I really hope this is true, and you're right it does seem to happen a lot when a newer and "better" version comes out.

I dig for deals like digging through crates, and usually you'll find what you're looking for if you search hard enough. Seriously though, Sp's are scarce and expensive right now. I hit up ebay and craigslist a ton on the daily and nothing. I've been going hard for weeks now, and I haven't landed a 303 or 404 yet. Guitar Center's "used gear" almost always had a 404 or 303 for $200, none. I'm in the pacific northwest, so maybe it's just my area at this moment in time, but it's dry.

Two quick stories to illustrate what the SP market is like right now, at least where I live. OG Sp-404 in Seattle, guy wants $400 good shape, cf card, power supply. As badly as I want one, I can't afford to pay $400 and I know I could find a better deal if I'm patient (I think?). Eventually his price drops down to $300 after like a week or so of probably getting no responses. I hit him up and we agree on $250 if I drive up to Seattle, cool. Seattle is about an hour drive away with no traffic, but there's of course traffic. I get to the spot and the guy is just calling me as I pull up, he tells me somebody has agreed to pay $350 and unless I match it he's going to go with that deal. I hope he's just trying to bluff me into paying another extra $100, and I can't afford $350 anyway. I can't afford $250 lol, I just want an SP. (who needs to pay the power bill, it can run on batteries!) Sure enough, he wasn't bluffing and I waste 3 hours of my day and a bunch of gas money for nothing, and I have no SP to show for it. Heated.

A couple days later Portland craigslist has an SP-404 for $75, no joke. Dude says he just needs to pay his rent, he has a phone number, seems okay. Portland round trip is a 5 hour drive for me, but I'm willing to do it for this deal. I hit the guy up right away and done deal. I just already know there's no way I can make it to Portland before somebody else buys it or offers more. Sure enough, before I even get out of the doora minute later (thank God), "sorry man, somebody offered $250 for it."

When they pop up on Ebay, it literally says like "49 people viewed this item in the last hour" after the auction just started a minute ago, it's crazy. It's like people are just refreshing 24/7 every minute trying to find one. My craigslist in Seattle has ads for people trying to buy them.

The 202's price seems to be holding steady without getting crazy. Get 'em while you can! I bought one for $109 on ebay with free shipping and it's pretty clean and works great. I'm having a blast with it right now and I just got that Tascam 414 mkii on a crazy deal on ebay to pair with it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262217817190?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

$45 + $10 shipping, I talked to the dude and I was getting so much more than I even realized. Box, manual, 414 mkii, power supply, and a bunch of sealed blank tapes. Everything works perfectly. I checked completed ebay auctions and some of them with manual / box/ super clean can go for upwards of $300. I feel kind of dirty and I would have gladly paid more, but it's going to get so much love from me once it arrives. You could probably make decent extra $ just flipping cassette portastudio's if you look hard enough. Craigslist you can find some cheap ones from time to time.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121846485002?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

There's the 202 I landed for $109. I might just have to go with two 202's to make complete beats when I'm out and about. lol

http://stockton.craigslist.org/msg/5367937080.html

There's a super nice deal on a OG 404 in Cali (I'll take a plane for an SP if I have to lol). There's no way it's still available, but who knows? 200 obo, you Cali heads should jump on it if you're looking for one. I'm going to buy up as many SP 202/303/404 as I can if people sell them off once the new roland sampler is announced. lol For real. Anybody in the Seattle area selling a 202 / 303 / or og404 let me know. Happy hunting.

Georgetown music was where I saw that SP202 for $285 about a year ago. I've needed to go down there, but I hate taking the bus where they're located. I don't know if it's still there though.

I'm not going to let you pay 3 bills for a 202, bro. I might have a line on another 202 for a good price, I'll sell it to you for $100 if I get it. I drive past Des Moines once a week so I could drop it by if you're truly looking for one. We'll see if I land it though.

Yes, it's become insane. I remember buying a black 404 (with two cards) for about 180€ in 2008. Sadly I didn't have the time to use it much and was in desperate need of dough after I spent way too much on a holiday in 2012 so I decided to sell it. That made me 210€ or so. A couple of months later I got to know a dude who wanted to buy a sampler so I recommended him getting a SP. He paid a bit more again. We kinda got into the local beat-making scene and now almost everyone's copped a 404. This development is totally awesome and a bit awkward at the same time
I moved to a small town in Norway over a year ago and now I've got lots of spare time so I decided to just have a look if I could get me a 404 again. Was really astonished when I saw they go way over 300 bucks on ebay now, the SX even more, almost 400€. Then I went on the local craigslist equivalent and spotted someone who sells all his studio equipment. He offered an SP with a faceplate looking like a tractor scraped over it, but he charged only 110€ for it! That's a fucking steal, I had to buy it. So now I'm just waiting for the mail to arrive and see if everything works as the seller claims.
Maybe the price development is intertwined with the way people go about producing music in general. Everyone knows how to Ableton these days and people are probably looking for something to spicen up their setup a bit. Get in another source, some different effects so everything doesn't sound like the next one. And many folks might want to get away from making music solely on their computer again. I just know for sure that I'll never sell my SP again once I've got mine

I wonder what the possibility is of sending an SP off to some chinese manufacturer to clone it...

that would be nuts! and while they're cloning it, they can swap the 303 Smartmedia Slot for an SD Card