(and don't laugh at me tmv, I should have bought yours but at the time I did not want to buy "fun mods" for my X when it needed repair work/money!)
Long story short, I found DTMDan supposedly the last item in the country a few months back, as I didn't have the funds to buy since I was still dealing with my wheel bearing/air suspension/alignment issues. I inquired last week to Tischer (GetBMWParts) about a "backorder status" on the part, and surprisingly enough they emailed me and told me they had one in stock. I was apprehensive, but ordered, and it went through the weekend only to get my order cancelled this morning, telling me as I already knew that the part was no longer available. I guess they did not update their inventories since DTMDan bought his some months ago, which I found odd, but confirmed my earlier suspicions as I thought it was too good to be true that they suddenly had another part "sitting in the corner of their warehouse".
So this afternoon, to get the final word, I had James @ ECS kindly run an international supply inquiry for the Discontinued Front Decorative Skid Plate for the E53, and not only are they gone in the USA, but Canada, Mexico, and Overseas supply is also depleted. The part is gone completely and will never be made again.
The members that have them, good job, you officially own an extremely rare piece of body work that makes a nice difference to the front end of the non-iS models. I was hoping to score one overseas or from Canada but alas, all my cards are played.
Guess I'll start saving for the 4.6 kit, or wait until someone with the Decorative skid plate feels like selling their car and parting it out!
Just FYI, it was this piece for those who don't know (shown on tmv's old car):
