Apple Stores around the country are seeing long lines filled with hopeful iPhone 5S owners who've been unable to pre-order the company's latest smartphone online.
It's rare for Apple to launch a new iPhone without a pre-order in place a week ahead of time, but that process was limited to the cheaper iPhone 5C.
In Santa Monica, Calif., Apple fans and paid line sitters have been camping out in front of the Apple Store since 2 p.m., many hoping for the gold iPhone 5S.
The first spot in line is actually going for quite a bit of gold - $1,000 for the position guaranteed to have a person's choice model and color of the iPhone 5S in stock.
Going for the gold, may only get silver
We found consumers most anxious for the gold iPhone 5S, but reports have indicated that gold and silver are going to be the hardest to find in stores.
Online, the Apple Store sold out of the gold iPhone 5S for normal one to three day delivery within a few minutes on all networks. It has since been pushed back to shipping in October.
Not all hope is lost. The iPhone 5S in space gray (which looks more like black) and silver are still available with one to three days delivery on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon.
T-Mobile is the only carrier showing seven to 10 days delivery for these two non-gold iPhone 5S colors.
Then there's the plastic iPhone 5C models in a variety of colors. Plenty of them are available it seems, even though pre-orders began a week ago.
- Read our iPhone 5S review and iPhone 5C review.
