Shoppers looking for a wonder cure for wrinkles packed Boots stores yesterday as new stocks of a popular anti-ageing cream went on sale.

Shoppers looking for a wonder cure for wrinkles packed Boots stores yesterday as new stocks of a popular anti-ageing cream went on sale.

Such was the demand for No 7 Protect and Perfect Beauty Serum that the product was sold out in Scotland by lunchtime.

Although the policy was one-per-customer, dozens of bottles soon popped up on eBay, with prices as high as £75 for the 30ml container, compared with the £16.75 store price.

A queue of more than 100 people gathered outside Boots' flagship store in Princes Street, Edinburgh, which opened at 7am to cater for the demand.

Paul Mitchell, Boots' country manager in Scotland, said demand had been phenomenal with their big stores in Aberdeen and Braehead and St. Enoch in Glasgow selling 1000 bottles each by lunchtime.

"The interest in the product throughout Scotland has been staggering," said Mr Mitchell. "Demand for No 7 has outstripped anything we have seen in recent years and is one of our best-selling lines ever.

"The product has sold out but we are working round the clock to get it back in the stores and 1000 bottles an hour are coming off the production line at our main centre in Nottingham. Hopefully we will have them in stores by next Thursday."

Interest in the cream increased when it was featured on a BBC2 Horizon programme in March which claimed it lived up to its claim of repairing sun damage and reducing the depth of wrinkles.

Stocks immediately sold out after the broadcast and 50,000 British women signed up to waiting lists.

The queue outside the Edinburgh store at 7am was mostly made up of women of all ages but there were also several men, who insisted they were buying the product for their wives or girlfriends.

First in the queue was Mamie Johnston, 67, of the Inch area of Edinburgh.

"At my age desperate measures are required," smiled Ms Johnston. "I have heard all about the product on television and have a wedding to go to, so thought I would give it a try. I arrived at Boots at 5.30am to be first in the queue and their staff gave me a cup of tea."

Taxi driver Alistair Leckie, who was fourth in the queue, was not even sure what he was queuing for as he had been asked by his boss to go along and pick up a bottle of the product.