Ordinary plumbing stores may have ordinary polished chrome hardware at reasonable prices. POlished chrome is not usually an upcharged item for plumbing fixtures.

It's possible that the Big Box stores have made better deals on the more stylish/faddish finishes as a marketing choice that they imagine every housewife in suburbia wants and ordered only cheapo-hardware (with cheapo-grade finishes) for the lower end of their in-store price ranges. Of course most of them will allow you to special order from almost all of the manufacturers' full lines. You just have ask to see the catalogues. Often the prices at HD/Lowes are a bit less than MSRP.

The big box stores also often purchase special, exclusive, models of familiar-seeming fixture styles (with familiar-seeming names, but just slightly different model numbers ) but with cheaper components. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples.

For nickel finishes I think you will have to go slightly up the price ladder.

You can also have older fixtures re-chromed.

L.

I bought satin nickel knobs on amazon for about $1 each and they are excellent quality. Try searching there got your polished!

Try Overstock. Lots of hardware and a variety of finishes at decent prices, too.

Search for packs on amazon, try something like "chrome cabinet pull pack". They tend to be better values and surprisingly low per piece price.

I just bought some Hirkocry Hardware American Diner knobs in chrome for 1.25. They are really heavy and very nice quality. I did not buy enough to complete my remodel so I had to buy just one more. 2.25 with shipping and for the one knob. Amazon has good prices on some of the better quality hardware. You just have to go through it all.

Home Depot's line of Martha Stuart hardware. Most of them are a special order, but they arrived at my doorstep in about 4 days. Weight is nice and sturdy, finished to a beautiful shine and most are a the commmon 3" center to center screw installation, which means that swapping them out in 5 years for a different finish means no new holes spackle or drilling that ruin a nice cabinet. My contractor even asked where I got them because he said most cheap out with the screws but these came with top quality installation hardware. He was shocked when I told him HD.

I did these on my drawers:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/202241366?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=martha+stuart+polished+nickel+bedford&storeId=10051&superSkuId=202784242&N=5yc1v&R=202241366#csku=202241364

These on my cabinets:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/202241337?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=martha+stuart+polished+nickel&storeId=10051&superSkuId=203314045&N=5yc1v&R=202241337

And these on just my pantry for a little added style - and because I loved them so wanted to find a spot for them:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/202241370?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=martha+stuart+polished+nickel&storeId=10051&N=5yc1v&R=202241370

Check ebay as well. I got Amerock handles there for less than half the cheapest online store price. They were brand new in the packages. The seller had about 200 of them so quantity was not an issue.