Where do Travel Agencies acquire their tickets from?

Think you have a lot to learn about travel agencies and their modus operandii. My company has been an agent for many transport operators, land, sea and air for over twenty years. We do not keep cupboards full of orted tickets hoping to sell them to the travelling public, In fact we keep NO tickets at all. But we have a contractual agreement to sell tickets with those companies for which we receive a commission that covers our expenses and gives us a profit margin. We are also supplied with “point of sale” material, brochures, posters etc, plus of course other material that allows us to provide a service to our client. Most, if not all of our communications with the transport operators is either by telephone, fax, e-mail or direct access by computer to their booking engines. At which time my staff are required to provide certain information about the company before the booking is made for the client. As for the production of the ticket for our client, all we keep are “masters”, which are turned electronically into valid travel tickets by the computer systems.