I'm talking about industrial barcode readers (I'm going to have to call most of the manufacturers to find out what their omnidirectional models cost), motors, stages, PLC's, sensors, etc.

It's slowly improving, helped by the Internet and companies like Automation Direct and National Instruments that give ALL their prices on the web, w/o needing a shopping cart -- but also let you order on line.

Semiconductor companies are sometimes bad about this too, but some are like TI,which is very good about giving reference prices (typically for 1,000 units! But this gives you a good enough idea of the cost in smaller or larger quantities).

Tony