E-bay, etc.

I've been collecting (micro's mostly, Apple, Atari, Coco, etc.) since 1990...I'm more interested in playing around with these machines (even if only a few minutes a year!) than hoarding them and hoping they'll appreciate in value. And yes, I've used E-bay (most of the other internet auction sites really have little, if anything). I've also scoured Usenet and found stuff, usually from people who don't want to bother with E-bay's procedures for sellers, for whatever reason. I occasionally go to the thrift stores, but I haven't seen a whole lot other than bits and pieces of 286's and 386's (I'm in the LA area), and they're often overpriced ($50 for a 286? In 2000? Gimme a break!) There's also the TRW swap meet in El Segundo, but I haven't been there for a while. (It used to be pretty good, but the last time I was there, Oct 99 or so, it seemed to be PC cards and motherboards, old test equipment, and the same guys selling the same outdated ham tranceivers, for about $200-300 more than they're probably worth. Maybe it'll be a bit better this month...) Has E-bay sucked the thrift stores and hamfests dry? Possibly part of the reason, although another reason might be that there is only a finite amount of systems and people interested in them, and neither number is exactly growing, if you catch my drift. So a lot of stuff gets tossed out due to ignorance.