What is going on with Raspberry Pi 5 inventory?

The RPi 5 was rolled out differently then previous models. His time they dedicated initial inventory to consumers instead of larger clients and allowed retailers to do pre-orders. They just started shipping and have not fulfilled the backlog of pre-orders yet. Until that happens, you won't see them in stock since they have already been claimed. I pre-ordered mine the first day and my estimated arrival time isn't until some time in November.

The biggest benefit is that I was able to purchase at MSRP and know they will get it to me as soon as earlier orders have been fulfilled. I don't have to constantly refresh the stock finder and try to order before scalpers snatch them up and resell for way above MSRP.

Pre-ordered one through Sparkfun and got it a few days ago.

I read somewhere they would decide how many to make for the second pass based on the volume of pre-orders.

They've been in stock here all week, shipping in 1-2 weeks.

https://makerbright.com/raspberry-pi-5.html

Rpilocator is a good resource but it's not a full list of all sellers

So same problems as the last one... it took me like 8 months to actually be able to purchase a Pi4