Long ago, good Balsa was hard to find. Seems that it and cork were being used as insulation for LNG tanker ships. One "super" tanker could almost use up the years crop of cork.
Balsa of decent quality just disappeared from the hobby store's shelves, and the poor quality of what was available put a serious crimp in my modeling efforts.
About the time things started getting better, kids and moving around more or less did in both time and spare money! Now that the kids are grown, and we seem to be more or less
settled in one location, and I'm retired, I no longer have the patience to scratch build or stick build models. I'd rather put a decent ARF together, and fly it!