I'll let you in on a little secret, SF iPhone line-sitters: AT&T stores are selling the phone, too.

After surveying the hundred or more people lined up at the Apple store on Stockton and Ellis in downtown San Francisco this morning, I decided to see how things were going a couple blocks up the street at the closest AT&T store. What did I find? There were all of five people as of 10:30 a.m. Five! And the first two seemed more concerned with selling either their spots or their iPhones than anything else, pumping me for current going rates and line statistics. Strangely enough, both had decided on $500 when I interviewed them despite that short line. This was pointed out, and I was requested to bring over more people from the Apple Store.

J. Martin and Amanda Rybarczyk--both self-described "poor college students"--arrived outside the AT&T store at 3 a.m. Prior to that, they were actually up the street at the Apple store. Martin, however, had an early morning epiphany, and managed to convince his fellow line-waiter to make the two-block journey up the street. It paid off.

"We were actually about 60-something in line," said Martin, "and we came over here and got first and second. Boom." Martin and Rybarczyk aren't actually keeping their iPhones, but instead are hoping to turn a tidy little profit. Both are practical, saying that at some point they may purchase the phone, but only after the "bugs" have been worked out.

"I have no desire to get the equivalent of a first-generation iPod again," Rybarczyk, who is currently a Sprint customer, said. Martin is of the same mind. "I was going to make 60 or 70 bucks today at work, so I'm thinking this is way more worth it."

Both Martin and Rybarczyk say the AT&T store representatives have been more than accommodating, allowing Martin to sip occasionally from his Tecate and reassuring both of them that they're in the right spot and that those chumps at the Apple stores won't all be getting their precious little device. Not surprisingly, neither the AT&T store rep nor an Apple Store manager I spoke with would give me details on stock or even how things would proceed, come 6 p.m.

So with that, I head back out. More iPhone line-up news and, hopefully, more on Martin and Rybarczyk (if they haven't sold their spots yet) to come...