Best Buy Palm Pre Pre-Order Policy: $50 to Get in Line for the Next Wave on July 8th

If you have a Palm Pre, take a small moment to shed a tear for those still trying to find one.  If you're one of those lost souls, you might want to be aware that Best Buy has slightly changed how they're handing pre-orders for the device.

It's not consistent across all stores, but at some stores they're switching to a model they used previously with the iPhone. To wit: to get in the pre-order queue, you'll need to hand over $50 to Best Buy in exchange for a $50 gift card you can use towards the Palm Pre (or anything else).  These pre-orders will be for the next big wave of Pre phones due in on or around July 8th:

I guess we at Best Buy are having such a hard time with getting more Pre's in stock, that they've decided to do pre-orders for another wave of inventory that is supposed to be in by July 8. Stores will take pre-orders up until June 30, and if they get inventory in before that, they are to call the customers when inventory comes in, according to who's first on the pre-order list.

As we said, some stores still actually do have stock of the Pre and it may be that your local store won't switch to the policy.  At least one reader (Hi Mark!) got a call from his local Best Buy alerting him to the new policy.  It's a pretty standard policy, truth be told, and the pain of dropping the first $50 early is definitely offset by the warm and comforting knowledge that you'll be guaranteed a Pre when it comes in.

So if you're still in the hunt for a Palm Pre and were hoping to take advantage of Best Buy's instant rebate, it might be worth the time to give your friendly local shop a quick jingle.