Best places to find vinyl

I rarely find what I’m chasing (if I’m after a particular record) in local shops. When I lived in NY, I would canvass many, along with the record shows; now, in Austin, with a decent number of shops and a pretty large show. And back in the day, I did hit record shops wherever I travelled for business, pleasure, etc.-- it wasn't necessarily easier then, my interests were just narrower.
I buy mostly online. Discogs, occasionally e-bay, from vendors who have their own websites listing older pressings. I think the further you stray from the stuff that is heavily bought and sold, the more unlikely it is that you will find certain records in stores, particularly if they are ex-US pressings and desirable.
I’m talking older records, not new ones.

Erik: I paid about 48 Euro, plus 6 E shipping from Germany for the mono reissue of Village Green pressed in 1980 in mint condition. FWIW. Still probably too much, but my notes say impeccable condition. And despite the shipping cost, still way cheaper than many items shipped from UK or elsewhere (Netherlands is brutal).
PS transaction was 3 years ago. 

Even a visual inspection can only tell you so much- appearance of surfaces, spindle hole wear and if you spin it on a turntable at a shop, warps. Play grading is pretty variable, depending on who is doing the grading- (you may not want a seller to be playing an older album that hasn’t gotten a proper cleaning on a questionable turntable set up). Most visual grading is inflated--I won’t look at anything less than M- for the media (I don’t care as much about the sleeve unless there is an indication of water damage, which is a red flag for mold- stay away!). Records are one of the few products where "very good plus" means not very good. 
I usually engage an online seller in a dialog through the message feature of the e-platform. It not only gives me more info about the record, but about the seller’s standards and knowledge. Make sure you have a right to return if it is an expensive album. I’ve had to do that a few times-- i’m not interested in a discount for a bad playing copy- but the dialogue has helped me screen many records as ’no buy’ before I committed. The cleaning is something you should do unless you know exactly what the seller’s methods are.