At Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York, atrocious weather kept the crowds small initially--two hours before the store opened its doors to iPad 2 customers, the queue in front barely extended out into the street. But as the clock got close to the 5 p.m. local time launch, the crowd grew, with the line stretching down the block and around the corner down Madison Avenue.

"It's been a real fun atmosphere out here, even when we were all freezing and soaking wet in the middle of the night," said Andrew Christian, a 26-year-old certified pharmacy technician who had been in line since 6 p.m. Thursday. That earned him the 11th spot in line at the Fifth Avenue store, close enough to the front for him to quickly get his hands on a new iPad.

"I'm excited by everything [about the iPad 2]--the faster graphics, the processors, the cameras, the thinness, even the Smart Covers," said Christian, who sold his original iPad a few weeks ago on eBay. "The first thing I'm going to do is download GarageBand because I'm also a musician. So I'm really excited to get my hand on smart instruments."

First place in line at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store cost Hazem Sayed $900--that's how much he paid to a college student who was offering to sell her spot in line to the highest bidder. But Sayed isn't complaining--he's an iOS developer who makes , a location-based messaging app that allows you to pose questions to people in your vicinity.

"It's totally worth it," Sayed said. "It's great publicity."