Well, I found him on FB and sent him a message. Said I knew him from eBay but heard from others knew he worked though other channels as well. Said we could both save some money if we didn't rely on eBay and asked for a shipped price on the shifters and brakes. He responded with $400. Depending on the auction, eBay price is right at $300 after shipping/sales tax. I guess I'll keep working that angle.
I'm in the US so Star Bike and R2 aren't an option. I've done a lot of business w/ R2 in the past and even made money reselling DT Swiss fat hub sets stateside. In the meantime R2 has quit shipping DT Swiss to the US, which sucks because I need a few things from Dt Swiss still. Neither Star or R2 will ship Shimano.
I've explored getting things shipped to Canada and then reshipped to the US from a third party but I couldn't find anything remotely objective to determine what it would cost so I have no idea if it would be worth it. If anyone has any thoughts on that I'd appreciate it. ...might have to make another post.
Aaron