I've only ever paid RRP and I strongly suggest you do to. Better yet, there are plenty of Pi 4 to purchase these days.

yes, these days. let's have a look at the last three years and see how it was then...

Why is that interesting? Are we expecting another global semiconductor supply chain problem?

Because people who _needed_ to buy a Raspberry Pi simply weren't able to do so.

Exactly the same as every other hardware supplier. For pi there was some kind of scheme for businesses who _actually_ needed the hardware in order to stay in business. No idea how that worked.

Either way, this is all history. Raspberry Pi boards do not cost hundreds of dollars as claimed.

psst https://rpilocator.com/

not much of use for the last three years.

This was used exactly for the last three years so you could get an alert when it became available.

Before that there was no need for a locator, just buy from whatever eshop, everyone had it in stock and at MSRP.

I am so grateful to the folks behind that site. It's the only reason I was able to track down units when I needed to buy them.

you not checking the site != people not being able to buy them

I'm not saying that it was easy, or anything like business as usual. They've done interviews where they talked about the difficult decision to prioritize companies that would go under without new stock over casual hobbyists. It's one of those unenviable situations where there's no good outcome, just a possibly less-bad one.

That site is one reason why I was able to buy Pis at list price these last three years.