Following on from a previous thread

[wardy079]

Obviously I don't want or expect you to all give away your secrets but where did you all discovered the best way to buy your stock. There is a item that I would like to sell (the item has many different sizes and colours) but I just don't really know where to start to try and find major wholesale stockists

[8uy5elldude]

I don't see how anyone can answer such an ambiguous question! 

[joz*garage]

There is a item that I would like to sell (the item has many different sizes and colours) but I just don't really know where to start to try and find major wholesale stockists

A description of the type of item you wish to buy and sell, might help?

[Anonymous]

If you dont expect people to give away their secrets ...why are you asking them to? Any buyer who can work out what it is your talking about will buy from the place you wish you could, any seller who is equally confused by what you are asking will be glad you do not know the answer regardless of what the question was and would also like to sell this mysterious product to the buyer youd like to sell to.

[putney32]

to find major wholesalers or stockists you should try attending some of the Trade Fairs in your Capital City.  I know of a few sellers who attend them every year and find out what's going to be the 'next in thing...' etc.

of course you need to be prepared to buy a substantial quantity to qualify for 'major wholesale prices'.  you cant rock up to buy 10 or 20 units and expect to be treated like a real Dealer.

[wardy079]

Thank you putney you answered my question well.

I thought my question was quite obvious.  Say I wanted to sell craft supplies, how would I go about finding wholesales?

[bdstratton]

it depends how much you are willing to invest in your business

have you the space for storage etc

Do you have a business plan - I suggest you write one think about what your goals are for the business etc

if you want to start small you can find local importers here in Australia to buy from.

Start by looking In the yellow pages (importers wholesalers)

if you are willing to invest a larger amount of cash over $2000 plus and have space try by looking online overseas sources eg Alibaba

[kopenhagen5]

There are also industry publications available from newsagents.

I was involved with giftware and the giftware association produced an annual publication listing many wholesalers and describing items available.

Perhaps their is a craft association with similar.

[*crikey*mate*]

I started doing google searches for some ideas. Then if I found a supplier that i thought seemed legit - (ie claimed they were certified suppliers of a particular product) I would ask them to supply proof of their certification. I would then contact the official consumer storefront, so for example, a particular range of skincare or makeup) and ask them if they really were authorized stockists.

Next step is to maybe buy a few of their products so that you can see for yourself.

My advice though is if doing it online, is to try and find one that lets you pay by paypal. One of the suppliers I found were very convincing and yes, they did have authentication, but when their product arrived, it was clearly fake and very substandard.

I believe, but don't know for sure, that had I have not paid by Pay Pal, I may have lost my money, or been in for a lengthy battle to recover it - but with the help of PayPal it was all sorted and I got my refund in 10 days (from memory) plus someone commenced investigation into the supplier, and they no longer claim to be certified suppliers of the product.

I don't know if that was the store or PayPal who started that, (The store told me originally these people were authorized suppliers, but my subsequent queries may have led them to check up on exactly what they were supplying?)

Another option is to go straight to the source - so if you wanted to sell Nike Shoes for example - contact Nike and ask them who are their authorized suppliers.

[wardy079]

Great!!!!!!!!!  Thanks a lot for all of your ideas.

Certainly gives me some food for thought.........now to just figure out if it is really worth it with all of the additional fees as well as the postage.  Although I'm hoping that what I want to sell will be able to be posted in small letters or large letters