Buy low - Sell high. Where have you heard that before? This is the mantra being pitched by countless websites, newspaper and magazine ads, but, most are scams or just plain ripoffs. The fact is most of these sites are making their money off of average people trying to start their own work from home business by overcharging for products they get on the cheap. How can you know the legitimate offers?

There's always been a fortune to be made in buying wholesale and selling retail. It's the old, "Buy low, sell high." But the tricky part isn't in "selling high." What most people don't realize is that a profit, whether it's in stocks or reselling products is made when you purchase at wholesale, not when you sell at retail.

If you don't get a low price when you purchase, odds are you're not going to make a profit. When you do get a low price, your profit is almost assured. So how do you find hot products at low prices that you can resell for big profits?

You can go to Google and search for wholesale sites. Have you tried that? It sounds a whole lot easier than it really is, right?

There are thousands of websites out there who are calling themselves "wholesale sites." Some have stupid high prices. Others charge you a big membership fee, and only then you find out they also have stupid high prices. Some really do have decent prices, if you're willing to buy by the gross (that's 144 items at a time.) Most, and I mean MOST sites billing themselves as "wholesale" sites are really middle men who buy from the real wholesale sites, mark up the prices, and then sell to you.

It's just the way some people do business so you have to be careful.

Then there's the wholesale "directory" sites. You pay to get inside the member's area, you find lists of companies, most without websites, and few with any real product descriptions. Write to these companies, and you'll quickly learn that this list is so outdated, it's probably from the 80's or 90's. Talk about misleading information!

Well, don't give up.

There are legitimate sites that offer legitimate wholesale pricing without having to buy in quantity and some that will actually drop-ship products directly to your customers. You aren't bothered with shipping and handling or returns of physical products. A handful of eBay sellers use this very technique to rake in substantial profits month after month.

When you do a web search, look for suppliers with many categories of products. One site I found had 150 categories of goods, from jewelry and DVDs to plumbing supplies. So whatever you're looking for, odds are good that a site with many categories will have at least one, if not several suppliers for products you would like to sell at retail. You can do a further web search to see if the suppliers are reliable.

Some wholesale sites check out the suppliers for you and even order from the suppliers to test their service and products but you should always do your own research. Some legitimate sites have member forums or comments by which you can gauge the legitimacy of the site and the suppliers. One site I researched has over 40,000 members who write reviews of their experiences with each supplier.

This is a great feature to protect you. No more risking your money with an unknown supplier who may or may not do what they promise.

You want to make sure that most of the suppliers have no minimum order quantities, or, at least, low minimum order quantities so you don't need to buy a truckload of stuff just to get good wholesale prices.

You'll also want to check whether supplier lists are kept updated with current contact information and the latest reviews. You'll want a site that adds new wholesalers, manufacturers, and drop shippers daily or, at least, monthly.

Now here are my tips to get you started:

1) Never pay to join a wholesale site unless you do a web search first to see if there are any complaints against them.

2) Check out any references or testimonials they give on their sales page.

3) Make sure there is complete contact information on the sales page and use it to ask questions.

4) Above all, make sure there is a 100% No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee! If you see a site offering a 56 day ( 8 weeks) money back guarantee, it's likely they sell through Clickbank, the #1 trusted sales portal on the web. Clickbank has no tolerance for shady operators and they will act fast to get your money back.

Finally, if you go slow and do your research, it's much easier to make the right choices and save yourself a ton of headaches!