Sourcing RGB LEDs

[hiwrac]

Now that the circuit design of my first kit is complete it is time to design for manufacturing.

I am having trouble finding a good source for tri-color RGB leds.

I am looking for a variety of types including:

Through-hole diffuse such as these,
through-hole clear such as these, as well as SMT versions of both .

Searching digikey and mouser seems to yield only very expensive versions ($1.50+), in fact adafruit seems to have the best prices I can find. I am looking to purchase a 200-500 at a time (possibly more for SMT versions). Can anyone recommend a source for these?

[richms]

Watch out, cheap is often banned as I have found getting from the cheap vendors on ebay, and they want you to send it back to get a paypal refund which costs more than you paid for the things so its just not worth it etc. I am sure that many of the vendors are selling good ones, but I have had too many obvious rejects from there to bother again, particually if you find it only after soldering it into something.

[george graves]

The LED brightnesses listed on eBay auctions are very optimistic. And by "very optimistic", I mean "Freakin' out of their mind"

[richms]

Never got the obsession with mCd as a measurement when the beams are so narrow, yet misinformed that you can only use them as a spotlight, but only one that projects a lopsided oval with a dark patch at one end.

Oh, and dont count on any consistency in a bag of 200 blue LEDs about what blue they are, what angle they are, or if they work or not.