> While most folks aren't as bad as this, I do notice its occurance is eerily common. Usually it takes the form of the contraction "there's." "There's a couple of colors you can choose from," for instance. My guess is that this happens because there isn't a contraction for "there are." "There're" just does not roll off the tongue.
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My first reaction was that (1) "there's a couple of colors" is actually correct and (2) "there're a couple of colors" is wrong. After all, the subject of "is" is not "colors" but "couple". Grammatically it should be an equivalent choice to saying "there's a roll of pennies" or "there's a group of lawyers". An online lookup, however, revealed to me that the "Usage Panel" does not accept (1) as, apparently, "couple" is not the subject but a type of quantifier on the "logical subject", "colors".

So while you may be correct, I think it's due to "a couple of" having special status as a grammatical construction which makes it different from, say, "a group of". And while some people may misuse it for the reason you gave, I misuse it (and will continue to do so) fully conscious of the grammatical rules which *should* apply but don't. In related news, I will continue to willingly disobey current rules regarding the inclusion of punctuation in quoted words or phrases in which the punctuation is not actually a part of the quoted material. It may be wrong *now*, but I must do my part to help influence the future reform of English toward a more logical goal. Does that make me a grammar left-winger?