I agree, In Australia it's even worst... AU$1000 for an old card that can die at anytime is too much of a waste.
I would consider buying a new card if they were beening made again, if it was a decent price.
But i don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.
So i think my best bet is AROS running on modern PC hardware..... 2GB ram, quad core, 1 TB HDD, Nvidia 8800GTS anyone. :-D