Check out the websites of local video game stores, especially the franchises. I'm in Canada and found them in person in my local GameStop (formerly called EBGames) about a week ago. Video game stores are gradually becoming hobby stores selling all kinds of nerd merchandise as opposed to just video games.
It's possible Tamagotchis are becoming niche products so regular stores don't want to carry them like they used to. The Tamagotchi branding is really hyping the nostaligic angle so that makes them even more niche. Also, they released only 4 designs and a 2-pack so maybe the limited release made them less retail-friendly.
Since the Connection have been recently rereleased, there's a huge demand for them and therefore online sellers are going to up their prices. If you wait for the hype to die down -- maybe a month or more -- you'll probably be able to get a Connection closer to the retail price. I wouldn't be surprised if the hype has actually raised the price of all Tamagotchi listings as a similar thing happened to Pokemon products in the past.
For Ebay, you might have to keep monitoring it daily or weekly to find deals as some will pop up. I completely gave up on auctions and just go with the "Buy It Now" option.
It's worth noting that the relreased Connections are $40 CAD/$30 USD which is moderately pricey to begin with. Just buying the 2-pack Connection set cost me about $80 CAD which is no small amount. Pretty sure the rereleased Originals were about $28 CAD/$20 USD which means the Connections are already $12-10 more. In sum, Tamagotchis are moderately expensive. Then there's the Colour models which start out expensive to begin with. One major upside is that all virtual pets are meant to be replayed multiple times so it's not like your standard video game or movie that you only use once.
