How does importing from China work?

Thanks for your courteous reply. I certainly agree with most of what you say, but I would just like to point out that I don't have to make a living. I am retired due to heart surgery, but my brain won't slow down, so I wrote my book and I am enjoying helping a large number of new entrepreneurs enter the high profit world of importing.

From what you wrote in agreement with JdubyaEm I took it that you followed the same path to find your way direct to manufacturers. Sorry if I misunderstood.

The fact remains that a wholesaler will never be able to give you the low prices that a manufacturer can. Sure you can get great prices from a wholesaler in China, but if they have already paid the manufacturer's price to buy the product to resell to you, then you are missing out on a higher margin than what you now get.

Your due diligence process is good and building trust and a good relationship as you do is extremely important. It can take time and too many people rush in. Also, too many people rely on the near useless verification and rating systems promoted by Alibaba and other similar sites.

The verification methods that I recommend will depend to a large extent on sourcing through websites that do thorough verification before they list suppliers, but as I mentioned to JdubyaEm there is a simple check to do if the supplier has a .cn website. Other things involve correlating telephone area codes with postal codes for the address given for the business.

There are numerous other steps that can be taken but one very simple one is to ask if you can visit their factory when you next go to China. If they say "Yes", that is not proof that they manufacture, but if they say "No", then you know they are not a manufacturer.

To a Chinese business person, Yes can mean anything from no, probably, possibly, through to yes. It is not lying it is just Chinese custom to avoid saying no because it is deemed to be impolite.