Instead of buying an account, why not just wait another week or so to see if SR gets their new servers and allows new members to sign up?   

If SR permanently blocks new members it won't take long for the community to dwindle to nothing.  Sellers won't be too happy with the idea that their customer base cannot grow.

And yes, I know the "negative" publicity doesn't help, but there never was anyway to avoid it.   There is no way to prevent LE from snooping around if they really want to.