Looking for suppliers of authentic wholesale designer handbags, clothing, shoes, and other goods for your business, a business you’d like to start OR just for yourself?
Found suppliers but not sure you can trust them—are they legitimate? Is their merchandise really authentic?
If so, I understand your frustration and I can help you. My name is Viktor. A little over a decade ago, I was trying to start a business selling designer handbags after reading a success story about a person who was making a lot of money selling these goods. But when I tried to find a supplier of wholesale designer handbags, it felt impossible. I’d spend countless hours searching online and hardly get anywhere—running into either questionable suppliers, replica dealers or just plain dead ends.
The frustrating thing was I knew these suppliers existed: I saw people selling authentic designer handbags on eBay and other websites, but I couldn’t figure out where they were getting them from. No one wanted to talk.
Eventually, when I found a supplier of wholesale designer handbags that I thought I could trust—a company based in Italy, no less—I purchased over $1,000 worth of Prada handbags from them, and they turned out to be fake. I was devastated.
But it made me more determined to find a legitimate supplier, which I eventually did—after a lot of research—a few months later. It was at that time, 11 years ago now, that I began successfully selling this merchandise as a business.
Once I got my foot in the door, I learned a lot about the business. I made connections with people in the industry and eventually discovered dozens more suppliers of not only wholesale designer handbags, but also designer clothing, shoes, accessories, etc.
Finding these suppliers was not easy. Most of them aren’t listed in the search engines. They’re the kind of sources known only to those “in the business”.
9 out of 10 wholesale suppliers claiming to sell “authentic” wholesale designer handbags are selling FAKES.
Most suppliers selling “authentic” wholesale designer handbags, clothing, etc. are selling fakes. They’re selling what’s called ‘7 Star’ replicas or ‘Mirror Image’ replicas. And these aren’t just any replicas. They’re top-of-the-line knockoffs made in China that come complete with authenticity cards, dust covers, and even serial numbers. They look so much like the real thing, most people can’t tell the difference.
And get this: I’ve taken some of these replicas to a major department store here in the United States and been told by their sales person that they were authentic! That’s how good they are. Granted, they didn’t fool every sales person.
So you have to be very careful when dealing with suppliers of designer goods, especially those offering wholesale designer handbags. If you don’t know you’re merchandise well, it’s easy to get burned. I know of good-intentioned people that have bought and sold replicas—thinking they were selling the real thing—for months without ever knowing. The problem is this merchandise is illegal (even if you tell your customers it’s fake, it’s still illegal). It’s called ‘trademark infringement’, and you can be sued by the designers for selling it. Stay away from it.
The demand for wholesale designer handbags and other designer goods is high and the supply is relatively low. Because of this fact, this industry has a lot of con artists. Very elaborate ones, at that. They can have price lists with pictures of inventory (stolen from reputable sellers), phone numbers, and even fancy websites. Yet, when you pay them for merchandise—always, as they require, via a method that isn’t reversible, typically a wire transfer or money order—they disappear.
Some designers are so strict with their distribution channels that it makes it almost impossible to find their merchandise at wholesale. Louis Vuitton is one of those. If you come across a wholesale supplier that claims to have authentic, brand new Louis Vuitton, I can guarantee you it’s fake. There’s a saying in this industry: “Louis Vuitton would rather burn their bags than let them be sold outside of their boutiques.”
The only place Louis Vuitton wholesales their merchandise is to their boutiques. They don’t have distributors or other suppliers. In fact, most designers don’t—merchandise goes straight from the designers’ factories to their respective boutiques and authorized dealers.
However, where LV differs from other designers is in this: say, a particular Louis Vuitton item doesn’t sell, LV would rather destroy it than let it be sold on the secondary market outside of their stores. They do this to protect their “brand image”—the impression of LV in…
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