Some wholesalers require a reseller's permit, and others require a tax id number.
You don't need to be set up as an LLC in order to get a tax id number. Both things are very easy to obtain. You can get a tax id number issued immediately online or over the phone.
In many instances you can also get a resale permit issued the same day in person in a lot of states.
funny, all this time I thought you needed to be set up as a company. Now I see you just have to be set up to make sales or do biz.
"We can get them for a specific county or the whole state."
Which is needed for online sales?
Check with your local state board of equalization. You'll probably need one of your whole state since you could have orders from anywhere when selling online.
I know if you are selling you need to have a resale permit #
To Buy - Sometimes you don't even need a resale permit # to buy in wholesale. In CA - the only reason we collect resale permit # from buyers is that we don't have to charge the buyer the sales tax. But if we are selling it to out of state (out of CA) - then we don't have to worry about the sales tax anyhow.
So you don't require resale permit to buy every company.
Reseller permit 
