somewhat unrelated but I recently looked for a pi and it was sold out or the price tag was 10x the regular price everywhere, mostly because of the chip shortage. Am I looking in the wrong places?
From the parent link you can find the pilocator Twitter account, and your can set that to notify your phone whenever there is new inventory. In the U.S., Adafruit has been doing big drops the last few Wednesdays and Thursdays, but you need your account and 2FA set up ahead of time.
Seems it's more due to a number of scalpers who use(d) automated scripts to make bulk purchases from online vendors in order to sell at a markup on sites like amazon.
That's why the legit vendors like Adafruit now set a quantity limit and also require registration (with phone number IIRC) to buy them.
The shortage is insane, and seems as if someone is trying to cripple supply for small autonomous computers that could be used for UAVs and guided munitions - isn't that a possibility, actually?
I've had good luck with the Le Potato boards for RPi style applications. They are in stock and ~$55USD. Generally compatible with RPi4 cases and accessories.
Part of me wants to buy a $200 pi on Amazon, wait 29 days, and then return it. I enjoy the thought of a scalper having his inventory unavailable until price normality returns.
Also, some retailers have just the pi out of stock, but have it in stock if you get a bundle with a case, etc. That's how I got an 8GB one a few weeks ago.