Never did 'midnight sales', find them kind of weird and pointless. Best Of 80-90 would have been the first album I bought the day it was released, and ATYCLB the first new material album bought the day of (I had only heard snippets of songs before buying the album).
Actually I have a kind of funny story regarding ATYCLB's release day, which illustrates how obsessed we can be as fans! I was working on the release day, so I was going to go get it after work. It was a really important moment for me, being my first 'new' U2 album experience, and I had planned how I was going to listen to it the first time by myself etc.
The night before, a friend of mine came to pick me up, and as I was walking towards his car, I heard music that was strangely familiar but new at the same time... I got nervous, and then when I opened the door my friend was like "Come in quick! They're playing tracks from the new U2 album on the radio!" and I was like "Nooooooooooo!!!! Turn it off imediately! I'm not ready! It needs to be the whole thing at once, in a controlled environment!"
My friend thought I was weird but turned it off.
Then on the day of the release, I went to work being all excited about going to the store later on. I was working as a technician for a circus training studio, and I was in this massive training room with tons of people, directing a crew of guys working 40 feet in the air hanging lights. I was in the middle of telling them where to go next, with the plan in my hands, when I heard the first notes of BD on the PA... I thought "Fuck! I bet someone got the new album this morning and is playing it for everyone to listen, this is not the single!"
So I left in the middle of a conversation, ran across the room to the guy who had just put the CD on, who I didn't know and was giving a tour of the studio to a bunch of visitors, and I said (in front of about 10 strangers) " Is this the new U2 album?" The guy said 'Yeah!' and I was like "Listen, I know it's going to look like I'm the weirdest person ever, but I am the biggest U2 fan you'll ever come across, and I have been waiting for this album for months. It's really going to ruin it for me if the first time I listen to it is while I am working and can't concentrate on the music! Can you please turn it off?"
The guy (and the other ten people whose presentation I had just interrupted) looked at me like I was a bit of a psycho, but then said "yeah that's cool, I understand, I'll turn it off". Then I had to come back to my co-workers and explain why I had suddenly left... yeah I'm a weirdo!
