As a ex retailer I used to hate it and hardly ever bothered replying, but almost every day I used to get a email from someone out of town asking what my best price was for item X shipped to them-it was very obvious that the email was sent to every shop in the industry they could find a email for.
I have since used this tactic myself and found some interesting results, mostly it has given me lists of retailers in several fields that will do very good deals on clip the ticket type sales for things they haven't had to pay to stock.
For shooting stuff I do find it hard to go past forum member herbmister at nzrac, his website only has a few things on it but he is fantastic to deal with if you know what you want and the importer has it in stock.
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