Where does everyone go to find retired dates? I see this site has when the item came out but would be cool to know retired month/yr of a particular set....right now I end up just googling it every time and finding a forum thread ...thanks

Look up the set number on Brickset and look down towards the bottom of the right column.  They usually have when it stopped being manufactured in the list.

I think the date is actually when it became unavailable on LEGO Shop at Home.

 

It only goes back 3-4 years though. Older sets do not have that.

One would think there are enough users on this site where we too could start tracking these things, or at least ballpark timeframes.  No reason it couldn't be collected here as well.

Look up the set number on Brickset and look down towards the bottom of the right column.  They usually have when it stopped being manufactured in the list.

I do the same. Brickset has the availability duration dates from shop@home US and UK sites.