Barntech has posted repeatedly that the price went up for latter reels too. So, again, I don't see how anyone should know that higher price means anything in and of itself here.
Look at it this way, if you were physically waiting in a queue to buy something and someone left, you'd be pretty unhappy if the vendor found somebody walking by and gave them that spot in line -- well after you've joined the queue -- just because they payed a bit more. Especially when the vendor didn't first go down the line asking if anyone wanted to pay a bit more to move up first. Yet that seems to me to be exactly what's happening here. As far as I can tell, you all just don't seem to mind because you're jockeying to be one of those people taking those spots. :-)
Unfortunately, my budget is shot and I can't afford to buy more Drillibts on top of that which I've already ordered. On the other hand, if Barntech goes ahead with the plan to buy another reel for earlier delivery AND offers everyone the opportunity to pay the difference in cost and move up, I'll have no complaint. Then I will have been offered my spot earlier in line and the decision will be mine on whether to move up or not. It seems clear that this is NOT what BitFury did -- though to be honest, I didn't know American vs. European distributor issues were affecting things here until your post.
If I'm wrong in someway on this, I'm all ears but just saying higher price = earlier spot isn't obvious, nor is letting those go to NEW buyers first.
We are talking about two different retailers of Bitfury chips, who are entitled to set their own prices, in two different countries, and two different delivery times, and two unrelated queues are we not?
At this point it is possible that our original order will be moved up as well. BuzzDave posted something similar to that. However, if that doesn't happen, this second batch is in fact a completely separate deal. The chips are sold by a completely different vendor who handles sales differently. Maybe they will let people move up in line, maybe not. I'd consider moving up my original order even. This is all still up in the air and it is no reason to get upset. So far Barntech has been pretty stand up and I feel they will handle the situation accordingly. Nobody knew this reel was coming, instead of looking at it like a bad thing, think positively about it. I am very happy that other people will have a chance at a decent mining rig especially since the chips were already made and going into someone's hand. I imagine the really unhappy customers will be the people who purchased a ton of USB miners after the 8-chip boards ran out! Hopefully they will get their chance to upgrade those to a board.