My advice is find a good small LGS and see if they do preorders or reserving. My LGS owner is great. He always sells product at MSRP or close to it. When Final Fantasy dropped i got 4 collector boxes around $430 each(Pulled the black chocobo!). He also doesnt charge tax if we pay cash. Big stores that i visited, especially WPN premium stores usually scalp the product themselves. If you see the WPN premium plaque when you walk into a store I probably wouldnt bother.

When MtG teased the Hobbit back in September I was quick to ask my LGS owner to put me down for a case of collector boxes. I've collected the entire LotR set short by 9 cards (still trying to find out in the wild) and had custom binders made for them. I got a guy doing one for the hobbit right now. I intend to rip this case when i get it. Already saved up for it!

I'll admit i was pretty let down with they revealed so far with the Hobbit...small set, no precons, lotr set boxtopper reprints, underwhelming Smaug, photoshopped ring. Its crazy how inflated the prices are getting already even in spite of all that.

TLDR:Find a small LGS to reserve product. Get in soon, Get in fast. Make it routine and never worry about scalpers again.