It's NEVER too early...
...unless my local one is some sort of weird exception, you can put down a mere ten bucks to guarantee yourself a GameCube at Software Etc. XBox, too. Oddly enough, there were XBox ads all over, and nary a GameCube one to be found. Peculiar. Anyway, get out there and guarantee yourself a GameCube without putting down the entire amount of some insane speculative price, dig it?