Just noticed

[tanksoldier]

Not sure this is exactly the right category, but if anyone's interested...

I noticed that the Isengard, Rohan, Helm's Deep and Fields of Battle: The Guide to Barbarians & Warriors are all listed by Amazon as coming available in July... and all can be advance purchased.

Paths of the Wise: The Guide to Magicians & Loremasters is listed on Amazon as well, but cannot be advance purchased yet.

[Ezri's Toy]

Warning on that:

Amazon lists a lot of publications that are "Coming Soon" (including listing a publishing date) when, in fact, the status of those books are up in the air. Such is the case with the LOTR and Star Trek RPGs from Decipher.

For me personally, I only buy from Amazon when I know the product has been produced and is available.

[Balok]

Amazon will let you pre-order, but it's only a bookmark. When the item comes in, that starts the fulfillment process: your card is charged and your product shipped. If the item never comes in, the "bookmark' remains in the database until it does, until the manufacturer cancels the item, or until Amazon determines that the item will never be published.

Pre-ordering is just a way to capture the business of early adopters: those folks who want the product darn near as soon as it's available, before some other vendor can get them.

Amazon puts things in their database as soon as a manufacturer provides sales information and a reasonably firm shelf date. They deal with many manufacturers, and don't have the time to verify this information (beyond the fact that item comes in or not), nor do they have the time or inclination to assign confidence levels to manufacturer's statements. It's not in their interest to do so, anyway, since such statements will never strengthen the possiblity of a sale, but could weaken it. And, such statements could irritate suppliers, alienate customers (when they're wrong), and be unfair to suppliers (also when they're wrong).

To sum up: the ability to pre-order from Amazon is a guarantee of nothing. People lie on the Internet And in that vein: this information comes to you courtesy of conversations I've had with Amazon represenatives, levened by a little educated guesswork. I'm not lying about what I've heard or guessed, but I could be wrong; only you can decide whether to trust me or not!

[Doug Burke]

Also remember that Amazon is notorious for getting the wrong release dates. They once said one of the Trek books (I think it was Starships, but I could be wrong) would be released on December 31, 1969.

[Brandir]

And these books originally had a February release date according to Amazon - back in the days when there was a glimmer of hope!