Quoted from Frax:

I think the point here is that it's one of those "If you have the right contacts, you can pretty much reserve anything you want at any time." Do I have those contacts? Hell no. I've only ever bought 3 NIB....4 if you count Ultraman. This is not new, at all, so I don't know why anyone's expecting me to provide concrete information. Contact the distros yourself and try to see if they'll take a deposit even though the game hasn't been announced. What Stern "allows" and what actually happens are not the same thing. None of the people that are holding these slots early are going to speak up about it, because they'd be shooting their distro in the foot, and lose the chance to keep doing it.
If you think people out there aren't doing this to some extent...I've got a bridge to sell you.