When we headed down to the Apple store last week ahead of the iPhone launch, we found a substantial number of punters who were hoping to flip their newly-purchased iPhones for a substantial premium on Ebay. Sorry to take the wind out of your sails, guys, but data released today by Ebay indicate that the secondary iPhone market may not be as vibrant as some people predicted.

Just over 3,770 iPhones had changed hands on Ebay as of 3:45pm on Monday, at an average price of $701.98. A further 5,483 were listed for sale. Assuming that most of the iPhones sold were 8GB models (a Piper Jaffray note this weekend said 95 per cent of customers were walking out with 8GB models), that’s a premium of just $100 or so over the purchase price, and that’s not even including tax. That’s hardly a great return, especially when factoring in the opportuity cost of taking time off work to wait in line for hours, or, in some cases, overnight. 

It’s not all bad news for iPhone entrepreneurs, however. On Saturday, one iPhone sold for an eye-popping $12,500, according to Ebay Marketplace Research, which warns that Ebay "cannot verify that the transaction is complete, however the sale appears legitimate."

One born every minute, I guess.

So my second impressions of my iphone are about the same as my first.

- Typed on my Blackberry handheld.

A my awxpms impresiima of my iPhone we sour rw saw amy diats.

- The same sentence typed on my iPhone.

Yes, I still can’t get used to this keyboard even after watching the video about using it on the Apple site. It does advise using one finger at first, rather than two thumbs, but I can’t work that way and in some applications you can’t switch the orientation to get a wider keyboard.

What else? I’m still not enamoured with Web browsing, which I hoped would be the killer app for this phone. I’m still using the slower Edge network - the iPhone won’t work with my home wi-fi network, even though I’ve a dozen other devices that have configured themselves without a hitch.

When browsing, the web page itself is initially too small and, while touching it to magnify it, it’s very easy to click another link and go sailing off somewhere else. In hope rather than expectation, I clicked on a link to some cricket commentary. Needless to say, it did not work, as Windows Media Player and Real Player plug-ins are not included.

Apple, in its proprietary way, has complete control of the experience. So the approved Yahoo weather and stock ticker icons work okay along with Google’s YouTube and Maps, but don’t expect to be listening to unfettered internet radio on this device any time soon or any non-approved video sites.

I am planning to return the iPhone once I’ve finished reviewing it. I was not planning to buy one for personal use and, after trying it out, still feel the same way. While Apple offers a superior user experience, it doesn’t give me the freedom to create my own.

Apple is ignoring the Web 2.0 trend of sharing and self-expression. It doesn’t even allow its owners to make their own ringtones from a favourite song or buy a third party’s.

It is also Version 1.0 and has too many features lacking right now - GPS, more memory, 3G wireless, instant messaging, no memory card slots to name a few.

The iPhone is beautiful, but just not my type. The best thing it has done is to raise the bar for every other handset maker to come up with a better phone.

I counted exactly 99 people in the queue in front of me when I arrived outside the Apple store in Corte Madera, California at around 7.15pm on Friday. There were more queuing inside past security, while others were steadily emerging with their special iPhone bags, most of them carrying the maximum-allowed two.

I’m not a queue jumper but I did happen to meet John Paczkowski, who blogs at All Things Digital and was halfway along the line. He was only buying one and offered to get me mine. By 8pm, I too was walking away with an iPhone bag.

John had arrived at 6pm when they first went on sale, finding a much longer line. But the Apple operation was impressive, buyers were processed quickly with no need to activate the phone instore and emails being sent out rather than paper receipts issued.

It was so organised and there were enough iPhones in stock to make anyone who had been queuing long before 6pm look foolish. The profiteers may feel even more so if the iPhone fails to sell out and they are unable to double their money selling theirs on eBay.

The iPhone comes in a stylish black box, the kind you expect to open and find a Fabergé egg nestling inside. Everything about the packaging oozes class, matching the phone it encases. You feel you are holding a thing of beauty: sleek, black and silver, a heft to it that lends substance and a display that lights up to reveal an interface unmatched by any other handheld device, let alone cellphones.

Activating it was a cinch online once I had downloaded the latest version of iTunes. It also synced right off the bat with my iTunes library and allowed me to import contacts and diary items from Outlook and bookmarks from Internet Explorer.

The iPhone likes to be stroked. A lot. This is probably a feature intended to engender pet-like attachment from its owner. Apple could have made it purr, but that could have made it too Furbie like. You stroke the iPhone to unlock, scroll through lists and flick through photo slideshows and iTunes record sleeves.

My first impression is that this is a design statement and entertainment device rather than a useful business tool I would carry around for work. Too much functionality is hidden for the sake of clean design in both the interface and the number of buttons available. The Edge network is painfully slow for web browsing, I find the keyboard far too small and practically impossible to use at the moment and I cannot imagine my IT department delivering company emails to me on this device.

Watching videos, listening to music and viewing photos is a dream though. My kids loved it, but could not figure out why this was the only phone they’d ever encountered without any games on it.

I’ve only had the iPhone a few hours, so these are first thoughts and there’s a first look on video below.

Jerry Taylor, moments after he walked out the Apple store with the first iPhone bought in San Francisco.

We took a stroll past the San Francisco Apple store this morning and this is what we found:

More photos after the jump…

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From far and wide, arch-geeks have converged on Apple stores across the US to wait out the final 24 hours of iPhone madness. Until very recently, one notable exception had been the San Francisco Apple store, but a brief check after lunch confirmed that a small number of iPhone loonies have begun to set up camp there as well.

In New York, the first iPhone camper was revealed to be none other than Greg Packer, a notorious attention hog known for waiting in line at product launches and celebrity events in hope of being quoted in the newspaper. In Palo Alto, the noted tech blogger Robert Scoble was the first in line, along with his son Patrick.

The serious business on the last day of life as we know it began with a town hall meeting at Apple headquarters, where Steve Jobs said that each Apple employee would receive a free 8GB iPhone by the end of July as a reward for their hard work, then proceeded to give a strategy update. A tipster told ARS Technica that Jobs compared Apple’s business model to a chair with two legs - the iPod and the Mac.

The third leg of the chair, Steve hopes, will be the iPhone business, which he hopes to grow into something as strong as the iPod. He added that he hopes for the fourth leg to become the Apple TV, but focus is on the iPhone for now.

The Apple boss also hinted that new iPods and Macs might be coming in the near future.

With all this hype, it’s hard to believe that Apple will have enough iPhones on hand on Friday to keep up with demand. Not to worry, though. Beginning at 9pm on Thursday, customers will be able to go to the Apple web site to make sure the phone is still in stock on their local Apple store.

Here is a roundup of our recent iPhone coverage, just in case there’s anyone left out there who hasn’t had enough. See you on the flip side.

• Lex: Apple’s iPhone
• Motorola concerned at launch of iPhone
• Commeth the iPhone, commeth the cult
• iPhone costs hit Apple shares
• Vodafone tipped for iPhone deal in Europe
• Apple takes risks in bid to shake up the mobile market
• Apple’s core iPhone rivals

As many as 500,000 people are expected to attend San Francisco’s Gay Pride Celebration and Parade this weekend, while the fanatical followers of Nascar have also arrived in the Bay Area, filling fields with RVs for the latest event on the racing calendar at Sonoma’s Infineon Raceway.

This mixture of gays and rednecks has probably only been matched by the movie Talladega Nights, where Sacha Baron Cohen stars as a gay French Formula 1 driver challenging Will Ferrell’s hard-driving good ol’ boy Ricky Bobby.

Sony Electronics’ announcement of a personal endorsement deal with Nascar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr this week was like a scene straight out of the movie.

Staged at the top Napa winery, Nickel and Nickel, Earnhardt appeared on stage with Stuart Redsun, Sony’s head of corporate marketing, and delivered some classic Ricky Bobby-style quotes.

“We’re looking to partner with people that match my brand – I’m still trying to figure out what that means but I’m starting to giddit,” he said.

“My father had the Mr Intimidator style, when I came in I didn’t have that niche, I’ve just tried to be as down to earth as possible, the guy you run into at the gas station.”

He also confessed to being a huge Barry Manilow fan: “He’s awesome, American Bandstand, it’s not just me [that likes him] is it?”

And yet Earnhardt appears to like to crash and put back together computers and consumer electronics as much as cars.

“I can wire with the best of ‘em, if you want to talk the limits of technology, there’s so many things you can do with computers, some work out, some end up in sparks and fires,” he said.

As a test driver of Sony products, he may get through a lot of Vaios, but he is also likely to sell many more televisions to a demographic that , according to Sony, never stops watching television, and car racing in particular, in high definition and on big screens.

Sony already boasts the highest average selling prices and market share in the US HD market and hopes to lap its rivals with personality-driven endorsements of its products from cross-over sports stars such as Earnhardt and Peyton Manning of the NFL.