I went through this page:

https://education.ti.com/en/purchase/where-to-buy?category=ti-84-plus-ce

And most of the special colors aren't available directly from the reseller - some 3rd party marketplace sellers have colors available at ridiculous prices - some $100 more - I'm assuming new old stock.

Are supply chain issues getting worse at TI? I also saw this message on the website about Python edition:

"Due to global supply chain challenges, the availability of the Python edition of the TI-84 Plus CE graphing calculator is very limited. Please be assured that we are working diligently to make this calculator available again. In the meantime, we are increasing production of the TI-84 Plus CE graphing calculator to support students and teachers."

A TI-84+ is on the school supply list - which starts in six weeks. I was trying to buy it early to avoid any potential supply chain issues. I wasn't sure if i waited more colors would appear on store shelves, or if I'd be out of a calculator entirely.

Nope, there won't be new colors this year.
They went back to the non-python CE for the reason you stated. They did bring back old colors which were not really discontinued but had not been made in a few years.
The latest production run (non-python) contained the following colors:

• American seeding:
  
• Radical Red
  
• Bright White
  
• Rose Curve Gold
  
• Matte Black
  
  
• Canadian seeding:
  
• Teal
  
• Bright White
  
• Matte Black

I believe they will go back to making python editions later this year, so I think the worst of the supply chain disruptions is probably behind us.

I've been looking for a couple weeks now..

Office Max had Rose Curve Gold when I checked their website.

Target, Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Meijer only have Black. Others are available if you use third party marketplace sellers which I'm not crazy about doing.

I'd love to find a non-black or non-rose curve gold one sold by an actual retailer.

See if you can get an older one on eBay -- one that has TI-OS 5.3.0* or older.
Generally, Pre-M NIB calcs are a good bet -- just make sure that it doesn't say "school property", those are usually stolen. (and aren't NIB...)
Do some hunting, you should be able to find one for about fifty US dollars or so.

Pre M is much slower, though.

Yeah, there's no real benefit to pre-M calculators, and they're significantly slower than newer hardware revisions.

I did want to find a M revision or later - speed more important to me.

Local Staples had a TI-84+ CE in Mint that I picked up. It has a date code of "L-0620O" so June 2020? Surprised it was made two years ago. Revision "O". Came with OS 5.4.0.0034

I ran performance test in this video and it completed in 4 seconds: 3*tan(x^cos(x))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPYoIupmRZA&t=164s

Should I be concerned at all that the battery is two years old? I took pictures of both sides of battery but don't see anything that jumps out to me as a manufacture date.

Calculator was about 50% charged when I turned it on.

Aha, it was you that was asking for the function in the video! Nice to see the loop get closed. I wouldn't worry too much about the battery, since it didn't go through any charge cycles in that time.

Yes that was me, thanks for that I wanted a second way of verification if I picked up a faster revision.

Of course after I post this, now amazon has like eight different colors - all actually sold by Amazon.