I checked my 2022 gen R1T trade in value mid July and checked again when I got my invite to order on August 18th. Rivian dropped the value of my truck $3400 in 4 weeks. I only drove it about 800 miles during that time period. So, I sold it to Carvana that weekend for just $200 shy of the original trade in value. I didn’t want to roll the dice on what the value would be by the time I take delivery.I was/am one of those angry people. I got the order to invite a couple days before our (SO and I) decided "cutoff point" (where we give up on Rivian and go with the Subaru Trailseeker). Then our trade-in value dropped $600 between the time I ordered, and the time I could lock in the trade-in amount (delivery scheduled). So we're still a little upset about losing out on that $600 from having to wait so long.
And yes, day 1 reservation within the first 15-30 mins... thought that would help. Had Rivian waited even a little longer, they would've lost a customer. I feel like I was pretty patient for somebody losing trade-in value as time went on.