no backlight, but curiously enough, on the side of the unit, the metal frame around the screen has a gap in it, and there is a bit of a bulge on the side of the glass there. it looks like it is meant to be a spreader lens. that means you can have a backlight merely by gluing a square-lens LED to the side.
yes, they are standard 14-pin LCDs. conveniently enough they even have HD44780 controllers, like 90% of the other LCDs out there.
I am willing to sell them without serial "backpacks". I was thinking $6 including shipping in the US. That would be the LCD, wrapped in a couple layers of paper (or bubble wrap if i picked some up) in a bubble envelope, shipped regular mail. If you wanted a more protective shipping method i could do that as well, for say $5 for the LCD plus shipping cost... I don't want to sell huge numbers of them this way as i'd rather sell more with the serial backpacks. I learned my lesson with that a while back, selling single items for $5 that i purchased in bulk... turned out to be way more effort than it was worth. But I would be willing to sell them here and there. At this point i have only received the two "trial" units i bought a while back, but I have 50 on the way, due to arrive monday. So let me know.
Actually i just switched etchants. I was using ferric chloride but i always hated it, due to it having all the characteristics of iodine and being acidic to boot... I am now using sodium persulphate ($17 for 1kg/2.2lb at web-tronics.com) it is really nice. since it's a powder i can mix just what i need, and it's clear so i can watch the board etching progress. and it turns windex blue as it etches. I use 4 teaspoons of powder with 1/3 cup hot water in a ziplock baggie. makes it nice because i can agitate the board with my hands as it etches, and see it easily. i hear it's not as fast as ferric chloride, i haven't exactly timed either method, but personally i don't care that much because the other benefits outweigh it.