The retail business is a very competitive business. Retailers, eBay sellers, and flea market vendors are all competing with each other and with large box stores like Wal Mart, K Mart, and Target.

Customers are highly educated and know what they should be paying for the items they need.

So in order for a retailer, flea market vendor, or eBay seller to succeed, they need to be able to compete based on price.

To have the lowest price they need to be able to buy from real wholesalers who can offer real wholesale prices.

So how does a reseller ascertain if a wholesale source is legitimate, and how does he find it in the first place?

One effective approach for finding wholesale deals is to visit wholesale specific search engines like www.wholesalecentral.com and www.wholesalequest.com

The retailer would then compile a list based on the type of merchandise he is looking to sell.

After compiling this list he would start researching prices by first visiting large box retail stores and seeing what their prices are.

For an eBay seller or a flea market vendor to compete, their prices must be at least 10% lower.

They should only deal with wholesalers who can supply them with wholesale prices which allow them to make money while pricing their merchandise under the large box retailers.

Before ordering from a wholesaler it would be recommended to conduct a search on Google to see what people are saying about the wholesaler.

If everything is positive, the wholesaler can be tested by placing a trial order. As long as you the wholesale merchandise is satisfactory the flea market vendor, or eBay seller, can then proceed and continue to do business with this wholesaler.

They can also search for wholesale suppliers by contacting industry associations. There are industry associations that represent every market segment that exists.

These associations are set up to bring more business to their members. They are waiting for businesses to contact them so that they can refer customers to their members.

Many of these industry groups have ready made directories that give you a complete listing of all their members.

These directories are a gold mine for wholesale businesses because they represent access to manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors, who themselves have thousands of products for sale.

The top sellers in the retail, flea market, and eBay business even have staff who are constantly searching for new products to introduce to the stores, flea markets, and eBay sellers that they sell to.