Google Checkout is terrible for pre-orders and things that do not ship within 5-7 days of authorization of card. I would definitely recommend NOT using Google

Google Checkout is terrible for pre-orders and things that do not ship within 5-7 days of authorization of card. I would definitely recommend NOT using Google Checkout for this type of business model, some research might have saved you the frustration. I believe there might also be an issue with the legality of charging actually charging for the purchase prior to shipment. Most merchants will typically authorize the card, and then issue the capture transaction once a tracking number is availability. This then will lead you to to the next issue that will be especially painful to deal with using Google Checkout: bad authorizations. We have had scenarios where we authorized a card on a Tuesday, found out the item was backordered for a week and thus did not ship the item and attemp to issue the capture transaction until 8 days later. With Google Checkout, a re-auth is needed after 7 days. Unfortunately you do not find out the re-auth failed until AFTER you have shipped the items (and then attempted to capture funds on the order). You are then out of luck on capturing any funds if you cannot contact the customer and get another form of payment. Happy to discuss this further if you would like some advice.