Some musings have been here regarding the one off availability and price. Please consider that to sell ONE $5 chip (maybe $1 profit) someone at the distributor has to spend 5 minutes with you making sure your order is correct, then someone has to spend 10 minutes locating and packing the part. By then the distributor has already lost money. Now someone has to verify and mail the invoice. I am sorry to say, but when you find a distributor that is willing to sell one off, have symapthy about his price.

Regarding Honesty, when I worked in small quantity environments I found that I got most free samples by "bugging" about buying one or two parts. Asking for a sample to build the one unit you are ever going to make is very dishonest. "I know that I am not a large customer but if that should happen, I will remember you" worked very well for me.

Honesty always wins

Erik