Is dropshipping a mistake?

[The Old Sarge]

Excellent first post, xsdepot!

[hsshopping]

www.hsshopping.com dropship to worldwide,no extra fee.Regards

[opensourceforce]

Besides the FireFox issues....the site doesnt look like a real wholesale supplier.

The HS Shopping URLs all change to http://www.china-dropshipper.com/ , I dont see any reference of HS Shopping at any of the big trade shows, and it just has the feel of a yahoo store retail site....my guess is if you compared some of the products to wholesale supplier sources they would all have a higher markup.

[JEccles]

Besides, I'm really leary of usiing an overseas drop shipper. My partner is a retired import broker and cautioned me against these.

[j8h9]

We need a forum where each category is the name of a dropshipper. Then people could write reviews/comments about the dropshipper. Would be easy to set up.

[dropship]

We need a forum where each category is the name of a dropshipper. Then people could write reviews/comments about the dropshipper. Would be easy to set up.

These exist to some degree but one thing remains true and provents it from working -- when someone does find a great drop shipper they do not want to share the news with their potential competition.

Another problem is that most drop shippers in the terms discussed here are not direct sources. They are resellers... Not distributors, not manufacturers, etc. So, their profit will come for marking the products up a bit. And, since with drop shipping they are not relying on quantity sales to make their money, they need to mark the products up much higher than a wholesaler or distributor in order to make a decent profit.

In terms of eBay, read this article. Drop shipping and eBay are a deadly combination.

Stick with wholesale or importing, please! But first, get an education. Selling any products without proper education will just get you mauled. You are not going to find xbox 360s selling for $100 wholesale and just go onto eBay and sell them for $250 and get rich. Making money will take research and persistance. Never risk more than you can afford to lose!

Good luck!

[j8h9]

Thank you for some great advice.

[opensourceforce]

As always...happy to help.

[charactereducat]

So you know what I went and done did? I became a member on a dropship distributers site. Here's what I found. I suspect that they've marked up their wholesale prices, even though they expressly claim that they don't because they charge a membership fee around $9 (depending on membership level)a month.

[opensourceforce]

So you know what I went and done did? I became a member on a dropship distributers site. Here's what I found. I suspect that they've marked up their wholesale prices, even though they expressly claim that they don't because they charge a membership fee around $9 (depending on membership level)a month.

Yes...it is amazing how often a site claims to stock products directly, not increase shipping, not add to fees, and not increase the stock price. However, if you do some basic searches on the skus, UPCs, Manf#, etc or begin to recognize the sku format or missing image style it gets much easier to see how much the middle man service is really costing you. Another issue is almost any supplier charging a membership fee is not worth working with....if they have a fee but wave it as long as you sell X number items that might be fine. This just means they want to make sure people are business and are actively selling from the catalog rather then just using the account to buy one or two items or taking up resources that could be better spent on more serious resellers. However, if they are charging you a monthly fee, like SMC and others even when you sell products you have to ask yourself if it is worth paying for the right to sell products for a supplier ;-) The middle man or fake sites have to charge a monthly fee because if they did not then they would not make any money. They mark up the cost or fees or shipping which make the products very difficult for most users to sell...so the only way they can easily make money is up front account fees or monthly fees. There is no reason to sell from a supplier with monthly access fees or large up front costs.

[The Old Sarge]

That seems an odd comment considering the nature of the link in your signature.

[brineclark]

Manage your products and inventory, synchronize stock with web sites, automate purchasing and receiving, and much more. The Order Manager has inventory covered: from managing kits and assemblies to multi-level pricing and quantity discounts.

if you want more information then you can visit our site <a href="http://www.dropshipforum.com/">Dropshing</a>

[barbaralove]

No, at least not for me it hasn't been. I think you need to find reputable suppliers.

Two really good ones are

www.albanydistributing.com and www.dropshipdesign.com.

I would stay away from www.dropshipdirect.com and www.doba.com ,both are middlemen and you will only be paying retail buying from them.