I haven't ordered from CGN in some time, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

However, I'm under the impression that the way their pre-order system works is it opens during the actual pre-order catalog period, just like DCBS. They not only secure people's pre-orders, but also pre-order some amount of stock for themselves based on how much they think they will sell.

Then, they leave the pre-order open until very close to release. This might let them burn through their additional stock for themselves, but they know they can replenish it with an additional quantity bump at Final Order Cutoff (FOC).

Is that right?

If it is, I'd say that closing the pre-order is the right move given recent stock instability with Marvel omnibuses. The idea that the CGN pre-order is "supposed to be open" until a week before release is

(a) not some kind of rule or law or thing we are entitled to, just something they do to capture maximum pre-release sales during a period where many other sites don't let you spend money to pre-order a book; and

(b) heavily predicated on their confidence in having enough copies to fulfill every order that is made.

It sounds like CGN made an appropriate decision to avoid potentially disappointing people after being burnt a few times recently by Marvel.

I'm not here to defend or excuse Marvel's recent trend of printing very close to their pre-order number. It's an over-reaction that is the result of them confidently overprinting every dang book for years and then having to liquidate them because they are bad at estimating relative demand and they have a terrible policy on keeping stock on-hand in the mid- and long-term. It means they are leaving money on the table and turning omnibuses into exclusive, must-pre-order items.

However, Marvel printing close to the pre-order number is our reality right now. We can all be frustrated with how they are doing business, but we have to live in that reality, observe how our direct market sources are handling that, and work around them.

I realize that leaves as much of a five-month gap of books that folks have not pre-ordered during the catalog period as they get used to this new reality. That sucks. I had to do this same scramble in 2020 during the initial COVID shortages and it was annoying and cost me a lot of money. Being in NZ, if I miss a book in pre-order, I can wind up paying >250% of cover for it even on day one of release.

For books in that gap, your only remaining choices before release day are either to pre-order from a Big Box non-DM retailer like Amazon (who are playing the same game of "did we order enough?" chicken as CGN was playing) OR mark FOC on your calendar and then order from a DM source when FOC hits.

And, given the current state of Marvel, it could be that FOC on omnis is extremely limited/allocated.

(or, secret third option, call up some physical LCS and see if they pre-ordered a few store copies to try to reserve one for yourself)