Wholesale Product Source Lists - Worthwhile?

Wholesale product sourcing lists have been around since the beginning of eCommerce. Once people figured out that they could gather a few wholesale sources, bundle them into the form of an information product and sell them online, wholesale source lists have been plentiful.

But are they any good? For the most part, no. The biggest problem with lists is that they become outdated quickly. For example, at least one of the 'secret sources' on this list is no longer in business. Wholesale sources change product structure, go out of business, change business models, or any number of things. You can't always rely on a list that was created once to remain up to date and reliable.

If you want to find wholesale sources, there are basically two choices. First, you can find them yourself. It's really not that hard, but it's beyond the scope of this blog post. The eBay Research System includes a wholesale product sourcing guide that doesn't give the names of any wholesale sources, but rather tells you how to locate them yourself.

The other choice is to use a trusted resource of collected wholesale sources. One of the only ones I can vouch for is Worldwide Brands. Worldwide Brands doesn't really maintain a list, rather they maintain a database of suppliers. That's a subtle but important difference. Their database is subject to constant updating and Worldwide Brands has people on staff whose primary duty is to review the supplier base and make necessary changes. Their supplier database is accessible through their OneSource product.

So if you're looking for product sources, I don't really recommend wholesale lists. The best wholesale suppliers are those that few people know about. Those are best found by locating them yourself. Otherwise, use a trusted source like Worldwide Brands.