If it seems too cheap to be true, it probably is.

In my opinion, the golden rule really applies well to wholesale electronics. I was once taken by a scammer because of not adhering to this rule and acting without thinking. I had found a guy selling Sony Ericsson T68’s (yes I know this was a years ago) at an amazing price. The phone had just came out and was going for $500+ for the unlocked version. It was the newest and hottest phone around at the time, they were selling like hot cakes. So this ’supplier’ I found was offering them at $150 a pop. Without thinking too much I jumped at the opportunity. The only thing that was ringing through my head was the profit margin of $350 x 10 units I was going to buy = $3500. I didn’t even stop for a minute to think about why or how this ’supplier’ was able to offer them at this price. He requested that I mail him a postal money order for $1500 for 10 units plus some odd extra amount for shipping. I agreed, again without thinking, and did just that. Days passed – No phones, but the supplier continued to assure me they were on their way. Weeks passed – No phones and no email replies. Months passed – Of course without any phones and I accepted the fact that I had been taken for a fool.

With the digital age and the ability for con artists to run wholesale scams hiding behind a computer you must be much more careful and vigilant. You cannot just get up and go knock on the door at the guys warehouse, it isn’t that simple.

Tip # 1

The golden rule – If it seems too cheap to be true, it probably is.

If you find an iphone wholesaler selling wholesale iphone 3gs 32gb for $150/pop its probably a scam. If you find the wholesale alpine indash car dvd players for $79/pop when they are going for $999 retail in Best Buy than I am sorry to say it is probably a scam. Do not try to convince yourself with the fact that manufacturers have huge mark ups and than retailers mark up the product even more. When the products are selling in the retail market why would the manufacturer be dishing them out in wholesale for next to nothing? It doesn’t make sense so don’t try to make yourself believe it does.
Tip #2

Believe it or not, these guys today even make fake wholesale electronics. That includes fake tv’s, mp3 players, cellphones. These days anything that has a brand name on it, you better make sure you are absolutely sure you are buying original merchandise if you are buying from some one who gets overruns/refurbished etc products or you better be buying from an authorized distributor of the manufacturer. It is really hard to tell the difference between fake electronics and real ones. Somethings to watch out for:

a. Where is it made? Many manufacturers only make their goods in certain countries or certain products are only made in certain countries. Pull up your products specifications online and see where it is made. Confirm the wholesale pieces you are purchasing are made in the same country

b. Always always always order a sample. Electronics compared to other things are one of the most expensive categories especially when you are purchasing big wholesale quantities. Order a sample of a few pieces and verify yourself that it is legitimate before you buy 100 of them. Losing $300 is much better than losing $30,000.

c. Functionality – Many of these fake electronics do not function the same way as the real ones. If possible, I know this is only good for small items like wholesale cellphones or wholesale ipods, but compare it to a piece from a retail store when you order your samples. See that the menus, colors etc are exactly the same.

Tip #3

Pre-releases. Need I say more?

Manufacturers don’t send out wholesale electronics at dirt cheap prices prior to releasing them to the public.

Think about it, why would they? The whole market is ready to buy them at retail prices, why would they uproot themselves? Seems pretty logical that they wouldn’t, yet so many people get cheated because of this. If a supplier is promising you wholesale apple ipads at a fraction of the retail cost, they are probably going to send you bags of sand. Yet still people think that miraculously this supplier has them because they sent you some phony picture of the thing. Think smart, it does not make sense for Apple to release them like this. The ONLY way you might get offered actual products before they are released is if they have been stolen from the manufacturer. Again, a situation you do not want to be in so please avoid wholesalers who say they have the item in wholesale before it is even in the market.

Hope this helps those getting into the wholesale electronics business and those who are already in it. Stay vigilant, be smart. If you have any questions or comments feel free to email me. Also, if you are thinking about dealing with a supplier and don’t know if he is legitimate or not, I would love to take a look for you for absolutely FREE and give you my opnion!

I should have done this post like 4 posts ago as my first ‘returning’ post but anyways.

After finally completing some of my biggest projects, I am back here to do what I love – blog and share the knowledge.

You will see daily posts, numerous daily posts actually. We will discuss the industry, we will review wholesalers, we will be taking your emails and comments to help you further or start your business. We will expose scammers (list coming soon) we will do product tests, check out wholesalers customer service and be broadcasting live from the best wholesale trade shows. And a whole lot of other great stuff!

Please introduce yourself, please leave a comment, please leave an email, I would love to hear from you!

Pricing is a big factor that can help you weed out scammers from real wholesalers. As the old saying goes, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. A person that recently emailed me told me about an experience they had last month. They had been dealing in wholesale apparel for many years and had worked with a variety of wholesale distributors. So they saw a good deal for shoes made by an Italian brand and jumped on it. Instead of ordering a sample, they ordered 800 pairs since they had dealt with the supplier many times before and never had an issue. The wholesale supplier ONLY accepted bank wire (no way of getting your money back) and the buyer thought it was not an issue.

Well low and behold the shoes arrived and were utter junk. Supposedly made by a brand in the league of Armani and at a price of $35USD/pop landed. Well now the buyer has 800 pieces of junk which are literally worth nothing because they are 100% FAKE.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Please be very careful when dealing with wholesalers and when you buy wholesale products. Order a sample of 10 pieces before you order 800 of them because you can live with a loss of $350. Oh and of course the wholesaler continues to insist they are real.

Recently I was looking into drop shipping and I found this company named Doba. They have really been advertising aggressively and I saw their ads left right and center. Basically what they do is they are like a middle-man company that connects consumers and small wholesale business owners alike with over 200 different drop ship suppliers, distributors, and manufacturers. The way they work is you join their site and then that allows you to browse through thousands of items offered by a countless amount of different suppliers and distributors who provide drop shipping. Once you find some goods you like, you may put them on your website, and once they are purchased, you will have the goods shipped directly to your customer with no hassle of having to re-pack or re-ship any of the items.

Doba offers a free 7 day trial of their services. Once your trial expires, if you would like to continue using Doba, you will need to be paying a monthly fee of either $49.95 which only includes Start Up features, or $59.95 which includes all the Start Up features as well as additional Advanced features.

Drop shipping can really make things easier, especially if you don’t have much room and can’t afford a big storage facility such as a warehouse. Let us know what you guys think about drop shipping as well as the company Doba, and if you have ever used it before let us know about your experiences and provide us with feedback. If you have any questions, or you would just like to suggest a topic for future posts, you can send us an email anytime using the contact form on our Get In Touch With Us page. Don’t forget to share us with your friends and family!