Looking for advice getting started with Selling on Amazon buying wholesale products.

I’m looking in to trying out selling on Amazon, and doing it using wholesale for the better profit margins. Mostly toys and plush items at a small scale. I’m not looking to replace my day job with it, but more so to help get a little extra income and just see what happens.

I’m in Illinois, and from what I’ve read so far I will need a certificate of resale to be able to purchase items without paying tax from a wholesaler in order to resell them. Also will need a business license/permit in order to apply for the certificate of resale. Is this all I need?

Do I also need to form an LLC to be able to purchase from wholesalers? I noticed a lot of sites I visited required a business name in order to register to view prices or make purchases.

Am I going about this the right way? I was hoping to avoid creating an LLC until I tried things out for a bit to see if the profits were worth being in it for the long haul, and to make filing taxes a little easier since I do them myself (not sure how much more complicated they become however with forming an LLC). Any advice would be appreciated, I do plan on purchasing a book to read on how to get started and browsing some tutorials, but wanted to see if I’m on the right track, since I’ve never done anything like this before.