As someone who works for a company that manufactures plasma TVs, let me just say that no, we do not give out samples of such things, and when we sell them for the cost of the materials it is not sight unseen and on a whim.
If you sent such a letter as the e-bay posts are pitching, either it would be ignored, you would receive a polite thanks for your inquiry reply, or (only if you sounded really credible) a salesperson (or account manager) would call and start asking questions (what company? where are you located? sales floor space? what kind of sales do you do? can I come and visit you in person?). Then, once you signed a dealer license and committed to purchasing x number of TVs would you get some demo models at cost. And demo models are set up in your show room by OUR people.
Thanks for the Plasma screen perspective Xizor. I will say that I have worked a few trade shows and some of these folks are starting to get downrighht annoying.
You’ve got a person who comes up to your booth, says he is a writer (but has no credentials with him), is vague about the magazines he’s written for (“Lots of them, all sorts of magazines”) and wants to review our products (“For what magainze?” we ask “Lots of them would want to print it”. If only we’d send him samples of our product line: Every.single.one.of.them. (This is a line with about 50 SKU’s, before accessories). There used to be just a few of them, now they are starting ot become legion.
At least the “Internet Fortune Making Kit” people are a bit more honest about what they do.