Good luck mining! I felt I missed that boat and was better off just buying and trading, since pre-orders are so speculative (and frankly, scammy). Anyway, welcome to bitcointalk - glad to have you here in our community!
Yeah read about the pre-order horror stories. I bought what was in stock and could be delivered right away. I don't think I would ever do a pre-order. It would have been nice to start mining a couple years ago, but its not too bad mining different alt coins and trading for BTC.
Can you give us suggestions what is the best miner available now? I'm also interested in mining.