Dealing with chinese wholesalers. Advise needed.

Hey guys. Just getting into selling on Ebay, making my first contacts with sellers on alibaba and dhgate.
Now, if I understand it right, its pretty impossible to find a manufacturer there. They are all just middle men there. Hense the higher price and no flexibility at all.
If you ask them to just send you a sample, they refuse. Only willing to send you a minimum order amount, with is BS of course, cause you dont know the quality of their stuff. I understand, if they were manufacturers, or at least were confident in their products, sending a few items as sample wouldnt be a problem for them.
So anyway. How do I find manufacturers? Should I be looking for them at all? How do I find quality products? How to make them send you samples (I mean paid samples of course).
I'm currently interested in perfumes. Can you recommend a good sellers?

Thanks guys!

Yes... But if you are selling replicas you also become a middle man and you can mark up to retail price and profit.

Sure. Still, finding a quality product for the lowest price possible is the key here.

well, you can certainly find some genuine sellers at Alibaba

I just purchased 2 lots from dhgate.com for the first time. Hopefully it goes well. I will let you know for sure!!

I've got some experience with alibaba people ( sellers ) trying to get some pills to low fat, they can send me an example for free if I want, but I have to pay for the shipping almost U$100.
so I quick for that idea if you want I can give you the contact