They are, but they will also steer you towards your local dealer (if you are in the area) so you can build a relationship with said distributor if any issues come up.

There are many people on this forum that have the skillset(s) (repair, buying, selling, understanding and communicating any issues) that make a distributor a non-valid point for them. Great, more power to them, but a lot of distributors also have customers that either a) don't care to or b) don't know how to set up their games, fix their games, troubleshoot their games. I have quite a few clients that don't want strangers coming into their house to work on or to potentially buy their games. That is where a distributor comes in.

Distributors also bring games to and man booths at many of the shows that you guys (gals) and people not present here attend. Large companies might have the personnel to have a guy or two for each show, but most of the time it is up to the local distributor to bring games, set up the games, answer questions, break down games and then do it again for the next show.

We all want to feel like we are getting a fair price on everything, i am no different. At the end of the day, the old adage is "you get what you pay for." You can get a cheaper price, but it might be a "better" price.

Damnit dude. My wife might see this and wonder why she isn't getting as many back rubs now.