Another vote for Craigslist. You gotta expect some dead ends, but was the best place for me when I was purchasing and great bang for the buck (and satisfaction) when you find the right deals. Second for me would be eBay and the FS section of this very board.
I would say I got probably 85% of my NES stuff through Craigslist. I would pick up lots of games/systems/controllers, pick what I want to keep, and sell back the leftovers on CL or (usually) eBay. I don't have anything exceptionally rare or expensive (the most oddball thing I've got is an Arkanoid Vaus controller) but I would guess once I factor in what I made back in selling unwanted and duplicate carts, I am probably under $300 total invested as far as NES goes (modded toploader, 8 or so various controllers including two dogbones, and about 120 carts. Once I was down to about 15 specific games that I wanted but hadn't come across, I got them from sellers here or on eBay and did my best to find the sellers with multiple carts I needed to save some $ on shipping. Like others have said, on CL you gotta be patient sometimes and expect some deadbeat and unresponsive sellers as well as people that don't list a price but respond to your email telling you that their NES toaster and 15 common games really are worth $180.
SNES was a bit different, I had a much harder time finding sellers on CL that weren't off their rockers with prices and overall just a lot less people selling SNES stuff. I would say 1/2 or less of my SNES stuff (60 carts, 1 console and a few pads) came from CL. But, I did get some of the pricier RPGs for great prices on CL (Chrono Trigger, FF2/3, Secret of Mana/Evermore).
TG16/PCE...don't get me started. Nothing local, had to rely completely on eBay, the boards, and a couple import sellers. Definitely not a cheap system to bulk up on.
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