goWholesale

Enough said. Alibaba is a very big site which alot of scammers hang out. Don't even bother to trust the gold and trustpass members. They are just as bad. If you are in the DVD and VCD industry, 99% of the sites who list on alibaba are selling fake dvds. If you are sourcing the psp, xbox360, games, MP3 players especially IPODS, stay away from the suppliers who list there !!!! 9 out of 10 of them are scams.

Alibaba does little background work or no background work at all when giving out Gold and Trustpass status. Trustpass is only US$500 and a fraudulent company can make that up in one transaction. For Gold status on Alibaba, Alibaba only requires that you prove that you are a registered company in your local country, which means very little.


Lastly, DO NOT PAY BY WESTERN UNION. DO NOT SEND MONEY TO PEOPLE YOU DO NOT KNOW !

Yes, I got scammed by a "TrustPass" member (Richard Mbariket of Megaworld LLC) that I thought was running a legitimate business. This guy defrauded many people over the years by selling counterfeit goods and represent them as the original. I emailed Alibaba and they did not do anything and still allow him to use the portal to defraud others.

Hey everyone, I have never really bothered to post in forums before but what the hell I will give it a shot.
Bottom line is the original poster of this thread is dead on, I have been going back and forth to Asia for buying trips for the last 10 years pretty well full time, (6-8 times per year).
I know Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing like the back of my hand.

I just got back from a trip to China on Aug 24th; I was there for just over a month and spent 3 weeks in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

To make a long story short I have been importing raw pearls into Canada and having them manufactured into jewelry for a long time. I used to deal in consumer electronics back in the dotcom boom but backed off after suffering huge losses by being ripped off in Dubai back in 2003.

Bottom-line I know the industry and the players, I understand how things are made and been through more factories in Southern China than I care to admit.

During my last trip I contacted hundreds of suppliers for Ipods, Xboxes, PSP's, Etc on both Alibaba.com and Global Sources.
I stuck with mainly gold and trustpass members obviously and after emailing back and forth set out to meet up with the firms.

Most of the addresses are not real, no company office, etc

Half of the seller’s office addresses were set up at western union offices that offer PO Boxes for rent.

Bottom line is if you cant travel back and forth to China, and you don’t have extensive knowledge of the culture and how business works save yourself the heartache and stay away, there are legit sellers out there but do you want to be the guy or gal that got taken.

I have been importing for a long time and my father before me so I leaned about how this business runs first hand from the time I was a little kid.

There is a ton of legit wholesaler in Canada and the United States, but your not going to find the best deal by typing away with google. You are going to go out and talk to companies one on one, pick up the phone, speak to your local chamber of commerce or trade associations, etc.

Even with my company we still haven’t bothered to set up our website yet, been planning on getting around to it for the last 2 years, LOL.

My 2cents is until you can really afford to take a loss stick what you know or at least where you know, it might take you a little longer to make and save up some decent money but it is all worth it.

Best of luck

nice post skm...

its good that people like you share their knowledge and opinion

I hear about alot of problems, make sure to check http://www.worldwidebrands.com they do backround checks on all of the companies and they are the only directory that is certfied by Ebay.