[sdiy] DIY Culture (was TI to buy NatSemi!!!!!)

[Barry Klein]

I've seen several sites like this.  Ok its one thing to be able to set such 
a site up.
But quite another to be able to work business arrangements with 30 different 
manufacturers...
How does this work?  He gets a percentage of sale and forwards the order 
directly to the manufacturer
or does he actually have to stock units?  What are typical profit margins - 
or discounts depending
on how you look at it?  I've never understood how someone can make this 
work.
If I knew I would be starting a Digikey-like/ChinaDirect site.  This kind of 
thing is happening
in the RC hobby area.  Send stuff over in bulk shipments for local 
distribution.  Successful to the
point I see an RC guy Hobbyking is going to set up physical regional stores 
now.

Barry