Don't know if it is of any help now as this is an old thread, but I have used ebay for vfd's and found the prices not too bad. The last one I bought was around the size you wanted and only cost me $140aus brand new. I know you did not want to buy one based on price, but I've found that this is the easiest solution and most vfd's have some sort of serial port coms which you can interface with arduino.