For Don and others ... you do not have to be an ASI member in MOST cases to buy at a discount because these people are just like you ... they are in business to make money.

Years ago when I first had interest in what was then called ad specialties I went to the library and searched for manufacturers of ad specialty products.

If I recall correctly at that time ASI said you had to have already done business with x-amount of promotional product providers (or it may have been that I needed to have sold promotional products to x-amount of customers ... can't recall which as this was years ago prior to a stroke) PLUS pay whatever their fees were for ASI. With this information when I called a manufacturer or supplier and they asked if I were an ASI member I told them I was fairly new in the industry and was working on getting 10 suppliers I had done business with so I could become an ASI member. (I think 10 was the number requested back then.)

Anyway MOST worked with me. I think only a handful of suppliers would not work with me and in those instances I went through Kaeser & Blair if I couldn't find the product elsewhere. Now I didn't earn as much profit with K&B but I got the business.

I'm not certain if those requirements are still in place or not and since I am not in need of that I don't feel the need to use valuable time searching for that but for those who have interest I believe the link is here for you to gather this information.

Let's try to see what we can add in the way of value here. Life is short.

Anyway ... I hope this helps.

Randy