When I got my US Duo they were still in production. TTI was still taking out full page ads in EGM, and in my town I had both an EB (with AES carts on the wall, motherf*cker) and a TRU that carried Turbo stuff.
And I still mail ordered half my shit from out of state or drove 100s of miles to conventions or hardcore gaming shops. And keep in mind, this was back when "collectors" didn't even exist. Nobody ever thought about "catching them all" because nobody wanted to spend $50 each for a bunch of garbage sports games they'd never play. In the 80s, when a toy commercial came on TV that said "get the entire collection!" nobody took it seriously. That was a wild dream on behalf of the toy maker. Kids only buy what they like. Somehow that changed...
The scarcity is part of the joy of loving PCE. Even our "Mario/Duck Hunts" are 100 times less common as everyone else's. I like it like this. I never get overexposed to garbage like FIFA 97 for Saturn or Mortal Kombat for Genesis.