I'm curious now, what's the most you've spent on an Amiibo? If you're willing to share that pain.
Edit: Oops, double postage.
I've gotten all my NA amiibo at MSRP or less (praise GCU)! Here's my rundown
along with the Smash section image from Best OT to give you an idea of the insanity:
Wave 1: The calm before the storm
Preordered the entire first wave at TRU, walked in, walked out. Knew Villager/Marth/WFT would become rare and that I would be buying all the Smash figures.
Villager/Marth/WFT begin to slowly disappear over time (Fox would later vanish as well).
Status: Complete
Wave 2: Realization and madness
People realize rare amiibo are gone. I preordered all of Wave 2 on Best Buy during their accidental B2G1 free applying to amiibo for an hour + GCU on top.
Mac/Pit/Falcon sell out and become impossible to find in stores. The mentality of "order or you'll never see it" begins to form.
Status: Complete
Wave 3: Store exclusives, split releases, online exclusives, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria
Amiibo panic is in full force.
Four store exclusives are revealed and the waves are split into 3A-3C, releasing randomly between January and February.
Store exclusives end up being impossible to find in stores (Rosalina being the easiest and Shulk being sold out since December) and Ike/Dedede hardly make it to retail (if even).
I ordered the commons on Amazon/BB and got all the store exclusives online except Rosalina. I got her by waiting outside Target for 3 hours.
Status: Complete
Wave 4: The wave that broke everyone
Mass hysteria. Anyone and everyone can and will sell out. Preorders can get canceled. Blades will bleed. Nothing is scared. No matter where you turn, Robin and Lucina sell out IMMEDIATELY.
Many broken souls flocked to our LINE group to seek refuge from Nintendo's fury. All were welcomed.
Oh, and MORE STORE EXCLUSIVES, including
NESS AT GAMESTOP! Hoo boy, Ness.
On April 2, Ness crashes the
entire GameStop infrastructure as every GameStop in the country attempts to order the entirety of Wave 4 and Splatoon 3-packs at once.
I waited from 9 AM until noon in store (they tweeted about online ordering, but the miracle never happen), being the second person in line.
Best Buy Wave 4 went up for a few minutes, so I got Pac-Man/Charizard/Wario. Robin and Lucina sells out in minutes.
I then waited an hour for the servers to load Ness/Lucina/Robin into my cart.
On Greninja Day, an inside source said TRU would put him and Wave 4 up around 4 AM PST. Everyone goes to sleep. I stay up. At 1 AM TRU Wave 4 + Greninja go up. I alert LINE. The salt rises.
Want Jigglypuff? Much like Rosalina, Target put her up randomly a few times and she sold out in minutes even as nobody could add her to their cart. I somehow got one.
Status: Ordered, praying for no cancelations
tl;dr
WELCOME TO AMIIBO COLLECTING. ENJOY YOUR SUFFERING.