I was just browsing the Estee Lauder Companies corporate website and was interested to read that they have a service (presumably only in the USA) where they'll try to find a product that's been discontinued in the last 24 months for you, and you can purchase up to 6 of them, should they find them.

The participating brands are Estée Lauder, Clinique, Origins, Prescriptives, Bobbi Brown, Aramis, MAC, La Mer, Jo Malone, Donna Karan,Tommy Hilfiger, Bumble and bumble, Lab Series Skincare for Men, Michael Kors, Darphin, American Beauty, Flirt! Grassroots and Good Skin

www.elcompanies.com/the_company/gone_but_not_forgotten.asp

Given a few of us use products from some of these companies, I thought this might be of interest