I'm not sure all the reasons, but mainly I think it's about integrity. I know Mesa keeps a pretty close eye on their dealers. There's no "I got it for 200 bucks cheaper so buy it here even though my service and support sucks" crap. It most likely benifits the dealers.Like when I bought my Mesa, I might have gone to a superstore Like Guitar Center(who usually use the couple of bucks cheaper scheme, but suck otherwise) But instead got it at a smaller hometown store. When a small dealer has so much invested in high end inventory such as Mesa, they don't need to be under cut by the big guys. I think the website thing is so you have to find a dealer through the Mesa people. Basically when you have a product that is so good you don't have to do all kinds of marketing crap to sell it. Basically people come to you.