LCD Sourcing Troubles

[Someone]

If you really want the lowest prices you'll need to talk to the manufacturers direclty, but they are unlikely to even answer you if you're not buying a huge quantity (1k+).

While that might be true I'd still like to talk to them about MOQ and what prices might be like for larger orders.  Depending on their answer it might affect whether I want to purchase their LCD in smaller quantities, even if I have to buy the smaller quantity through regular websites.  I'd like to keep in mind what the issues might be when it comes time to order larger volumes of a part.

You won't even get to talk to manufacturers until you've already been ordering 1k+ qty through distributors, or are some billion dollar enterprise. LCDs are a competitive market with people booking out capacity well in advance.

What's the problem with dealing through a distributor? That's pretty much your only choice.

[Lowkus]

I don't like giving money to middle-men if I plan to mass produce something in the future.  For example if I were to need 5000pcs of an LCD and the manufacturer can save me $10 over a distributor then I'd save $50,000 on costs.  However I was researching LCD manufacturing processes tonight and while doing so I began to ponder the fluctuating nature of businesses and decided that it's probably a better approach if I grab any random LCD to start with and design my project to have flexibility to use different LCD's, that way when it comes time to find a manufacturer for larger volumes I can reassess the landscape closer to when I'm actually going to mass produce it.  A great manufacturer today could be a sucky one three years from now.  So I'll probably buy a couple of LCD from that BuyDisplay website unless I find a better option.