Supply has increased a lot from Japan with more and more resellers, but the demand is well and truly outstripping the supply.
kind of true but at the same time there are plenty of candy cab on sale around 1.5k which is the price range that lots of buyers don't want to pay. (local vendors usually have these cabs in stock, Highway, Hallam Arcade, many in qld, etc...)
Most of us will scout around for "bargain" or a cheap project cab that you can work further on (effectively putting everyone in a competition for a very limited amount of these kind of cabs floating around every year).
Truly there are no such thing as true bargain cab but if you are super lucky as the owner does not know the true value of the cab, you might get yourself a deal.
In a nut shell, just like pinball, you will need to invest a fair bit into this hobby if you really want to expand your cab collection quickly.
Also best to own a house with large space before even attempting to even start collecting cabs as these cabs can be pain the ass when you need to move to new places. Probably not so ideal for people who are still renting and want to have multiple cabs in their collection as you will need space for the cabs and storage for parts.
And i would like to remark one quote that i remember fondly from my uni time "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch".