Man, I don't even know what's going on anymore. I've purchased plenty direct from Apple online and never have had a transaction go this way. Supply chain/pandemic/shipping backlog can seriously suck it.
Ordered Nov 8
Paid with PayPal (had soem cash in the account + linked to one of my bank account's debit card)
PayPal showed payment in "pre-authorization" morning of Nov 22; my bank showed payment as a pending transaction from this time
Nov 23, order went into "preparing to ship"
~2:00AM local time Nov 25, shipping notice email from Apple....UPS tracking #, as expected, was of no use
Nov 26, I think, PayPal payment went to "payment" (as opposed to "pre-auth")...the cash I had in my PayPal account was applied, so PayPal balance shows as $0.00, as it should.
As of right now, tracking # still not showing up in UPS.
But what's interesting, my bank no longer has my payment to Apple as even a pending transaction.... It's as if no payment was ever made. It had been showing as a pending transaction in my bank account since Nov 22, but now it's not even showing. Weird.