In this market of ours it's important to be very careful of who we deal with.

The penalty for trading in fake and counterfeit goods is very high and at best you will have all you stock taken and left with a large fine.

There are a few different groups of people you need to be wary of.

Firstly, the so called "suppliers" that offer you a deal that looks like the holy grail of wholesale offers, things like a batch of the latest mobile phones at a fraction of the retail price, or laptops for silly prices. These are mostly outright SCAMS, they will take your money and you will never hear from them gain. Can I tell you now that you will not find new modern mobile phones really cheap, they don't exist, they cost money to make and the only people that can discount them heavily are the phone companies because they are making allot of money from the phone contracts, so as a rule stay away from anyone offering really cheap phones.

It's very hard to get hold of cheap branded electrical stock unless you buy from a liquidator and you buy that's called open box or returned stock.

These liquidators buy stock from major retail and catalog companies that receive items back for various reasons, they buy at a very good price but they have to buy everything they are given and they then sort through it and grade the items, some things may be faulty, some things are slightly marked or scratched and some things are 100% fine and have just had the packaging opened. There are some good deals to be had from such companies but you usually have to buy by the pallet which will include certain amounts of "fillers" and a few nice pieces, the idea is that you will make enough from the good things to make a good profit overall, but it can be a difficult business to make a success out of.

Another group to be careful of is those selling brand name clothes on ebay and on their own sites, here is a fact for you: 90% of all high end designer clothes being sold on ebay are fake. So if you are looking for this type of item then you need to first presume it is fake until you are shown otherwise.

If you are looking at a website and it loads slowly, looks a little unprofessional and it might say they the stock comes from India or China, then stay away. In these countries the government does not stop businesses producing counterfeit goods, in fact unofficially I personally believe they encourage it, as it is very big business and it is helping their country grow financially and giving jobs to many people who need it.

So when you're scouting the net for your wholesale stock please be careful and think twice before snatching up a deal that seems too good to be true.