Syp observes that Trion is offering a digital version of Rift's Collector's Edition, handing out a mount, a pet, and a larger base backpack (!) for $10 more than the regular edition of the game. (He comments that this seems like a bargain compared to the retail CE, which costs $20 more than the digital CE but only contains some physical goodies.)
I'm not generally a fan of paying more for digital goodies; because I tend not to subscribe to all my MMO's at once, it makes much more sense to save the extra $10-30 to pay for an extra month of access to the whole game than to spend it on a perk that goes away with the rest of the game when my sub runs out. However, Massively just posted about sale at Direct 2 Drive that offers the chance to both have and eat this particular piece of cake. This weekend only, D2D is offering 20% off all MMO's, including preorders of the un-released DCUO and Rift. The discount would presumably knock $12 off the price of the digital CE, which, at $48, would be cheaper than the regular edition at launch. (The regular edition would be $40 during the sale.)
I'm not a fan of the paid closed beta phase of MMO marketing, but Trion at least seems to have realized that taking money for access to beta and headstarts means that their "testers" are now officially customers; Brannagar had a good customer service experience with getting his pre-order key in time for this weekend's beta event. Meanwhile, Trion's announced founder's multi-month discount pricing will be available until March 15th (two weeks after retail launch, three weeks after the headstart), which is encouraging in that it shows more confidence in the product than demanding long-term commitments before anyone has had the chance to play the game.
In this context, I'm strongly considering picking up this particular pre-order sale. Rift is probably a game that's better experienced at launch anyway due to larger populations for the scripted events. If I was going to spend $50 on the regular box anyway, getting the digital CE bonuses for $48 is probably worth paying in advance for a pre-order.