Your budget will get you into a good game as noted above, you just have some patience and wait for something to pop up locally in KC so you can see it before you buy and won' have to pay for shipping.

But if your budget isn't firm at $4,500, there are a lot of good recent Stern titles available at $5K.

Don't get hung up on the ratings. Your (and your wife's) opinion of the game is most important.

However, you can use the list to start targeting your search.

But you are more likely limited by local availability of games in your price range than having to choose from the universe of games.