Finding wholesale sources for eBay, Amazon, and online inventory is not as hard as you might think. You don't have to buy lists or pay memberships to wholesaler sites. Here are a few ways to uncover sources for eBay inventory from wholesalers.
Exhaust your personal network. Do you know someone with connections? Maybe someone who owns their own business and has to order from wholesalers? Even if you think the product line won't transfer (such as a restaurant owner), investigate it anyway. You never know what connections someone else has that can help you. If you don't ask, you don't get.
Look locally. Could you possibly find this product locally through a wholesaler in your city? Check your local yellow pages – you may hit on something you didn’t even know existed. Remember, not everyone has access to the same things you do. You may be able to walk into a wholesale warehouse and shop there in person. The only way you will know is to investigate this option. (Example - I passed a billboard in Atlanta one day for a lingerie wholesaler. I went to their location and was able to deal with someone face to face, buy the quantity I wanted, and test small amounts of different kinds of inventory in a very low risk situation.)
Place ads on Craigslist. Ask for what you seek. People scour CL ads every day looking for things they may have that others will pay for. Place ads in your own city and surrounding cities. Word your ad like this:
“Cash paid for vintage rotary phones (or whatever you seek). Quality and condition of item determine the price we will pay. Email us a photo and description of your item for a quote.”
Google the product name followed by the word supplier, wholesale, wholesaler, or manufacturer. Use synonyms in your search. Stick with domestic companies at first – working with overseas suppliers is complicated and you can lose money and be scammed easily.
Click here for a list of 395 eBay friendly wholesalers along with 5 important facts for choosing profitable wholesale products to sell on eBay.
When searching for legitimate wholesalers using Google, be wary of wholesalers that don't ask for a seller's permit/resale license. These are not legitimate wholesalers. All legitimate wholesalers are required to ask for your seller's permit number. If they don't they run the risk of getting in trouble with the law. One way to look for legitimate wholesalers is go to a retail store that carries merchandise you are interested in selling and look on the packaging to see if you can locate a phone number. Some items will have a toll-free number for consumers to call. You can pose as a consumer and ask the person who answers your call who the manufacturer is. Look up contact info for the manufacturer on ThomasNet.com. You can then contact the manufacturer to find a distributor/wholesaler of the product you are interested in.
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