Hi,
I got a decent sized high elf army from these guys:
http://kallistra.co.uk/
£5 per blister and you get a fair amount in them, although they are in the
UK so postage to you may be a sticking point.
If you are thinking about starting an Empire army, you could check out Armies in Miniature (sorry, no web address to hand - your google-Fu must be strong on this one!!). They do a lot of 10mm historical minis which could be decent proxies.
Hope that helps
Stuart
(also, I will be adding 10mm figs to my site soon, just saying is all...
)