Okay, well they're still $29 at my local Walmart. I tried the next two closest stores, and they don't have any at all. As I said, I'll keep my eyes open...
In the meantime, I've begun my mod. I was just going to mask off the screen and paint the body of the thing, but I figured I'd get a better paint job if I crack it open. So I did. Not too tough-- two screws (hidden under caps) on the back, and the rest are just tabs. I removed the electronics, and painted the body a matte nickel color. The directional button in the center is now a metallic black.
I thought about doing some cutouts in the body (and inserting faux buttons/controls from underneath), but the electronics on the inside are so close to the surface of the body that it would be hard to fit anything in there. Also, the optimal placement for the cutouts (the bottom) is where the screws attach to keep the electronics in place (in the inside) and keep the body together (outside), so I'd be messing with the structure of things, as it were. I'm just not that adventurous at this moment. I'm sure someone else can do it, tho... if there's one thing I've learned from the members of this forum, it's that nothing is out of the realm of possibility!
In any case, here's the painted piece with some LCARS images on the screen. I obviously haven't added any other embellishment on the outside; I'm still making up my mind about decals or faux buttons and all that good stuff. (It's looking a bit too iPod-ish to me without any Trek-type decals, etc.!) I just thought I'd show it in progress...