Some questions especially this I am not able to ansewer. Nor would the who to advice be of any more value than those with advice given. I buy somewhere over $100K a year in lamps
thru electrical suppliers, distributers and direct to the manufacturers thus who I talk to and what suppliers are good for me won't be for you. Sorry, but the
leg work I have done in my own close suppliers much less discount factor is in a area that is not of much use in posting. 95% of the time, what I pay won't be retail.
Should you wish, while there is literally hundreds of suppliers, I can E-Mail you a general starting list of suppliers I'm aware of in buying from of just being aware of, but beyond this cannot offer advice nor know what source would in any way be best for you. Nor will I do business with those on
line.
I know of at least six manufacturers for the lamps on the table. Contact by way of manufacturer while you probably won't get them to sell direct might be good as an option in sourcing also. They know their local suppliers and most likely will wish to sell to you
thru them or the more national suppliers.
Otherwise, at some
point while there is no doubt over a hundred suppliers that can get you your lamps, the amount of
leg work you put into saving a few bucks per lamp does add up in the amount of time you spend in contacting all of them. Consider the economics of this.
There is other tips in buying lamps, many of them, but for the most part, it is true that you really need a huge budget for lamps before your cost savings starts to pay off in the effort in finding the savings above too much effort in shopping around.
Sorry, but beyond this, there is stuff I cannot get into.
On the other
hand, changing to the other lamp
base sounds like a good idea all around.