Distributing Consumer Products Onlin/ Drop-Shipment Questions

[Grrilla]

I would like to move away from affiliate/click based income and sell physical products through a few of my sites. The products I have in mind include LED lightbulbs and flashlights, niche photography gear, ie specialty filters and lighting gizmos, hard to find parts and adapters for lamp and old appliance repair etc. I, also, have plans that are broader in scope- for instance, I would like to use Orangezilla.com to market a wide variety of products that are unified by a common, "all things orange", theme.

My questions-
-Is there anyone, here, specializing in or using some of their sites to distribute manufacters products?
-How are you acquiring product? Purchasing an inventory? Drop shipment?
-Are there resource centers that list manufacturers and products avail for distribution and or will drop-ship? Iie similar to affiliate listing sites)
-Any success by directly contacting the manufactures? My experience has been that manufacturers, generally, don't want to deal w/ small operations and will kick you down to a distributor which has the effect of taking you out of the game because an additional mark-up will make the price uncompetitive.

I am just starting to googl around for info but was hoping to get some pointers here, if available. Tx

 

[dreday12]

If you want to carry products you contact the manufaturer and ask them how you can go about obtaining products at wholesale and they should give you the info. I have contacted apple, sony, and DVD production comapnies in the past and they have always given the info.

People think it is a secret to getting products but it is not, just takes a phone call or email.

 

[Grrilla]

Tx 4 reply. I had a share in a specialty coffee distribution business about 30 years ago and lined up the manufactures for accesories (ie Braun coffee grinders, Chemex coffee brewers, expresso machines, filters etc), as well as, herbal teas and other allied products. I made almost all of my initial contacts at a the semi-annual Specialty Foods convention and lining up products for distribution was a snap.

But, that was a long time ago, I was only involved w/ it for 6mos, (I sold out my share) and it was pre-internet. Just trying to get a feel for today and find out if the internet offered any shortcuts to help move through the process quicker and more efficiently, given that, I hadn't planned on going to any conventions in the near term.. It seems as if not much has changed- do your own footwork, make direct contact w/ a list of companies and work out the details from there. I'm, just feeling some rust and am a bit daunted by the process, I suppose.