One thing I've noticed is that the really nice prime MD lenses rarely come up on eBay. I think that people are hanging on to them. I'm talking about the 35mm/1.8, the 85mm/2, the 100m/2.5, and so on. Same with the shift and viable focus lenses, although there another factor is that so few were made in the first place. Incidentally, was the 85/2 an improvement over the 85/1.8, or was it merely designed to be lighter and more compact?
I agree that the XE-7 is a very nice camera. It handles well, is aperature priority, is very solid and rugged with nice metering. I've bought two off Ebay: one sucked, the other is simply great. Ya pays your money and you takes your chances ....
I only have one Minolta boy in my vast arsenal of Japanese SLR's and it is the XE-7 which is also a twin to the Leica R3. It is a nice tank of camera with a quiet copal shutter.