Pre-orders are becoming a bigger part of the hobby and often solicit strong emotions. One of our websites (PopPriceGuide) in the past did not accept Pre-Order Price Points. We have changed that. Here is the rationale -
Some buyers pre-order and then try to find the same item cheaper elsewhere and if they do cancel the initial order. In those cases that earlier price has not been paid. We care about the true intention of paying a price. Say a collector makes a pre-order of a price of $80 on June 1 and then another one of $50 a week later canceling her or his earlier order then both of those are valid Price Points for those two dates as the collector had the intention to pay that amount. Conversely the same would be true if her or his seller cancels the first transaction as the price has shot up and our collector now pre-orders the same item for $120.
While "price-gouging" is anything else than fun it is a fact of collecting life and hobbyDB wants to approximate the current value as closely as possible. The above curve is quite commonly observed for a new "hot" item. A further reason for reflecting this curve correctly is that it will allow better predictions in the future (by for example showing all new Sideshow Collectible pre-orders of Statues over the last 3 years) helping collectors to decide when to buy.