Garage sales around here are picked over very quickly as legos are big business for resellers. Very hard to come by them unless you make sure to be there before the doors open while the people are setting up. Kind of crazy.

My kids really like the minifigures more then anything. They can play with the little people for hours and then build simple structures that fit into the story line they are creating. They do this more then using the actual sets. So I now buy them the knock off mini figs so we don't have to buy all the sets. Huge money saver and unlike some snobby kids mine could care less if it's "real lego", they just want the characters and this is the only way they get as many as they have.