This approach has worked well for the folks at Monome, who make small runs (generally 100 to 200) of their flagship human interface devices a few times a year.

This approach has worked well for the folks at Monome, who make small runs (generally 100 to 200) of their flagship human interface devices a few times a year. They no longer take preorders, instead just publicizing the date and time at which orders will be open. Generally, they sell 100-200 devices within a week, and have several times sold out in under 15 minutes.