🚩 Red Flag #1: The "Too Good to Be True" Price
One of the first things I check when vetting a supplier: if their price is 30-50% below every other quote for the same product — that's a red flag, not a deal.
Why? Legit factories have real material and labor costs. When a price is way under market, it usually means:
Lower-grade materials swapped in without telling you
A middleman posing as a factory (marking up later, or disappearing after payment)
A copy-paste listing with no real production behind it
What I do instead: compare 3-5 quotes for the same product, and treat outliers — high or low — as a reason to dig deeper, not jump on the "deal."
This is exactly the kind of check that's included in every Supplier Scout report. 👉 $19, 2-3 day delivery.