Is there a legit Non Chinese Alibaba out there?

[Charles Washington]

I have been looking at purchasing some physical items in bulk, but there are so many scammers on sites like Alibaba.

Where would you go to find items that you can buy at wholesale or have items branded with your name?

[Bill Farnham]

I've been a member of World Wide Brands for years. It costs about $300 to join (back then anyway) and they verify every merchant that is allowed to list with them.

Consider that a recommendation if you don't like Alibaba.

KJ

[derekwong28]

This website is owned and run by the Hong Kong Government

hktdc.com - Verified Suppliers & Manufacturers from China & Hong Kong

[Traffic-Bug]

You could go to the site called dhgate.com to source goods from China. Other sites are asianproducts.com, industrysourcing.com, chinajiaho.com, worldbiz.in. Or search for 'trade directories china;' 'business directories china;'

[FaJeeb]

I get the majority of my wholesale items from people I find THROUGH TaoBao, you of course need to have a good contact in China to do your buying and shipping. I have mine sent through EMS for 50% off, no need for an actual shipping broker yet.

[Anup Mahajan]

I recently came across his site.. It looks good but use your own judgement

http://www.made-in-china.com

[achivement84]

Hey,

You can really got good results from alibaba , i tried it my self many times.Ig you want to ignor trader you can simply make a buying lead for manufacturers only, then you will get their data and you will be sure whom you are dealing with, also you can have many price offers in short time and then you can compare the spec. and prices to find out the most suitable offer for you.made-in-china will be the same for you .

If you want different platform you can try Middle East B2B Directory - Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain Companies, Products, Trade Leads, Business , but i still advice you to have a nother try with alibaba.

B.Regards

[SageSound]

There's probably a trick to working with Alibaba, as 'achivement84' suggests.

I posted a very specific requirement and got deluged with emails from a bazillion outfits trying to sell me just about everything under the sun! I'm not sure what's up with that, but for those who did send me quotes for what I asked for, I saw prices vary from $0.50 per piece to nearly $20 per piece for the same item/quantity/finish.

I don't think they're scammers so much as maybe vultures. Like when you're walking on a beach in a foreign country and find yourself surrounded by a gaggle of kids trying to sell you curios.

Their english is virtually non-existent; they have little common-sense; and they obviously think that shotgun approaches are going to work sometimes. Not much different than the mentality behind sending out spam!

-David

[L.James]

I've used ec21.com before they were pretty decent.

[maksym]

why you don't like alibaba? this is no.1 source

[derekwong28]

Global Sources is also very highly regarded. It is an American run Nasdaq traded company. Apparently, they visit each manufacturer at least 3 times before listing them.

Manufacturers: Global Sources

I have been to their supplier fairs and they were very good.

[GuerrillaIM]

When dealing with alibaba ask for company number. Chinese company must be registered with local government to trade internationally and this can be checked to make sure they are genuine.

Always pay by L/C, the con-men won't accept L/C. Also you can pay a little extra and have third party company inspect shipment for you as it is sent out to make sure you are not getting boxes full of bricks.