He and I have been emailing back and forth a little bit, he basically says he dragged his feet on ordering during the period where you could and has been kicking himself ever since, but he really wants the figure and doesn't want to take chances. And, he is getting the figure for less than the cost of the barge, and doesn't have to deal with the barge. I suppose a few hundred bucks isn't worth the time to people who have plenty of money and not a ton of time...
So he locked one down nice and early since the supply / demand on this thing when they really show up is going to be a total crap shoot. 8k of the things... probably half or more never see the light of day... are there more than 4k or 5k people worldwide who will want this one at several hundred dollars? Almost definitely.