Ive watched the secondary market for tons of product launches and when it looks like this the night before, it does NOT bode well for the scalpers. Unless we get into a long-term shortage pattern like with the Wii, which isn't likely, the scalpers are going to take a bath on this one. Either way, this is certainly not their best-case-scenario. If the delivery estimates on apple.com had moved past 2-3 weeks, it would be different. The people who sold their preorders a few days ago are the ones who made out the best, and their buyers can still possibly pull the plug on them.
Apple did a fantastic job here meeting demand.
Eh... Too early to tell. People can just return stuff anyway so the only thing that is lost is time.
The whole idea of scalping for electronics has really grown into a 1-2 day gig for some and because everyone is trying to do it now, it's only going to make it worse for other scalpers. I remember people were buying $1000+ (as high as $1400) PS3s when they first came out and it was just absurd. Year after year, the margin of profit is just going down and down because more people are purchasing to sell versus to keep. We'll find out Monday on how Apple is doing on meeting the demand, what the sell value is, and if iPads end up getting returned.