For those in London, going to the HMV midnight event almost guarantees you a Collector's Edition, that's what I did for Wrath. Pre-ordering through sites like Amazon doesn't guarantee you'll get one, just that they will try. I always want to have the thing in my hands.

i tried to pre-order the collector's edition this week from gamestop. i was told that they could not pre-order anymore collector's edition copies, but i could still pre-order the standard copy. they said that they are only sent a certain amount of collector's editions, and they had already reached the max (all three local gamestops told me the same thing). best buy was the same way, so i ordered it through wal-mart's online store.

Ah, Gamestop. I don't personally play Starcraft, but I have several friends who do. They pre-ordered SC II, and asked Gamestop if they were having any midnight release event for it. They were told, "We only do that for BIG games, like Halo."

/facepalm

Oh, and Amazon is showing their scheduled ship date for Cataclysm as November 23. Don't know if that means anything, but it's there. Quote: "Available for Pre-order. This item will be released on November 23, 2010." Then on the main item page, it notes that the release date and price have not been announced by the publisher.

Yeah I tried to get a preorder at Gamestop but they were full, after only about 9 copies the employee said. I got the WotLK Collector's Edition there last time though. Instead I went over to Play N Trade, a similar smaller chain store, and preordered it there. It costs $10 down, and you can pay the rest later.

Everyone likes to go to gamestop to buy their games. I hate this.
They can only pre-order so many copies per location and not all locations are open til midnight on release day.

The advice about visiting a big box store is spot on. May Wal-Marts are open 24 hours so there is a possible solution.

If you're not worried about picking up your collector's edition until regular store hours stores like Best Buy or Fry's are perfect.
For Wrath I was worried about pre-orders and had heard things about there not being enough produced to meet demand. Then the day of launch I walked into a Fry's only to see a humongous pyramid of Collector Edition boxes. Took less than 10 minutes from the time I parked to the time I pulled away. No silly lines in the cold and rain.

I work for gamestop, and they've stopped pre-orders on cataclysm, they stopped more than a month ago. Even though there is no release date they stopped.

There have been many times people pre-ordered the collector's edition, or the legendary edition of something, and then decided to get the normal, and never cancel their pre-order so Gamestop is taking a new stance on that. I'm sure this is not at all Gamestop's but its not just at my store either. So find one that still does it or better yet, pre-order from somewhere other than Gamestop.

It seems kinda silly to me cause its better to have a few extra collector's to sell than get less pre-orders, but its their company so they do what they want. I hate it for guys who come in super excited like they got in just in time to pre-order, and find out 3 months before their game is coming out that we're not taking collector's pre-orders. :(

If you pre-order one from Gamestop, trust me they'll 99% of the time have it. But if you want collector's, and they aren't taking it, just go pre-order from amazon or something.

With apologies to any Gamestop employees, don't bother pre-ordering amything from Gamestop. Gamestop has the nasty habit of making items seem more rare than they are, pulling you into the pre-order craze. Our local Fry's STILL has WotLK Collector's Editions on the shelf, and up until about 6 months ago, had the BC Collector's Edition. Gamestop creates their own scarcity. If this release is like the others, you'll have no problem walking into any place other than Gamestop, and getting the Collector's Ed.

@Johny

I used to work for Gamestop and I have to say that for the big releases with REAL collector's editions you HAVE to go the day that they are announced or you will not be getting one. Wrath was "sold out" in about 2 hours around me, and I have 3 GameStops less than a mile from me, 14 are "close by", and about 30 in the region. I think MAYBE 2 of them lasted the first day.

This isn't about collector's editions, but it's similiar.

If i want to buy just a regular edition of cataclysm, would I have to pre-order If i want it on release day, or would i be able to walk into a store like Futureshop or EB Games on release day (not at the midnight release) and just pick one up?