Question
How is the best way to find a wholesaler? I have been looking and it looks like they are all just regular sellers.
Answer
Welcome to here!
I think you'll find no easy answer to your question. Yes, good wholesalers are hard to find. Anyone who has a source will not likely part with that information, as they don't want the competition.
I have no idea what you sell, but I believe that you can find manufacturing directories at your local library. Hope that helps!
Answer
try tradeshows , trade publications and a lot of reasearch .
wholesalers and sources are the heart of every sellers business
if I where to tell you (or anyone else ) my wholesle sources then I would have 1 (or more ) new sellers with the same item on ebay tommorrow.
and a lot of sellers on ebay are wholesallers selling on ebay at wholesale prices
good luck .
( BTW i'm married to a 'nole ).
Answer
While we're on the sibject of wholesalers, whats everyones opinion of those "they hate me for showing you this" and then want like $40.00 to give you their sources? Anyone ever tried any of these?
sounds like all scams to me!
Answer
They wouldnt necessarily be scams, but the information would be freely available from any Thomas Register for US Manufacturers, and any consulate or trade office of any foreign country.
Answer
Here's a couple of old here threads that might help:
Answer
You asked about wholesalers, which are differeent from both distributors and manufacturers, or even consolidators and liquidators. The variety of sources out there is simply amazing.
The trade show idea is a particularly good source for finding products and those who wholesale, distribute and make them.
One of the items I sell on eBay is, in essence, a craft item, which I make up from several different pieces. Harder for copycat sellers to duplicate and undercut me. Though there certainly is competition on eBay for similar offerings.
I recently used google to try to get a better price on some textile items and used a large vareity of search terms to drill down their results. It took the better part of an afternoon, but I found a cheaper, faster and better quality product at 1/3 less than what I was paying. Well worth the effort.
A lot of what I have had success with are "off brand" merchandise items...stuff that is familiar but goes by a different trade name. It is a little dicey finding the right listing terms since there is the keyword spamming issue.
Finding good sources is the secret to successful eBay selling. As my mentor always reminded me:
"It's not how you sell, but how you buy that is the key to profits."
The way not to do it is this:
"Sure we lose money on every sale, but we will make it up on the volume."
Larry
Answer
The words "wholesale" and "wholesalers" have almost no meaning any more.
What you mean to say is that you want to contact an agent on the supply chain above you.
This contact could actually be the factory itself (though unlikely) or it could be a broker (very, very likely) or it could be a middleman who purchased the goods from the factory or broker.
You need to identify the supply chain for the merchandise you are interested in.
Here's how it worked for some shirts I ordered recently:
The folks I dealt with were reselling merchandise they had *made to their specifications* and ordered directly from the factory. So here's the supply chain:
Raw materials -> Factory -> Reseller -> FTWC -> eBay customer's boutique -> End user
Years ago eBay selling might have been as simple as picking up a catalogue and ordering the merch you'd be reselling. If it was, it isn't that easy any more.
Figure out where you want to be in the supply chain and you've won most of the battle.
fLufF
--
Answer
This guy has some great wholesale resource info. His name is Don Lancaster and he's a regular poster on the alt.marketing.online.ebay newsgroup. His main interest is military surplus and electronics. Many of his articles are in .pdf format and require Adobe Acrobat. You need to read through ALL of the document summaries to find what you want since they really aren't in any logical order.
http://www.tinaja.com/resbn01.asp
http://www.tinaja.com/auct01.asp
His homepage - there's so much info you have to take time to sort through it all: http://www.tinaja.com/
Blanche