I believe that I need to share this information. I have tried to purchase Lacoste Polo shirts for resale on eBay since this looks very profitable. The suppliers I have found came all from China, and I found so many, that it was hard for me to make a decision or to believe, that they all could have been licensed distributors. I urge everybody who is selling designer clothes and accessories imported from China and pays only by T/T, Moneygram, etc, not through credit cards or paypal to be very careful. Here is what I have found:

You cannot pay the supplier via credit card or paypal, if they tell you that you can, something for sure will happen to their paypal account just as you are ready to place the order. It would take them about two weeks to fix the account, or they charge you 20%, sometimes a little less for paypal or credit card fees. But you do need your items now to be able to sell and keep up your store. So, you pay via Bank transfer, Moneygram, etc. to a personal account name, which leaves you with no protection for your money and no paper trail proving you have received the items from a licensed source.

Forums, chat rooms, web sites, experts, all kind of checks are available to run products through to see if they are authentic or not. In the long run it doesn't really matter because if licensed products are obtained from an unauthorized distributor you still can be exposed to civil and criminal liability. It's not how they look, its's who you got them from. Many manufacturers post their authorized distributors on their web sites. If you are in doubt why not call the manufacturer and ask if the distributor trying to sell you licensed goods is an authorized distributor of their products.

What can happen to you:
You can get in just as much civil and criminal trouble for selling licensed goods distributed outside authorized channels as you can for selling knock offs. It's not worth the risk. This post comes from some one who has done a lot of research on this subject. I heard from a wholesaler's friend who is being sued by Lacoste and it is not pleasant.