Microsoft's machine arrived in the shops.

This, if you accept the widely circulated figure of 400,000 Xbox 360s hitting shelves in the US, means that 10% of the consoles have already changed hands, and mostly for prices $100 to $250 above the ones paid in the shops.

And considering that most of the 6500 Xbox 360s currently listed for sale on the US site are described as being in their 'original packaging,' we guess that they aren't all being sold by US gamers who've already grown tired of Gotham or Call of Duty 2.

Unless they all need the money to pay for their liposuction.