Question about Worldwide Brands

I've been reading through a number of post on this forum and noticed that Worldwide brands is in general considered one of the best dropshipping sites on the net. I decided that, for $70, it was at least worth a try. However, it seems they are now charging $299 for membership (actually $249 for a limited time). Does anyone know what this is about? Has their service changed? Is this still a good deal?

For those of you who are already members, does the list include any dropshippers of videogames or videogame-related products? I'm in interested in Worldwide brands only for their selection of videogame dropshippers, so would their selection justify the $250 price tag? Thank you in advance for you responses. :)

Johnny,

We signed up for WorldWideBrands drop ship list about three years ago. They have (and had then) different levels and programs. i.e. Bulk wholesale for actual brick and mortar operations that keep their own inventory, the drop ship list itslef, a program they call One Source, and a few others I am not familiar with. At the time we signed on, you chose which programs you wanted and payed for each program individually. We chose only the drop ship list.

WWB recently decided to combine everything in one package for one price. I'm not sure why they did it.

But to answer your question about video games and related products ...

Yes. They have sources for the game programs, but not much in the way of the game boxes. Most of those are very tightly controlled by the industry and require a contract.

For example, we tried to find a suppllier for iPods. Without signing directly with Apple and signing a guaruntee that you can turn over something in the neighborhood of $100,000 gross per year, you're pretty much out of luck, unless you want to deal with the ripoff artists that will sell to you so high you'll never make a profit.

I sent you a PM.

You can try DH, DBL, or XS Depot for video game related items. The accessories will make you more money the consoles because the console uses a MAP which means you cannot sell below the legally allowed minimum price. ever notice that the boxes or ipods are always the same price at any store? its because none of them are allowed to sell them for less. so you dont make much selling the ipods since everyone pretty much as the same price....but if you sell the ipod or game box, then you can make up the money with a multi product purchase when people add games or accessories to their cart. if u need more programs let me know.

WWB is a great site. So may suppliers there but you need to be careful. Even though they claim to have checked every vendor there, not all are what I would call great.


WWB is like a search engine. For example, put in "XBOX" in the search box and it will find you all the suppliers that sell anything having to do with xbox. Its a great service.

I recently decided to purchase the WWB membership, and so far, I am pretty happy with their service :D . Some products have been easy to find with lots of suppliers, such as the videogames themselves and the accessories, others have been more difficult, such as game related action figures, plush/stuffed toys, music CDs, etc. Nevertheless, I've found suppliers for most of the products I was interested in and I still I have a lot to search through.

Opensourceforce - thank you for the suggestions, I've checked out the sites of the suppliers you mentioned, and they seem to be just what I am looking for.

Old Sarge - Thanks again for everything.

You're welcome. Hope everything works out well.

what worldwidebrands has to do with inventorysource.com?
i got to worldwidebrands thru inventorysource.com.....
by signing up in inventorysource.com we can get to all suppliers of worldwidebrands?

thanks

I have been in video games for quite a while. If you are not selling used rare games, there is no much money in the new games unless you are a big seller. I have seen quite a few sellers from the US get their games from Japan for cheap and then resell them for a premium. If you need more help/info on this, please PM me. The most complicated part of this is that you must know the right games to sell from among 1000s of them.

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Originally Posted by royalflush

what worldwidebrands has to do with inventorysource.com?
i got to worldwidebrands thru inventorysource.com.....
by signing up in inventorysource.com we can get to all suppliers of worldwidebrands?

thanks

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They both list some of the same suppliers but I know of no connection between the two. We have access to both lists and unless I'm greatly mistaken, WorldWideBrands has far more suppliers than Inventorysource.

The Old Sarge is correct. Inventory Source and WWB are seperate, but we have both been in the business and working to help resellers find true wholesale supplier sources for years now as two trusted sources for dropship and wholesale resellers.

WWB is a directory. They list a large number of supplier sources (bulk wholesale, dropship, etc.) and contact information. They have a database search to help find the programs that you might be interested in using.

Inventory Source is a dataservice provider for dropship resellers. We act like your IT Department or Supply Chain Management Team.

So you should be able to find the programs in Inventory Source in the WWB, but WWB would have a much larger collection of various programs in their directory database. The difference is that you can view the smaller number of programs at IS for free and have the ability to add data services to your ecommerce site from IS for any or all of these programs.

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/essen...le.php/3640551

The above article actually wrote a little bit about our program. I dont want to be spammy with content about IS since I work at IS so I will use the article description to add a little more about what we do:
"While Inventory Source offers a large variety of services, including business tools, Web site automation and Web site and Storefront hosting, it also has an extensive product database allowing you to view products and categories of items from a large number of suppliers. You can register for a free member account on Inventory Source and get limited access to the wholesale directory. "

So IMHO both programs are a great place to start for finding wholesale sources.

Hi Johhny B,
I give it a shot to answer your question...
I have just began to apply Chris Malta's (the founder of WWB) expertise into practice. For as long as Worldwide Brands has been around, I have worked for them as an affiliate vendor. I had decided last year to take a break from affiliate marketing, and really apply the teachings of Chris, and opened my own online store not to long ago.

I did not use the directory services that they provide, as, by this time, I already know how to find legitimate drop shippers on my own. (Chris also has many free resources available that teach you about every aspect of the small home based store business). To many people are looking for a quick fix, and dont want to spent the effort to educate themselves.

Many other people on the net started out by using Worldwide Brands directory, including Andy Jenkins, Jim Griffith, Rob Fallon and , I pray, both you and me!

I made alot as an affiliate of Worldwide Brands over the years, and that tells me that they are a well established company, so I would venture to say that they are the best resource on the net , for anyone who is looking to connect with real wholesalers. I know that Chris has helped many , on a personal level, gain success on the internet.

If I was looking at wholesale directories. I would go with the one that had the best track record online. Yes, it is a bit spendy, but well worth the price. You can go to their website at worldwidebrands.com and see how the whole "Onesource" thing works. None of the other wholesale directories have anything like this. Do the Research.

Best Wishes Johnny B!

Troy
http://dropshippers-directory.com

I found a good number of my vendors through wwb. I bought their package a number of years ago for 199 or 299, I don't remember what it was but it was for a lifetime membership. Definitely worth it.

As for the industry you are looking at I can't comment a whole lot.

WWBs is like anything else, it wont guarantee you success, and it wont even guarantee you that their listed distributors will work with you (I had to made some significant deposits with mine to get the ball rolling) but if you put the time and effort into making your relationships work WWBs is a great place to start.

"I'm in interested in Worldwide brands only for their selection of videogame dropshippers, so would their selection justify the $250 price tag?"

Divide $250 by your per video game profit margin. So if you make $5/game you would need to sell 50 games to make up the cost of the membership. Its a simple metric...but...if you can find access to a supplier there which will have information to a supplier which will let you sell more then 50 items...then you should be fine. :)

You could also use a supplier like XS Depot or NV which you can find for free and be 50 orders ahead of yourself. :cool:

Hey. I thought I'd jump in here to ask a question. We are a free storefront supplier and are looking for a dropshipping partner(s). I have researched a couple (WWB being one of them) ... who do you recommend?

Thanks,
Michael Levine
President

Free Storefronts: RealStores.com

What are you looking for the "drop shipping partner" to do?

Interesting ...

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Originally Posted by The Old Sarge

Interesting ...

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What is interesting? That he posted his url and then never responded?

lol You expect me to remember something that small that far back?! lol

Seriously, after some painfully complex memory flexing, I remembered ...

You are partially right about the posting and not coming back. But I also, at that time, went to the site linked and looked it over. I put in a request for more information and never got a reply or even an acknowledgment. Still haven't.

Methinks someone slipped in a quick plug for his site and slipped back out.

Sorry I have not responded sooner. We are looking to connect with a drop-shipping partner and pre-populate stores with items to sell. We provide a free online store and would love to have products available via drop-shipping. All part of our goal of stores for everyone!

If you know of any drop me an email here and we can pass along our contact info.

Thanks!

I can say I'd recommend WWB to anyone looking to find quality suppliers who drop-ship. WWB has a great service - OneSource and I used it to secure suppliers for our very successful security products web site we launched last year.

They have good customer service and the OneSource tool is fantastic. I'd give their offerings an 'A'.

Depends on what people want and expect from Worldwide Brands. If you expect something as one stop shop such as pool inventory of their site and load your site with it, than forget it. It won't work.

What Worldwide Brands does, it actually connects you, etailer with the wholesaler (not middle man) and than you can resale products for profit.

What most people have a problem with is finding the inventory. If you go for ipods and such merchandise, than all I can say is GOOD luck to you. But if you want to work with niche markets, and more profitable markets than OneSource Database can help. If you don't know how to research profitable products and Need more info on Worldwide Brands, you are welcome to Check out this Lens. for a lot more step by step instructions...Good luck to you...

Hi I have used worldwide brands extensively for several years. They do have a large directory listing of quality companies that are serious about dropshipping. If you think about it if you do find the best product what use is it if your supplier does not support you by sending the product out to your customers on time etc. I suggest going with a quality drop shipping resource as this will be the backbone for your online operation.

As the previous poster mentioned research is key to your online selling success. You can research without signing up for a dropship directory service.

Take a look at my signature there is a link to an in-depth review of worldwidebrands

All the best

Worldwide Brands is good, although for the price I prefer something like the NAWCA. However, I haven't even looked at your review yet and am already skeptical that you're review is a little biased based on an affiliate link you might be using...

Not to say that all reviews that follow with an affiliate link are fake; it is just hard to be sure that a review is 100% legit when the reviewer is also trying to make money by selling the product they are reviewing.

hi, just a quick note to everyone, there is a current worldwide brands discount going on. $100 off. Not bad, only through holidays!

Hi, Mr. Levine --

Just saw your comments today while researching drop shipping. It's a long shot to ask you this here on such an old thread but:

When is Real Stores getting out of Beta?! No one else is offering what you are and I am anxious to get started. From the look of these posts, RS has been around at least a year. I know I've been waiting on The List for four months -- four months! It wouldn't be so bad if there were SOME kind of communication, some news. But I've written the site a few times asking various questions (not just "Are we there yet?" which I'm sure you get a lot...) and I hear nothing in return. If we are interested in your service, could we not at least get an email update? Is something wrong? Are you looking for more partners? What's the status? You have our email addresses; why can't we know?

Even through all this I know I want all my stores eventually on RS. One in particular, I think NEEDS RS. It's service-based and not working too well elsewhere. You haven't alienated us all yet, but if ANYthing close comes along, you're going to lose quite a few. Wouldn't it be better to at least be up and running, maybe with fewer features or partners and be building your user base? That's why I wonder if something huge has gone wrong or if some piece of information is missing.

Anybody else here used Real Stores? Are they legit? Does it work? Do you know anything about the delay? Thanks for ANY help. I'm very interested in their progress.

A while into using drop shippers, I thought I would let the folks in this thread know...

I ran into problems such as credit card fraud, and getting stuck with the problems that arise when your drop shipper screws up. (It comes back on YOU!)

Be careful when you use drop shippers, and do the research. Make sure that you are using a company that has a good reputation. If they do, they should have no problem providing references from others that have used them as drop shippers. A good drop shipper will also set up a private account with you, and require a tax ID. A good drop shipper will have great customer support, and will be able to answer any questions.

That is just a couple of things that you should know, and there are many others you should ask before getting everything all set up with any drop shipper.

As far as WWB? They have now combined all of their products into one tool. Even if you dont use them (they are a bit spendy), you should check out their vast collection of articles, free ebooks, training videos etc. They are all free resources that are excellent if you are unfamiliar or just getting started using drop shippers.

They themselves are NOT dropshippers/wholesalers. They have a really large directory of dropshippers, and other types of wholesale suppliers. They are all verified and updated wholesalers, unlike other resources that are similar

url removed

Worldwide brands is the best for me. Staff is very accommodating and inventories are always updated.

I looked at WWB a few months back and, as Old Sarge says, they use to have separate packages. However, part of their all-in-one apporach now is that the cost of the total package includes both lifetime access (rather than monthly or annual subscription) and tutorials and other educational resources. As for videogame stuff, remember tha the package includes a variety of potential sources for the games. I would think that, if you are serious about ecommerce, the one time price would be worth it, even if you later decide to move to a different product line.

Mike

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Originally Posted by Sparky111

Be careful when you use drop shippers, and do the research. Make sure that you are using a company that has a good reputation.

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This is something I wish I had done before the holiday's hit. I found some really neat companies selling unique products and starting loading their products onto my site. The one site, I had a small glitch with, nothing major and I will be keeping an eye on them in the future. But, the other site....forget it. I am removing all of their items after the fiasco of a season with them. They do not tell you when their items are out of stock, even when you place an order with them. They do not even advertise on their own site that the items are backordered. I lost at least 3 sales this month because of their games. It really is too bad since they have some really unique "rustic" home products.

Worldwide Brands is great. However, if you're just starting out, I would highly recommend that you do not waste your time selling electronics. The market out there for electronics is killer and the current state of the economy is making it worse.

Start with something only a few people want and a few people supply. WWB's 299 membership fee may be steep, but, it's a bargain for what you get which includes market research.