Something that most people who aren't in product engineering don't realize is that sourcing small displays is incredibly difficult if you are not building smartphones. All of the nice displays you see coming out and going straight into phones are simply unavailable to anyone looking to build a lower-volume consumer device (where "lower-volume" here means less than a million). If you want to build a product with a small display (and don't even get me started on touchscreens), you are stuck with old technology, very limited choice, and high prices.
What about the rejected panels? Someone must be selling them. I picked up a few of those 27" korean IPS's that codinghorror blogged about a few months back. I paid around $300 with shipping, but the import form said $190.
