Do you tend to use a tripod for a lot of your shots, hence not using VR?
I have not used my tripod for much of anything other than some people portraits and a couple of moon shots. If you are outside in daylight, any shutter speed above 1/60th should not require a tripod if you are relatively steady handed and your subject does not fly or run really fast. Keep in mind that VR only works at shutter speeds at or below 1/350th anyway and I think is not really useful unless you are shooting at relatively low light and need the extra stability because your shutter speed has to drop really low for the shot. I don't shoot a lot in low light as my D90 is not really a good low light camera. It does not focus well in low light and its sensor does not tolerate low light or high ISO very well.
I intend to sell my 55-200 and upgrade as I don't really like it either. I have no idea what the resale value of it would be though, not much I would think as it is fairly cheap new.
Mine brought just about $90 on eBay.
I hadn't looked at the 70-300G, it's well within my price range. I'd be interested to find out how it compares vs the 55-300 in terms of image quality. I'd rather have a lens with auto focus but would have no problem going without.
I am sure there are plenty of people using both of those lenses here. You should be able to find plenty of images taken with either one and maybe even a comparison.
Thanks for the info about how you got these shots. I think I tend to be using my camera with the aperture wide open too much in the search for faster shutter speeds. I think it's contributing to me missing my focus quite a lot.
No need for really fast shutter speed on anything other than a bird or really fast moving critter. A static, or slow crawling bug, doesn't move fast enough to need anything over 1/100th or 1/250th shutter speed. 1/250th will freeze action of anything as fast as, or slower than, a moving human. Most normal movement is frozen with 1/125th second.
Keep your aperture between f/5.6 minimum and f/8 or f/9, if at all possible, while shooting something that you need more than just the face/eyes in focus. If you find you must go wider than f/5.6 then make really sure your camera focal plane is parallel with the entire body length of the subject. Else, most of the subject will be out of focus with only a small portion in focus, usually not what you need in focus.
Also, with your camera, you need to mind your ISO. Keep it below ISO 800 and preferably between ISO 200 and 400 for less grain noise.