When Did This Happen? (G.I. Joe Collecting)
So I've been out of the Joe game for awhile-- the last three figures I got were Renegades Storm Shadow, the exclusive red Jinx, and now Blind Master-all of whom I had to resort to ebay for. Jinx is the anomaly, seeing as how she was an exclusive, I assumed I'd have to pay markup to get her. But Storm Shadow and Blind Master were pretty much scalper bait, and I had to pay scalper prices to get them. I don't often pick up Joes these days, and when one or two do catch my eye, it's always a "better turn to ebay, I'll never find these at retail" situation. Is that what it's come to with G.I. Joe? Is Hasbro so incompetent with their case pack outs and scalpers are so ravenous that I have to pay double or triple for a figure to get it?
I'm just complaining about the price because I'm wondering if there's better options. I know most short-packed figures aren't offered as singles from e-tailers, but if anyone knows other places to get them for around $15 apiece it would sure beat the heck out of paying some scalper.
By the way, I really like Blind Master. I know most people either hated or didn't care for Retaliation (I only watched a little of it with my stepkid before he got bored), but I'm a huge Wu-Tang Clan fan and having RZA as a Joe is pretty awesome. Hell, I'd buy the figure all over again if they cobbled together the entire Clan as Ninja Joes!
Collecting Joes has been tough for the last couple years and the two figures you specifically mentioned (SS and Blind Master) were products of two separate things. With Renegades Storm Shadow, you had a figure that everyone wanted and did get a lot of distribution. He was short packed and came out in the last waves of Renegade line. Hasbro had pulled the legs out from under that line because the movie toys were going to be coming out (this was winter of 2011) in early spring, but then the movie was pushed back. I'm sure if the Renegades line continued we would have saw it repacked in another wave.
As for Blind Master, Joe is really only being carried by Online stores and Toys R Us. That wave is just now starting to "hit" TRU and smaller stores that are carrying Joe (ie Walgreen, CVS, maybe your local grocery store). Many people are worried about not seeing this wave at all, so prices are a little high right now. Hope this helps.
YMMV, but I will never order anything from ebay again. Well, never is a long time, but I cannot imagine any constellations of circumstances aligning that would change my mind.
I all but haunted ebay 10 years ago, and never had what I would call a bad experience with any seller. ebay is still a useful resource for assessing fair(?) market value of a wide-range of collectibles. These days, however...if I simply must have that no-show retail figure, I'll check Amazon first. I prefer the Amazon marketplace and believe that PayPal is Satan. 
- http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Anniversary-Renegades-Action-Figure/dp/B005VPXWRC/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1382623069&sr=1-1&keywords=Renegades+Storm+Shadow
- http://www.amazon.com/G-I-Joe-Retaliation-Ninja-Figure/dp/B007Y516GG/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1382623028&sr=1-1&keywords=red+Jinx
- http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Blind-Master-Action-Figure/dp/B00BDMNT02/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382622984&sr=8-1&keywords=blind+master
It's kind of sad to see the state of the Joe line at retail lately. The Targets I go to don't have them, and the TRUs I visit usually have the same few figures spread out onto about 3 nearly empty pegs, and a few boring vehicles (Eaglehawk notwithstanding). Anyway, I'm with you on Renegades Storm Shadow, and even moreso on Low-Light. Immediately after I heard the case ratio for these guys, I pretty much decided not to waste time and gas looking for them. I also decided that if I had to pay over retail I would just not add them to my collection (and I haven't).
Oddly enough, SS, LL, and Blind Master all showed up on the Hasbro Toy Shop site. While SS and LL were blink and you'll miss them, the last Retaliation wave w/Blind Master has been up several times, so I would've held off on eBay for him.
I can only guess that Hasbro is focusing less on action figures in general if they are allowing their own property to get such short shrift at retail.
Renegades Storm Shadow...
I've been collecting figures for nearly all of my 40 years and he is the only figure I actively hunted but could not find. I actually ended up buying him in a package deal with Arctic Destro for $40 from an ebayer.