Roberto just posted the the official information regarding pre-ordering the collector's edition over at BBG .

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Pre-orders of the War of the Ring Collector's Edition will officially open on thursday, 22nd at 10 am at the Spiel '09 game show in Essen, at the Nexus Games booth in hall 12 and at the Phalanx booth (for the German edition) in hall 9.

The selling price is E 299,99, which includes freight to any address in the European Union.

Each unit includes an individual numbered Certificate from 1 to 2000. Only 1000 units will be ready before Christmas.

Of these 1000 units, 400 english copies will fly to the United States (where they will be distributed by Fantasy Flight Games), 300 english copies will be distributed in Europe by NG International (Nexus Games), and 300 german copies will be distributed by Phalanx Games.

The War of the Ring Collector's Edition is undoubtly an expensive item, but I would ask you to look at it before giving your final judgment!

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Now we just need FFG to hurry up and announce their plans.

Yep. What will be their plans. Will undoubtably be checking this site daily now the collectors edition has finally made it to production!!

Pre-order has been live for nearly a day, but no comments?

Anyway, I think I placed my order less than 5 minutes after it showed up on the FFG shop. I probably could have waited to see if my FLGS is going to get it in, but I just didn't want to take the chance.

Placed my pre-order yesterday around 8 PM. Now just three questions:

1) If the FFG online store accepted my pre-order does that mean that I got my order in on time and that I am guaranteed one of the 800 copies being sent to the USA (400 pre-Christmas & 400 post-Christmas) or is FFG possibly accepting additional pre-orders in case they receive some additional copies (if, for example, those alotted to Nexus do not sell out and are shifted to FFG)?

2) When will FFG begin to ship their orders?

3) Any way to find out if I'm in the Pre-Christmas or the Post-Christmas shipment group?

I know that I'm being impatient here, but I've been waiting for this baby for two years and the suspense is killing me!!!!!!!!!

While I can't be 100% positive, I'm sure the fact that you placed your order guarantees you a copy. I've got my pre-order printout and my Order Received email, so I'm confident I'll be getting mine before Christmas.

It would be pretty amazing if the initial pre-Christmas copies sold out in less than a day, but I don't suspect that's the case. If you got your order in on day one, you should be getting one from the initial shipment.