Drop Shippers & Selling on Ebay

[txplowgirl]

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this. I was thinking of joining a free drop shipping company and selling on Ebay.
Would this be feasible do you think?
Would like your honest opinions please.

[Nevada]

Yes and no. I've researched drop-shippers continually over the past 10 years. I've yet to find one that could allow me to sell at eBay competitively.

There was one drop-shipper who was doing heavy marketing at youtube. He would explain how it looked like we wouldn't be competitive, but counseled prospective customers to "don't play the low-price game" at eBay. That pretty much became his slogan, but his advice to actually do that was pretty lame. The fact is that if the drop-shippers thought they could make a buck advertising at eBay, they would be doing it themselves. They are in the business of convincing you to take the advertising risk.

So why did I stay at it? Because I've always believed that there should be an honest grass-roots vendor who might use drop-shipping as a ploy to make more sales. Those are few and far between. Most are professional wholesalers.

I make & ship my own products, but it's still difficult to make a buck at eBay.

Good luck.

[Ken Scharabok]

On eBay, when somethng becomes successful everyone and their brother will jump on the opportunity with a lower price.

When I had the salvage grocery store I had several experiences there.

Receive half of a 12" x 16" x 20" half full of slightly outdated hearing aid batteries. I put them on eBay and they sold well for a couple of months, when the bottom dropped out due to others undercutting my price.

At one time I bought 25' retractable pet leases from a wholesaler. Sold well on eBay and then same story. The last ones I had I have to sell below my cost just to help cover the investment.

One of my wholesalers would buy surplus pet products by the pallet. Among what I received were brand name, but slightly outdated, dog flea drops. Sold well for a while, then my supply dried up.

I was the first one selling a particular book on eBay. Did well for a while, then found where people were selling them for less than my wholesale price.

That drop shipping will be selling to everyone with the same idea as you. Plus, what happens when they run out of a particular produce for which you have made several sales.

As Nevada noted, be the only one selling a particular product to do well.

I do well on eBay to the point it changed from a hobby to a business. I don't want a business so dropped some of my homemade products - those which took the most work vs the price they could command.

[clovis]

I'm with Nevada and Ken.

If it was such a great idea, why aren't they listing the item on ebay?????

[Allen W]

Way too many things to go wrong and nothing is under your control, but you are responsible to the customer and Ebay and Paypal if something does go wrong.

[Bandit]

I would read up on the E Bay forums about the New E-Bay/Pay Pal Rules and what is happening to vendors who have been around for ten years or more being kicked off for having there stars dinged for slow shipping ( in one cases auction was won Fri. nite around 10:30 pm and the case for not being received was filed Sat. am . and the buyer won ?? )
With a Drop Shipper , You have No Control of when or what they ship or if it is even in stock .
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum/Trust-Safety-Safe/107
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum/Seller-Central/143
Misc. notes on drop shipping
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...-business.html

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by Bandit

I would read up on the E Bay forums about the New E-Bay/Pay Pal Rules and what is happening to vendors who have been around for ten years or more being kicked off for having there stars dinged for slow shipping ( in one cases auction was won Fri. nite around 10:30 pm and the case for not being received was filed Sat. am . and the buyer won ?? )

Yeah, we had a thread about that here too.

Anyone else have difficult weeks on ebay?

Honestly, I don't know where these buyers come from. It just started with me this fall. After doing this since the late 1990s, I've come to expect the grumpy buyer every now and then slamming me with a negative feedback. But this fall has been awful, like nothing I've ever seen before, then once my rating fell to a certain level it stopped just as suddenly as it started. I swear, I just can't figure it out.

Even more strange, is that other long-time sellers are experiencing the same thing at the same time.

I can tell you, my shipping policy is the same as it's always been.

[Bandit]

I was with My wife today dropping of goodies at Her friends flea market booth, and started chatting about E Bay with Her neighbor , who just started selling high priced coins on E Bay and he mentioned that He will have no problem with scammers claiming a SNAD's and shipping back worthless coins , as He had a Lawyer draw up His sales receipt and it says No Return's .
Bob

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by Bandit

I was with My wife today dropping of goodies at Her friends flea market booth, and started chatting about E Bay with Her neighbor , who just started selling high priced coins on E Bay and he mentioned that He will have no problem with scammers claiming a SNAD's and shipping back worthless coins , as He had a Lawyer draw up His sales receipt and it says No Return's .
Bob

I don't know that a statement on the sales receipt will prevent a buyer from filing a complaint or prevent PayPal from escrowing the funds. If a buyer is willing to swear-out a "not as described" complaint, eBay & PayPal pretty much have to act on it.

[Bandit]

Originally Posted by Nevada

I don't know that a statement on the sales receipt will prevent a buyer from filing a complaint or prevent PayPal from escrowing the funds. If a buyer is willing to swear-out a "not as described" complaint, eBay & PayPal pretty much have to act on it.

Hi Nevada
I know , My wife gave Me one of those " don't say a thing and just walk away looks " He will just have to learn on His own and with the prices He had on the coins in his cases , and E-Bay's policy of " We want Happy Buyers " and Pay Pal's of " The Buyer is All ways Right " this dealer is in for a Really Big Shock .
My wife just left to bring Her friend more goodies to sell and help Her in Her booth , I asked Her to try and find out His E Bay name for Me .
Bob
Ps.
I suggested that He review the Trust and Safety & Seller Central Forums , but You know the old saying about leading a horse to water .

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by Bandit

E-Bay's policy of " We want Happy Buyers " and Pay Pal's of " The Buyer is All ways Right " this dealer is in for a Really Big Shock .

Some sellers seem to live charmed lives. I used to buy a lot of low priced products that I didn't realistically expect to work well to see what was out there, just so I could understand the market better. One time I bought a money making system that turned out of be "click fraud" software.

Click fraud is a type of Internet crime that occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person, automated script or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad's link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_fraud

Knowing that click fraud was illegal (it's stealing from an advertising company) I made a complaint to eBay about the product, and also made a complaint to PayPal for being significantly different that described. The auction promised that the product was perfectly legal, and that it worked. The illegality is beyond question, and advertisers have anti-fraud software in place so it doesn't work anyway.

Both eBay and PayPal judged the product the be legitimate. At first I thought that maybe eBay didn't understand the technology, but when I suggested that I sell the same product eBay warned me that if I did they would ban me. Clearly, this was a protected seller.

My last effort was simply to leave revealing feedback to warn other eBay members (I should have known better). I left a neutral feedback stating clearly that the product in the auction was click fraud software. EBay promptly took my feedback down and sent me yet another nasty email, again threatening to ban me for speaking badly about his product. The seller left me a negative feedback, which eBay left in place.

The final blow came here at HT. When I posted the story in GC users thought I was a bad person for calling an eBay sales person's product "fraud", and some even commented that it was a clever and innovative product.

I swear, sometimes it seems like I've walked into a different dimension.

[Mickie3]

Nevada - A friend of mine, a retired police officer, swears that FleaBay is responsible for lots of theft as stolen goods that wouldn't have a local market can be easily sold on there. Can't fence a product? Sell it on FleaBay!

The fact that they protected a seller of illegal software does not surprise me, especially when that sale generates them more in income (fees.)

Oh, well, like I told my kids and will now tell my grand-kids, "Welcome to the land of double standards."

[crispin]

Originally Posted by Nevada

I swear, sometimes it seems like I've walked into a different dimension.

I get that same feeling often.

[oregon woodsmok]

The guys who do internet marketing say that the drop shippers are very unreliable and many are outright crooked. Since internet marketing is their business, I tend to believe their experience on the issue.

There are a lot of manufacturers who will drop ship if you contact them directly and make arrangements. It's worth a try, if you can decide what you want to sell; find the manufacturer and ask.

[Halfway]

ebay has become such a pain for me to simply navigate that I go through great pain each time I am on it.

Maybe I just need more screen time?