They definitely do ship early. I ordered Marisols whole world a month ago and Recieved 3 items today that where supposed to be backordered until 12/16 and Marisol was supposed to be B/O until 11/23 but she arrived within a week of placing my order which was on 11/7. Alot of times you will see it's shipped through the my account link before you actually get an e-mail telling you its shipped. Good Luck!