I bought a whole bunch of pedals about 5 years ago, all on ebay, and got reasonably lucky with the prices. But I had a lot of spare time to burn and was constantly refreshing looking to grab the offers as soon as I saw them. I mostly got all the ones I wanted (I bought 11 Boss Pedals in 2019

)
I still had to pay about £50 for my EH-2 but it's in good condition with box and manual. I wanted one of those for years for no real reason.
I got a PN-2 too, which was another one of those 'ooh that looks interesting' for pretty much mint in box with manual for £130. They seem to be about double that on Reverb now.
I was looking at OS-2s the other night and those also seem to have doubled in average price!
I still regret not getting a VB-2 about 20 years ago when they were still under 200 quid

But I did manage to get an MIJ and MIIT CE-2 back then and I'd say I paid less than £60 total for both
So yeah, you probably just need to be a lot more patient these days and watch ebay like a hawk to get a good deal.