Daniel Moon of Arcane Computers in Fremont, Illinois saw our coverage of the early release of D&D 3.5 (see 'Gameboard Breaks 'D&D 3.5' Street Date') and our earlier coverage on early release of the Star Wars CCG (see 'Gamestop Breaks Release Date on WotC Star Wars CCG'), and had this to say:

 

Unfortunately for WotC, and for independent retailers, this has been occurring much too often lately.  It seems that every time a much sought after product is about to be released, someone breaks the release date and sells it early.  The last occurrence of this reported by you was back in April 2002, when Gamestop sold the Star Wars Trading Card Game two weeks prior to the official release date, however, we all know this occurs on a much more frequent basis.  The lack of consequences for the offender is one of the main reasons we continue to see this type of behavior.  Due to the fact that Gameboard is not a direct distributor for WotC, nor was Gamestop back in that April article, there really is not a whole lot that WotC can do to them for this violation.  In the end, the only one really hurt by the behavior is the independent retailer.  So Sad.