iPhone 5 cubed: The scene at Apple's flagship NY store (pictures)

Big crowds waited to buy the iPhone 5 outside of Apple stores across the country on September 21, 2012. Nowhere were they bigger than at the company's flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York.

Hours before the iPhone 5 goes on sale, the facade of Apple's Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan is obscured by a giant black cloak. Much of the view is also blocked by a row of satellite trucks parked in front.

Members of the New York City Police Department patrolled near "the Cube" at Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan as the retail outlet prepared to put the company's new iPhone 5 on sale.

Jessica Mellow, who waited in line a week for the iPhone 5, flashes her sure-thing tickets outside the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in NYC. The tickets guaranteed the holder that a phone would be waiting for them once inside the store.

The line at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store at about 8:45 a.m. ET, 45 minutes after the store opened for business. The line was definitely long, but Apple kicked the transaction process into gear and was quickly cycling through buyers.

Prior to the door opening at the Cube at 8 a.m. ET, the line wound all the way down 58th Street. What you're seeing here is the line extending around the block up Madison Avenue at around 8:45 a.m. ET.

Dozens of cameramen trained their lenses on the front door of the Cube waiting for the first person to come out holding the iPhone 5.

Hazem Sayed, CEO of Vibe, came out holding an iPhone 5 tied for first or second. Doesn't matter -- Sayed was the person reporters flocked to for interviews.

Greg Packer, a known publicity seeker, is the first or second person out of the Fifth Avenue store with an iPhone 5 in hand at around 8:22 a.m.

This was the scene outside the Cube at 11 a.m. About 100 people were still in line and a steady stream of shoppers continued to join it.

The line outside the Verizon store in Midtown Manhattan was short and sweet.

Just off the entrance of Apple's Fifth Avenue store, a man offered to pay cash for older iPhone models.