It’s not your fault if you think that reselling wholesale items on eBay will be a “make-a-million-dollars-in-a-month” scheme. When you expose yourself to the online retail industry, you open up the floodgates to a whole host of rumors and myths about making easy money, and being able to achieve Top Rated Seller status by lunch time tomorrow!

To help set you straight, I’ve listed the top 4 myths about wholesale buying that seem to derail new sellers every day of the week:

Myth #1: Buying products in wholesale quantities means buying them at at least 50% less than the retail price.

Sorry to start out on a bad note, guys, but this is seriously incorrect! In reality, the wholesale cost of an item is usually 5-35% below the retail cost. Some big-time sellers with massive buying power might be able to get better discounts when they are in a position to buy in big bulk. Wholesale buying is a volume game: the more you buy, the less you pay per unit. But, if you are thinking you can buy a container load of jeans for a just a few hundred dollars, you would be wrong.

Myth #2: Wholesale suppliers won’t want to deal with me; I’m just an eBay seller making 30 sales per month.

Wrong! The truth is plenty of suppliers are more than happy to deal with the likes of eBay sellers. While you might only make smaller orders through them, it’s all the smaller businesses that are often the backbone of a supplier’s business. After all, a supplier who relies on the success of 3 or 4 major buyers is not really safe-guarding their business!

When checking out new suppliers to deal with, you might find that they have a very high minimum order which you cannot meet. However, I suggest that you email the supplier anyway and see if they will make an exception: suppliers know that they need to support new and small sellers in order to help them grow their business and stat placing those big orders.

Myth #3: You can buy designer branded goods like clothing, sunglasses, and jewelry for next to nothing, and resell them for enormous profits.

This is a particularly popular one. If you think you can buy an authentic Louis Vuitton handbag wholesale for less than $100, and resell it for $500, you are sadly mistaken. While it is possible to buy the latest designer handbags, the sad truth is, unless you are buying them from an authorized distributor, hey are highly likely to be fake.

While there is a consumer demand for fakes, selling them is 100% illegal. eBay has a whole division dedicated to checking that all designer and branded goods sold on their site are the real deal. If they cotton on to you selling anything less, you will have your account closed pronto. Worse still, if Customs catches you importing fake items, you could face heavy fines and imprisonment.

To sell most designer branded goods legally, you need to become an authorized reseller. This means jumping through some very high hoops. For example, some brand owners require you to have a brick and mortar retail store and a very high sales turnover (think $100,000 per year).

You are much more likely to be successful when selling non-branded everyday items like sporting or hobby equipment.

Myth #4: The best wholesalers can only be found online

While the internet certainly makes it easier for us to find new suppliers, and instantly price-up potential items, it would be a mistake to overlook the many other product-sourcing avenues available.

So what other options do you have?

• Trade Shows:

Tradeshows are exhibitions organized by industry leaders to showcase new products. They are a great way to stay ahead of trends and find new niche items to sell. Tradeshows are also a great way to build relationships with big suppliers. This can go a long way in getting you better deals and greater access to new, hot products. To find tradeshows in your area, you can simply search Google for the keywords “trade show” + the name of your area, or visit BizTradeShows.com.

• Trade Magazines:

Trade magazines such as The Closeout News are a great way of finding new suppliers and hot deals on wholesaler items. This is how the wholesale industry used to operate – before the days of the internet!

What makes trade magazines so valuable is that very few online/eBay sellers use them as a product sourcing method, but plenty of suppliers continue to list their there (and some only list in print publications), so the prices get driven down in your favor.

So which of these myths did you fall for? Let me know the biggest lesson that you’ve learned about wholesale sourcing!

About the Author: Alice Delore is a copywriter for SaleHoo wholesale directory (http://www.salehoo.com). She also regularly publishes work on the SaleHoo blog (http://www.salehoo.com/blog).