I'm more referring to the way the demand has pushed up the prices in the second hand and "cut price" sector. You can regularly see second hand EMG pups on fLeBay going for well over half the retail price whereas when I bought an 81 and a 60 I got them for under 1/4 of retail.
Also, EMG distributors are unable to supply pickups outside of their territories so I can't order from the US for example. In the UK I rely on thomann.de (near retail price) or staff price from a local retailer (well, one of my guitarists works at a music store...) and I get a very good price direct from Sound Technology, the UK distro.
The lack of availability of decently priced second-hand pups from places like fLeBay mean sales at retail are more common to satisfy demand (a lot of EMGs on fLeBay are new/retail also). Until the market saturates and fLeBay gets flooded with a backwash of second-hand EMGs that people want to swap out for JBs, Invaders etc. I will still have to buy via retail myself!
Can anybody else think of cheaper places to buy EMG other than fLeBay or a relaxed retailer? I would be very interested same as Matt!