The most difficult part when starting a retail business on the internet is finding a wholesale supplier or drop shipper who would provide the products that you are going to sell. Your search for a wholesale supplier could take many months because the choices out there are too many and not all suppliers that you will encounter are legitimate wholesalers. A big percentage of them are just middle men who will claim that they carry a wide variety of products kept and stored in their virtual warehouses. The presence of these middle men makes it very difficult to spot a true wholesaler because the former will advertise themselves as capable of providing wholesale prices.Many first-time retailers are now turning to wholesale directories to aid them in their search for legitimate wholesale suppliers. Unfortunately, if you are a newbie and a bit inexperienced, you may not know it but you could be putting your money in the wrong wholesale directory. Just as there are middle men pretending to be legitimate wholesalers, there are also wholesale directories that may not provide good results for your search.In order to get your money’s worth, be sure to use a wholesale directory that can deliver on its promise of offering you legitimate wholesale suppliers and drop shippers. Fortunately, there are many ways to check whether a wholesale directory is worth your time and money. Firstly, before deciding to sign up for membership with a wholesale directory, see if it is explained in their website the search method used to find drop shippers. If the wholesale directory does not give you an idea of their search method, then this should give you reason not to join because you may be disappointed to find later that many middle men are on their directory. A good wholesale directory must not only use the internet to search for wholesale suppliers because many legitimate wholesalers do not advertise on the net. A lot of good wholesalers can be found in trade shows and foreign government agencies can also provide a listing of such wholesalers.Another way to tell if a wholesale directory is good is if there is a good balance of products available in their listing. Rather than the quantity of products, you should be after the variety of available products. This will ensure you that there will be a good probability that you will find the product that you are interested in using for your drop shipping business.Check also that a sample directory is provided which you can use as one of your basis for joining. A sample directory should give you an idea of the information that can be found from their directory as well as the format used.It is also good to check if a section that address customer concerns and inquiries is provided by the directory. At the very least it should provide an email or a postal mailing address to handle customer inquiries.When looking for a wholesale directory make sure that the features I have discussed earlier are offered by the directory that you are eyeing. Doing so should help you find a reliable and useful wholesale directory.