Preorders

[Pandorous]

Well, I've just had my longest pre-order fulfilled. The email has come in that an order I placed just 16 days short of 2 years ago has shipped. There was another that was closer to 1 year 9 months and I believe there are two more approximately 1.5 years old. All foreign currency.

So in the spirit of the Pandora only being 2 months away ( ) I was wondering how long people have waited (aside from the Pandora (it'd ruin the results if we left it in there as we all know how long it has taken ) for a pre-order.

Why? I'm curious. There's a lot of whinging and whining so I wonder what experience we've all had with pre-orders.

In case anyone is wondering, yes I do realise that this is about as accurate as a baboon with a bow and arrow set.

P, who will need to vote when he gets his precious so he can answer the last question.

 

[gruso]

Pandora was the first product I'd ever pre-ordered. In the meantime, I've pre-ordered two other things. First was a XIM360, which took a few months. I was already seasoned by the Pandora wait at that stage, so I wasn't stressed about it at all. Funny seeing all the people in their forums going nuts over a one month delay though. I was thinking, you kids haven't seen anything! The icing on the cake was that when shipping time finally came, they realised they had screwed up the currency conversion at checkout. So all the Aussie orders got asked for more money. These guys were new to the business of selling this stuff, and I could see how stressful it was for them. What they had at stake was nothing compared to the Pandora project, and it really gave me a new appreciation of how the Pandora team has kept the wheels turning in the face of much bigger obstacles.

Next was an UltraSatan, which is a dual SD card interface for Atari ST. It's been a few months now, and they're currently being made. They got hit with a Paypal lockdown too, but everything's on track and we're expecting August/September delivery. It's pretty much running on time. (I don't think I'll ever try to get money from Australia to Slovakia again though. Massive pain in the arse!)

All three of these little pre-order journeys have the same things in common. A small group of enthusiasts building a niche product, a real sense of community, and a reasonable amount of stress woven in. I spoke to both the other dev teams about Pandora, which they seemed quite interested to hear about. I almost got the sense that they were comforted by hearing about a project far scarier than the one they were undertaking. :lol:

Anyway, no horror stories. If another product came up that had to be pre-ordered, I'd do it again.

 

[lulzfish]

I haven't pre-ordered anything yet, but I'm going for a second batch Pandora once orders open for them.

 

[Trevsweb]

ive only preordered consoles and videos games before as theres normally some hign demand for the product or you get some insentive for doing so. nothing over 1 month i guess
couldnt fill in the poll as some questions didnt relate to me. (question 2)
pandora is the only thing ive preordered so much in advance

 

[WizardStan]

I pre-ordered... something, a long many years ago that I can't recall. It was delayed.
I pre-ordered Half-Life 2 the month before it was first scheduled to be released. I got a sweet shirt out of that delay at least.
I pre-ordered LoZ:TP when it was still a GameCube exclusive. After it was delayed, I upgraded to the Wii version.
I pre-ordered Mario Party 8 for some reason. Only a short delay on that one, a couple weeks I think it was.
After that, I said I'd never pre-order again unless I was getting something special for being a pre-order, rather than waiting for the release.
And then I pre-ordered a Pandora. 9 months later...

 

[Pandorous]

ive only preordered consoles and videos games before as theres normally some hign demand for the product or you get some insentive for doing so. nothing over 1 month i guess

I think I first started with DVDs, one or two months in advance...

couldnt fill in the poll as some questions didnt relate to me. (question 2)

You can't choose none for the multi-select? It's my first poll and I was hoping you could...

P.

 

[gruso]

Hmm, I didn't mention games. They are one thing I won't pre-order again. It's a silly rort to grab early sales, when half the time the product is sitting in a warehouse (or the actual shop) awaiting "launch date". Three times I've pre-ordered Xbox 360 games from Retailer A, only to have Retailer B break the launch date two days early. So everyone's on the internet talking about the game, while I'm waiting for my retailer to come to the party. But hey, at least I get a collector comic! <_<

Pre-ordering a piece of niche tech before manufacture is cool with me. Pre-ordering from a big game or movie studio as part of their launch strategy - GGF!

 

[lulzfish]

No, you can't choose nothing for the multi-select, so I just put "Expensive".

Because Need For Speed Underground 2 WAS expensive. Even though I didn't pre-order it, and even though it was a crappy game.

 

[Pandorous]

No, you can't choose nothing for the multi-select, so I just put "Expensive".

Well that's just bloody annoying. "Fixed". Sorta.

Because Need For Speed Underground 2 WAS expensive. Even though I didn't pre-order it, and even though it was a crappy game.

Heh. I have NfS: Underground. Bought it off ebay.

P.

 

[Pleng]

I have never pre-ordered anything before. I don't usually find out about cool stuff until waaaay into its development cycle. I didn't hear about GP2X until a couple of years ago. But that kinda led me into PandyLand

 

[tsh]

I ordered a £450 camera lens when it had been in production for over 6 months. Took me 7 months to get hold of, and I wish I'd ordered one direct from taiwan when I first had a chance!

 

[ScottChegg]

This is the first thing Ive pre-ordered.
Looking forward to the finished unit, but like most things if somethings worth doing its worth doing properly

 

[Pleng]

Oh I told a lie!

I did pre-order a Roland guitar unit once. I ordered in in Sept and it was due 'in two weeks'. I think I finally got it at the beginning of Dec.

 

[sold]

I've never pre-ordered anything before. But I have pre-ordered a Pandora twice :lol: The first time, I had to accept a refund because I payed by CC. Even though I would have preferred to wait, the banking fiasco meant I had to accept a refund,and I couldn't pre-order again straight away because of other expenses.

But I pre-ordered again as soon as I could afford to because this project is the only one of its kind AFAIK. I think it deserves to succeed because it is awesome, and the devs had the balls to attempt it. It is a massive undertaking after all.

There is no relevant question in the poll so I couldn't vote IMHO, anyone who as been supporting this endeavor from the beginning has had no real expectations. We just want it to come to fruition.

 

[Schugy]

I've preordered Ankh, Ankh2 and Jack Keane for Linux. I really trust that shop in my country. I don't want to buy a Pandora from a frist batch and I'd like to have one in a colour and not in black. I've bought an Everun Note to stay busy until the 2nd batch Pandora arrives. Seems like Raon Digital has just gone out of business :-{

 

[carlgeorge]

I've pre-ordered loads of consoles over the years. Here are some of the highlights that I remember clearly, but there are certainly more that I have forgotten about at the moment:

Wii -- probably two/three months ahead of launch.
Dreamcast -- Pre-ordered a Japanese import. Waited about one and a half months for that. Cost £150 at the time and one year later they finally released the Dreamcast over here in the UK at £180.
Zodiac -- Ordered off GBAX but never came into stock even though I waited about three months. Finally gave-up and cancelled the order.
SmartQ5 -- Again off GBAX and cancelled after a few months of waiting for what was actually an impulse buy in the first place.
Wiz -- Again GBAX, waited and finally arrived after several months.
Pandora -- easily the longest that I have had to wait for a pre-order -- if we get to the 1-year mark and it still isn't here then I'll probably cancel that order too. There are limits to how long I am prepared to wait for everything.

 

[(naw)mcx]

I remember pre-ordering Brawl and my GP2X. The Pandora too, of course.

 

[midna25]

I pre-ordered a Nintendo Wii shortly before launch. It arrived in February (Around 3 months) And I got updates every time I called the store. All was well.

 

[danielliu88888]

whoops! thank you naw, i forgot i preordered brawl too. it came the day i expected it to.

 

[Yigguth]

I forgot how long it's been since the the Pandora preorders were taken