Thanks everyone for the kind words and support about the smashed MBRLE. After not hearing from the distributor for a couple days after reporting the damage, I decided to check what day the 180 day clock ends for Paypal Buyer protection, and that day is April 18th (I ordered October 20th). I wrote to my distributor and stated my intention to ask Paypal to step in on the issue before that date, and immediately got a call. On the call the distributor said he would have to wait for the item to return and then begin a claim process. He stated he had no more allotment of the game, so couldn't give me any assurance that a game would be shipped any time in the near future. He offered to refund me completely because he says the Paypal process is not good for him. I asked him if he had contacted CGC about the issue and he said he had not. He then said he might be getting some games next week, and would see what he could do about shipping one of those. So at this point, if I don't hear that a game is on its way by next week, I think i'm getting off this crazy train.
It's just not worth the time, aggravation, headache, etc over the missed ship dates, broken promises, taking time off work for 2 delivery attempts, to offset the fun that the game might bring me. I think I'm sticking to only buying things in-stock and ready to ship from here on out.