It's been about 50/50 for me in terms of opening up protodermic nuva packs and either A) getting a protodermic nuva + a colored nuva or B) getting 2 colored nuvas, whether it be the boxed version or the plastic version.
In terms of ****** behavior by big collectors/sellers, a PA-based collector who lives about an hour from Philly bought about 1000 USD worth of stuff from BU, never received anything except for a customs note, then notified Cas what happened. Cas basically said "well you never paid for insurance so I can't do anything, but I'll give you a discount if you buy from me again." Eventually Cas stopped reading his messages/responding. Needless to say, the PA-based collector just filed a chargeback a few months later and got all his money back.
In South Korea, discontinued sets were relatively cheaper/easier to buy NIB from old toy stores up to about 2008, when the price gap between domestic Korean prices and US/EU prices became big enough for there to be a profit after taking into account tariffs and shipping costs. Korea being a small country made news travel fast and soon every dude with a little money to spare started buying up prices and applying the same price speculation/forecast models and algorithms to buying/selling bionicles. This led to a huge bubble where G1/G2 sets all got their prices jacked up (for example, a Inika Hahli being sold for $350+) but the bubble burst shortly after 2014 (I think). Prices are still high as ****** so most people just buy used bulk stock from their versions of craigslists OR pay a premium to buy from abroad.
There's still pockets of rare stuff to be found and bought at reasonable prices, though it's much harder than it used to be. I recently got a new/open box bohrok kal that had a WMKK/pouch/card all in mint condition which was pretty nice.
Also Kudos to Letagi for being a good sheriff lol.