Greetings: I dont know too kuch about the California wholesellers, but here is my experience being the hobby business dor over 10 years. First, congradulations on the license - always helps the choke off the collecting yoke of Uncle Sam. (2) This is the BIG one. Many, Many, distributors that I have spoken too, and many I have been utilizing fro several years, a vast majority are requiring the buyer have AND can prove they have a brick & mortar store. They will usually ask y9u to bring in a copy/or real documents which demonsrtates you have an actuall stor.

WHY:  Well becasue of the explosion of the Internet, why should the wholeseller mark its prices low when they expect a great deal of people to take the boxes and parcel cards out - or sell off high items.

Next reason is to  burn competition. The wholeseller recieves product from distributor and generally pay around 45%-50% of Retail - now the distributor sells to the retailer at around 60% -75% the price

Ex:

Distributo X buys Magic CCG Boxes from Manufacturer for %50 of retail price which is $130.00 which comes out $65.00

Distributor sells to retailer the same box that was $130.00 at the rate of 60% to 75% off retail - OR $87.00.

Reailer sells to cuntomer  at retail price whic has been set at $3.50 per booster pack sold.

Now if wholesellers actually do sell you you and you get a decent deal, you found an awesome partnet. However, if you find a distributer that dosen;t mind you a couple boxes everytime a neew truck arrives, then you have a nice deal.