Phil:

Thanks for your thoughts.

A few years ago I was working with a gentleman in Germany (originally from Ireland) who was looking for American made products that he was trying to get into German retail stores. He was older and had no internet access. I searched for companies with interesting products who weren't marketing in Germany. I'd write up a little report with descriptions of the products and contact info and I'd fax it to him.

I ended up collecting quite a few. I would have received a royalty on each product sold, but unfortunately, no deals ever went through. One product came close, but then they went with a different distributor for Germany. Eventually my contact gave up on the idea of trying to get American products into German stores due to too much regulation, etc. Many companies didn't want to bother with international distribution because they would have to change their packaging, get certain certifications, etc.

So yeah, I have been collecting URL's under the heading "Cool products". I kept adding to it even after I stopped looking for products for my contact.