One bargain instance I had was back in 2005. I was shopping for a rider and popped into to local OPE/Pool shop that sells various big brands and tons of commercial stuff. It was late Feb, early march. The counter help brought to my attention to a left-over 2004 Cub Cadet 2180, that they had on the showroom floor that they'd cut me a deal on. It had a 18hp vanguard, shaft drive, 42" deck. IIRC, I had them down to $1600-1700. I hesitated and went back 2 weeks later and it was gone. That's a $4500 mower today and was over $2K new at the time.
FWIW, I wound-up buying a 2005 Cub 2544 for $2K. Those are ~$5K today.