I would definitely go the flea market route. I lived in Nashville during undergrad, and most of variant stuff is quite picked over. The best I've found at any of the shops are a 30 cent Avengers 148 in fine and a 30 cent Daredevil 133 in fine.
On a similiar note, I realize that the price variants are hard to find, but I've still found about 10 along my stretch of I-65 (From Nashville to Montgomery and including Tuscaloosa) in the past 4-5 years. Does this seem to be anymore or less than normal? I would think that with two test locations (Nashville and Tuscaloosa/Birmingham) within 3 hours of each other, the variants would be a little more prevalent, but I guess the issues have just spread out more from here.
Let me know if you do find anything-good luck!!!