Branded goods. Because they are so greatly desired, most of the time they are highly unaffordable. To look the part and to enjoy the high quality, you have to pay the price, literally. However, there is a growing number of smart buyers who are able to attain real branded goods and save money in the process. If they are even smarter, they earn some profit as well. How do they do it? Add these words to your vocabulary: wholesale shopping, government auctions, and online auctioning.

The truth is, most of the retail prices we see on display are marked up from their original wholesale/manufacturing prices for the retailers to earn a profit. The more power a brand holds, the more expensive its retail price, as the retailer knows that consumers will find it "justifiable" to pay more for the goods. The trick is to be able to sidestep this psychological grip of the retailer and get the products straight from the wholesaler at their much lower original wholesale prices.

The word "wholesale" may conjure up mental images of large messy warehouses with dried food items or rejected past season apparel, sold in bulk. The online experience cannot be further from the truth! Nowadays, to savvy online shoppers, wholesale shopping entails contacting the wholesaler, placing orders for singular sought-after branded items at slashed prices, and having them shipped right to their doorstep. Even after factoring in shipping fees, the final price paid will still generally be far lower than its usual retail price.

Besides buying wholesale, government auctions are another unconventional source of penny-saving shopping. In many countries, government agencies such as the police and the Customs & Excise Department frequently hold auctions for seized and unclaimed goods. Corporate liquidations also result in auctions where branded electronics in good condition, such as computers and printers, can be bought for bargain prices. And it is not just the small goods; some auctions offer big items like seized vehicles and real estate, all at prices much lower than the prevailing market rate!

Now the crucial first step would be to find the wholesalers and government auction sources. Unlike retailers, wholesale distributors in general don't usually advertise and showcase their goods. Government agency-sanctioned auctions are even more obscure. Far from having to laboriously (and fruitlessly) call random numbers from the phone directory, there are several online wholesale clubs which hook consumers up with wholesale distributors by means of membership. Many of these clubs will provide information on locating and navigating the government auction sources for their members as well. The eventual amount saved more than justifies the small membership fee charged by these clubs.

Not content with just saving money, many of the shrewd shoppers have turned their wholesale purchased branded items into profit-making machines as well by selling them on popular online auction sites like eBay. In fact there are people who have made selling on eBay their full-time career! Competition on the site is growing everyday due to the increasing number of shoppers turned sellers. On top of wholesale information, one online wholesale club offers bonus training for members to learn the skills of being great eBay sellers to earn the most possible income that they can. Saving money, owning branded goods, and earning profits. That's killing three birds with one stone!

So stop feeling guilty about spending money on that Gucci bag. Just by being a little smarter, retail therapy (or rather, wholesale therapy) will never be the same again.