Noob Collector With a Noob Question

[ZigZag]

Hello, everyone. First of all, sorry if I'm in the wrong section of the forum.
I just recently decided to start collecting, and I've been a bit confused about something. I'm sure this might be a stupid question, but do collector's editions, limited editions, etc. only release AFTER the actual game has released and aren't available for pre-order? I was going to pre-order the ESO: Imperial Edition, but everywhere I searched, they were "Out of stock" & "Sold out", so I pre-ordered the regular version, then I check about a week after the game released and Imperial Edition was now available. Any answers would be helpful. My apologies for being so nooby.
Thanks!