Where and why have the 27,000 3DS ‘pre-orders’ gone missing?

As reported earlier, Nintendo revealed that according to INTERNAL data it has sold 113,000 units, this is well short of the 140,000 UK pre-orders it claimed to have last week. So that leaves a defecit of 27,000 units which is one heck of a lot of systems. Moreover, what about all the people that were expected to pick up the 3DS on launch day who hadn't pre-ordered? These were expected to push sales closer to 200k. So just what has happened here? Some are complaining that stores exaggerated pre-orders to get more stock. But what retailer wants to be stuck with excess stock? Moreover, the system is readily available and Nintendo said multiple times they will ensure improved availability from the start.