While it was years ago I did the China direct thing, and most of them didn't even make it to my games. There is fit issues, flicker issues, color issues, and overall quality issues. These "middle men" spend months weeding out manufacturers to find the good ones, then many more months going back and forth on individual bulbs to make sure they are made properly, and then work with the manufacturers for more specialty bulb options. Believe me, the service provided is more than worth the perceived markup, which they will all confess isn't very much.