GameStop Beacon Hill just called me about my pre-order. They are opening at 10pm on Thursday night, which is apparently permitted because it is midnight Eastern.
Pre-order bonus is a pin set, but he is unsure of the quantities that they'll get, so they are first come, first served.
He expects that there will be a decent lineup / gong show by 10pm, as they had 100 people waiting when Pokemon came out, and they have had 3x the pre-orders for this one. Or maybe he said 100 pre-orders for Pokemon. Either way - more for Zelda.
So, this 44-year-old man will probably pop out at lunch on Friday as I won't be able to play it until Friday night anyway. I mean, I'm excited about it too, but I don't think that I need to go full nerd for the "midnight" 10pm release. The guy says that my copy is 100% guaranteed to be there whenever I pick it up, and just the pin set is the wild card.