I am looking to buy about 40-60 PIC16c54-HS/P-ND (digi key #).  Is there
a better (read more inexpensive) place to buy these than digikey?

They are $6.56/pc at this quantity.

also If I want to program a PIC16C84 with my PICSTART-16B what revision
of firmware do I need.

thanx,

mycal