Why limit yourself to the East Coast?
Welcome to the global marketplace!
I have had really good luck with:
http://www.uneedapart.com/
Your mailbox magically fills up with quotes from all over the country + Canada. A search for an alternator recently returned 100+ quotes, with a huge variance in terms (price/quality/warranty). I got a phenomenal deal.
There are dozens of similar services, but I have found uneedapart to be the best so far.
This is the internet at it's finest.