Extra! Extra! Barack Obama's election win sends newspaper sales soaring

From the nation's largest daily, USA Today, to its more modest broadsheets, newspapers expanded press runs to accommodate enormous sales. Some papers even sold special gift editions and framed front pages.

But news racks -- even if they were replenished with copies -- became barren in the blink of an eye as people scrambled to snag mementos for their memory books and mantelpieces. In Los Angeles, Miami and all points in between, people lined up to buy copies of their daily paper.

The Chicago Tribune sold framed front pages for as much as $99. A single copy of the New York Times is said to have sold on EBay for $249.99, and another copy of that paper drew more than 20 bids before the auction closed -- for $400.

One man bought 100 copies of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at 75 cents apiece and immediately began selling them at a 25-cent markup.

"I think what this really says, at a huge moment in history, is that people want something to keep and to remember," said Julia Wallace, editor of the Journal-Constitution and the newspaper's online editorial operations. "A newspaper has a very historic, commemorative feel to it. More than anything, it's about having this to pass on to their children and grandchildren."

The Atlanta paper initially printed an additional 55,000 copies to supplement its weekday press run of 375,000. But heavy sales forced the paper to print 150,000 more copies to meet demand.

USA Today boosted by 500,000 its weekday press run of roughly 2 million. The Washington Post, the fourth-largest paper by circulation, planned to print 350,000 papers and then sell them for $1.50, triple the regular newsstand price.

The Los Angeles Times printed 107,000 papers in addition to its weekday press run of 750,000, and sold some at retail outlets because copies were being pilfered from newsstands. Meanwhile, a steady stream of customers came to the Times' headquarters in downtown L.A. to buy copies of the paper.

"For the past two years, our campaign team provided outstanding and insightful coverage," said Times Editor Russ Stanton, "and we are grateful that readers want to savor this moment in our nation's history."