Anyone charging more would be shipping from standing stock (or it's a scam). Most manufacturers charging less to sell directly are backordered a couple months.
the preorders are what I am referring to. im trying to make sure im not missing something before I spend my hard earned money on something and not getting it or getting different hardware than I am expecting.
It's a perosnal choice. Pay $1500 +/- right now direct from Bitmain and wait until late January to get them, or pay 2-3x that now from someome who has one and be mining in 3-5 days. How much is that 1.5 months wait worth it to you? I personally ordered 2 S9 January batch and chose to wait.
PS waiting has not been easy!