For anyone who has sourced toys or novelties from China one would inevitably have used the Alibaba platform to locate suppliers- turns out over a 1000 'gold suppliers' were scam artists selling mostly low volume electronics at 'good prices' The CEO resigned over this.
Anyone ever sourced thru Alibaba and had their pockets burned?

Never once got scammed on Aliexpress. I don't deal with Alibaba, the MOQ's are too high.

Alibaba is not out to scam people. Some of the companies on it are. Practicing smart buying always helps, just like on ebay.

I have friends in China and Hong Kong. Whever I want something, I contact them and they handle it for me. I've only bought strippers and head massagers but could probably get anything. BUT--expect to buy a large quantity--5000 strippers or head messagers is a lot! I've always paid 1/3 down and the balance when it's shipped. I have a company in Houston handle all the details, so all I have to do is pick them up. Of course, I could get them shipped all the way to my house, if I wanted.

As anyone who has bought Chinese products knows, many of them are shoddily made. It's a heck of a long way to attempt to get satisfaction in China. My friends checked EVERY item before it was shipped. Of course, that meant I had to pay them. One of the guys selling magic worms had to return an entire 40' container because they were defective. Imagine the fun HE had! So it is not as easy or cheap as you might think.

Jon

A friend of mine put it like this ... take a "sun catcher" ... in China, if there is a part of the sun catcher where there was no melted plastic and just a hole ... the Chinese see that as 99% correct ... whereas, we see it as 100% wrong.

-JoeJoe

I went to the Honk Kong toy show last month and discovered that unless you want to get something custom made or something in large quantities, it is much easier and more cost effective to deal with US importers you have a relationship with.

What I discovered was that many supplier have multiple agents all professing to be the 'real deal'.
So the first step is to ensure you are actually dealing with the supplier itself, but sometimes their English sooo bad ( despite the English names they assume and sign off with-who can forget Cathrine?)its not even worth communicating.

I have dealt several times on multiple purposes. I have found a few very respectable companies that I have dealt with for the worm and the light up thumb tips. I did not have to purchase 10000 of an item I bought 1000. they are willing to work with you. just becarefull though some will rip you off. trial and error.

I got some light thumbs for $1 each in bulk from an importer in the US. Bought 500 at a time. If you can get them for a lot less (25% or more) with the shipping, I would love to know your supplier.

I pay about $.65 a pair