You've seen the infomercials, memorized the slogans, maybe even bought one from the As Seen On TV store on a whim. ShamWow, Ped Egg, Snuggie — dozens of products, usually priced at something ending with "and 99 cents," all promising to solve some everyday problem, sometimes one you never realized you had.

Ever wish you'd come up the blanket with sleeves, because, if you had, you'd be filthy rich right now?

Meet Edward Vollrath. He claims that two full years before the Snuggie took America's hearts and wallets by storm, he had invented a similar product: the Skutch. Billed as "the blanket that fits," the Skutch has a hood and elastic around its edges, so it wraps around your body like a cocoon. Vollrath says it kills him the Snuggie got marketing and financial backing before his Skutch, and you can't fault him for being a little upset. Remember, Billy Mays was a household name. Direct-response selling has become a million-dollar business, one that's even benefitted from the recession because its products promise to save customers money in the long run.

This is why Vollrath, a New Jersey-based former roofer, is so nervous as he waits inside a ballroom at Encore at Wynn. He is one of more than two-dozen people who've made the trip for an opportunity to pitch their original inventions to AJ Khubani, CEO and founder of TeleBands, one of the top direct-response television product companies in the country.

Joining Vollrath are other at-home inventors. They include a 19-year-old college student and his self-cleaning litter box, a busy mother with stackable trays that allow a person to microwave three plates at once, a battery-operated foot-file with the unfortunate name "PediFile" and a father-son duo with a spray that loosens the hold of a Band-Aid for easy removal. The latter — called Band Off — is a good idea, especially because it would evoke emotion from television viewers, but Khubani tells the California-based men that the product might be lower than their minimum price of $10 (aka: $9.99 plus shipping & handling).

Success isn't based on ingenuity of the product alone. The price point matters, as does the ability to appeal to the widest demographic possible.

One pitchman hawks a travel-friendly contact-solution bottle with a built-in contact holder — something every contact-wearing person in the room concedes they would purchase. The problem, then, is only 30 million people wear contacts in America. Compare that to the potential audience for Chair Magic — the seat cover pitched by a mother/daughter team from Houston, Texas. "Almost everyone owns a chair," says Khubani. "That was a stand-out for us."

And Vollrath? He learns another harsh business lesson: It doesn't matter what product is better; what matters is who came first.