One of these threads exists in every Samsung Galaxy S forum, from the Captivate, to Vibrant, and now Epic.
Please realize many all these phones are essentially the same. They use the same screens, some batteries, and many of the other same components. The Samsung Galaxy S was released months ago in Europe and other parts of the world.
Chances are some components that are common to all the devices are mass produced and are sitting in warehouses waiting to be assembled into various units...i.e vibrant or epic.
Also realize the battery, is basically the same battery in all the phones. So the same factory that popped out the european galaxy s, is propably popping out your epic battery.
Chances are the date of your phone gives you no tangible information at this time, until a true hardware revision is made. At this time there are NO hardware revisions. Meaning the person who baught an epic dated two weeks ago, is the exact same phone as one dated today, unless there is a specific hardware revision set.
So looking at dates and trying to get the latest date is pointless. Plus who says a phone made today is better than one made last week? Maybe the little korean man was drunk today and attached your screen backwards.
I hope my point made sense to somebody.
I guarantee most of the parts in your phone have been produced months ago, also remember 3rd parties make lots of the parts, and those parts are probably made even months further back, and were delivered to samsung, sitting in a box, waiting to be assembled.