While my area boasts 15+ stores that carry significant Games Workshop merchandise, I was surprised to find out the DE's tally after only a day of being released. The manager of the LGS I go to told me that he ordered 25 codices (not counting pre-ordered ones) for release and by the time I got there at 5:30pm, they had sold 23 of them. I bought the 24th. Twenty-four codices in one day? That is crazy! On top of that, there was not a single Dark Eldar model left to buy when I got there. Well over $2000 worth of miniatures disappeared within hours of the store opening I was told. And this was a common occurrence I found out after I called around to the other stores in the area. The Twin Cities area is cleaned out of Dark Eldar. I can imagine the same will be across the USA from the accounts I've been hearing online.
I knew and prophesied that there would be huge drove of DE players out there that would emerge from the wood-work when they were re-released. But how large this group of people actually is, is awe-inspiring. I can only hope that GW doesn't take its usual knee-jerk response to attribute excellent sales to a codex being overpowered (for non-marine codices). A perfect example was the Tyranid codex. Sold very well, then got nerfed in the FAQ. I believe that the Dark Eldar will dwarf that number and they deserve to remain untouched by the nerf bat after being forced to endure a 12 year hiatus.
I look forward to beginning the process. My first order? One Archon, two Warrior squads, and two Raiders. Exactly enough for basic first 500 points. :)