Just a heads up for anyone that missed out on pre-ordering a 171... IF everything goes as planned and I receive the VF-171 that I pre-ordered from ebay, I'm going to be putting it up for sale as soon as it arrives for exactly what I paid for it ($260 shipped); I paid in advance for it, but I've decided to hunt down a 25S instead. Hit me up and I'll put a hold on it for you once it arrives; will expect payment only when I have it in hand and ready to ship to you (since apparently Bandai isn't reliably filling their pre-orders these days), otherwise no obligation if the pre-order falls through.
*BTW, anyone else pay in advance for their pre-order? I'm actually worried now seeing what's going on with the YF-29 pre-orders, and if the seller I went through doesn't ship in the time frame he stated ("within 4 days of official release date"), I'm planning to hit up ebay customer support to pull the plug on the transaction... thanks Bandai. lol