Special Order, Backorder, Being Produced or Product Attribute

I have a woodworking business and just produce a few specific products. My product sells out fast.
The site I sell most of my work on I'm able to sell what I'm producing. It's sold with a specific ship date. My customers are happy to buy my product with this condition.

I'm setting up a website with Zencart. In looking at the options it seems that it would work better if I used product attributes rather than customizing the backorder mod. What I would do is add the product attribute of "Being Produced" then add "Ships 9-17-2012" with an inventory of what is being produced. If I'm selling out of something and have more that will be finished in 5 days I would be able to sell them.
Just from the standpoint of how this would work in Zencart I'm interested in any thoughts or comments.

Thanks,
Frank

In thinking this through further, will this cause a problem with search engines, feeding product to Google base etc.

Frank