Paul,
>Is there a third party product on the market that will export all data from QuickBooks into either ASCII text files or Access database?
The guys at nSoftware have a product that wraps the QuickBooks API nicely. It used to be called AcctSync, but is now called iBiz QuickBooks Integrator. It will probably help you get this done quickly and easily.
http://www.nsoftware.com/ibiz/quickbooks/