I know there is a member of the boards who has their own online store that sells MAX chips for very reasonable prices. I've been trying to search for the post I read months ago where he gave a link to his store, but I can't find it for the life of me. Does anyone have the link or the members name so I could get it? Either that or does anyone have another site in mind that sells the MAX 72xx chips for a decent price?
Thanks!
That was probably
http://www.phanderson.com/.
But looking recently I couldn't find them anymore there.
You're right - he had the best price.
(Futurelec sells them but they are no deal.)
It's the hird button from the bottom: MAX7219CNG, for $8. That's a couple bucks lower than the single-quantity that Digikey will give you, plus he takes PayPal.
http://www.phanderson.com/ordering_1.html
It looks like he's still in biz, according to dates on his order-stats page.
Oh, good to see! Thanks halley. - I enjoy weeding around that site. He's got some interesting stuff at great prices. I really got to like the PCF8591 chip he sells.
I got a few from the seeeduino guys:
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/max7219-serially-interfaced-8digit-led-display-driver-p-168.html
...though they are taking forever to get here. I guess I should have bought from Peter Anderson however, seeing as it looks like he lives about ten minutes away. 
PF