• Get lottery tickets!

• Go to the grocery store and choose a gift card they have there. They usually have a good variety.

• Go through the Starbucks drive-thru! Think gift cards!

I know that some lucky people got TMX Elmos at Walmart the day after Thanksgiving. How do I know? I was there and happened to hear it but the line was enormous! So I knew I had no chance! Did a child in your life want one? Did you get your hands on one? Where did you find it? Below is some interesting research done on TMX Elmo and the phenomenon.

According to Hammertap's recent research, the dolls have been averaging $84 per Elmo, with total resale revenues of $1.6 million. The product retails for $40, so that's an average profit of $44 per Elmo, with people paying about double the retail amount to find this sold-out toy.

Some other "extreme" Elmo stats:

• A lot of 30 TMX Elmos sold for $3000 with a Buy It Now in Sept. 27. Shipping was $100. Yes, that's $100 per Elmo, not including shipping.
• A lot of 20 Elmos sold for $2500 with 1 bid on Sept. 22.
• An individual TMX Elmo sold for $299.99 on Sept. 20, one of the highest single prices for this doll I found on eBay.
• Some of the lowest prices for new TMX Elmos were around only $43, with most of those being around Sept. 19 and 20, close to the date Elmo just went on sale.
• Prices for TMX Elmos on amazon.com (all from private sellers) start at $137.99, with 103 available, and go all the way up to $2449.99 for an "English version."

Let's look at some more stats, these one pulled Sunday, Oct. 1 with the Hammertap DeepAnalysis tool:

• 100,000 auctions studied, total sales of TMX Elmos: $3,670,129.55.
• Number of auctions with sale: 41,160
• Number of sellers with sale: 11,307
• Average sales price per auction: $89.17
• Auction Success Rate: 93.85%
• Average number of sales per seller: 3.64
• Average revenue per seller: $324.59