Dropshipping

[tvadinindu]

Is drop shipping allowed on ebay? does that violate any rules on Ebay or Paypal?

[GreenBean]

Not liked at all by ebay/paypal. New accounts often run into trouble.
Drop-shipping is only as good as the funds the seller has to pay for the goods.

If items are delayed but buyers have paid, how is a refund done and how is the supplier paid? Too often with difficulty if the seller has no money in the 1st place.

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by GreenBean™

Not liked at all by ebay/paypal. New accounts often run into trouble.
Drop-shipping is only as good as the funds the seller has to pay for the goods.

If items are delayed but buyers have paid, how is a refund done and how is the supplier paid? Too often with difficulty if the seller has no money in the 1st place.

Drop-Shipping is technically allowed on eBay.

HOWEVER - eBay does NOT allow sellers to delay shipping the merchandise until PayPal has released the funds into their bank account. So, you have to have the money on hand to place the orders.

ALSO - realize that it is YOU that is responsible for making sure the merchandise is delivered to the buyer and that it works as advertised. If a refund needs to be made, you CANNOT tell the buyer to go and work it out with the drop-shipper.

There are many pitfalls involved in using a drop-shipper, and when someone tries to do it who has no money to invest, it almost always leads to trouble.

[jbluntz]

And on the other hand, no offense to jeff and green their advice is good but if you know what you're doing dropshipping can work just fine and dandy, been doing it for a year now.

[sax4]

Originally Posted by Jbluntz

And on the other hand, no offense to jeff and green their advice is good but if you know what you're doing dropshipping can work just fine and dandy, been doing it for a year now.

Totally agree. I've been dropshipping successfully for a while now, mind you I dropship legit retail so it's all brand-spanking new from the manufacturer.

[jbluntz]

Originally Posted by sasasasa

Totally agree. I've been dropshipping successfully for a while now, mind you I dropship legit retail so it's all brand-spanking new from the manufacturer.

See, there ya go, it's not such a forbiddon shame after all...

[123]

I personally don't dropship but I know there are definitely some good drop shippers out there so drop shipping isn't tottally bad just got to put in the work and find the few gems out there and by work i don't mean typing "drop shipping" in google and going with the first link you see

[jeffweico]

I can appreciate what everyone is saying, but Jbluntz and Sasasasa both have the knowledge and - most likely - the FUNDS to make it work. Drop-shipping in and of itself is not evil, nor is it a bad business model.

BUT - when someone who has no money and no experience tries to do it, the outcome usually is not so good. Either they fall for a too-good-to-be-true offer from a scammer pretending to be a drop-shipper or they want to wait for the buyer's money to hit their bank account before they purchase and send the product. For the buyer, this means a MINIMUM of a 3 week wait for their merchandise. In the worst case, the buyer gets nothing, or gets shoddy or counterfeit merchandise and wants a refund. But the seller does not want to take responsibility for the transaction and wants the buyer to take it up with the drop-shipper.

THIS is what eBay and Amazon have a problem with. The reason for the 21 day PayPal holds is so that PayPal can, when they release the money, be reasonably certain that the transaction was completed and satisfactory. This totally circumvents that and leaves PayPal liable to the buyer if anything goes wrong. That is why they have a problem with it.

Drop-shipping is a way for a retailer to offer more merchandise than they otherwise could. Done properly, it lessens the risk that the retailer will get stuck with merchandise they cannot sell. Drop-shipping is NOT meant to relieve a seller of any and all risk for a transaction. But too many newbies try to use it that way.

That was my point. I'm not saying this applies in the OP's particular case, I am not making any judgments about the OP. I just wanted to point this out.

Bottom line is that if you offer something for sale, then YOU are responsible for the transaction. NOT the drop-shipper, NOT the buyer, and NOT eBay/PayPal.

[sax4]

I personally haven't been involved in dropshipping goods sourced from overseas, I can imagine there would be pitfalls regarding delivery time, and bringing someone else unknown into the equation, it must be frustrating being on the receiving end of a customer when it's your dropshipper that has let you down, a lot of stress.

I would imagine it would be best to keep things as simple as possible, find a few niche products, start slowly and see how your dropshipper performs.

Personally I started dropshipping with £0, you need money to make money, but it doesn't have to be yours . I started dropshipping retail goods to Ebay, and within a couple of months I was turning over £30k + a month, although the profits are pretty small, the cashflow is extremely useful, an interest free loan courtesy of PP

As 123 said though, typing Dropshippers into Google is going to bring up a lot of unscrupulous companies where are targeting the naive newbs, they will convince you through various means that there is profit to be made dropshipping their products, and will often charge a fee for the privilege.

[jeffweico]

If anyone is determined to drop-ship, here are a few pointers.

1) If you are on a limited budget, sell lower cost items first. That way, if you have to do a refund, or get scammed by an unscrupulous buyer, you can more easily cover the loss.

2) Find an HONEST drop-shipper. If the company you are looking at charges a FEE just for access, they are NOT likely to be legitimate.

3) Many legitimate companies REQUIRE a State Tax-ID number before they will do business with you. So get one. They are usually free, or cost very little. This applies to the USA only. I don't know what other countries do.

4) Make sure that your source is *THE* source! The last thing you want to do is to place an order with someone who is flipping that order to yet ANOTHER company. Going through a middleman will KILL YOU!

5) Stay away from services like DOBA. Just Google "DOBA" to see all the complaints they have against them.

6) The first few pages of Google will list many companies that claim to drop-ship, but are really selling lists of companies that actually drop-ship. If you want to pay for a list, that is fine, but realize what it is that you are buying. This can be a reasonable investment for people who don't want to search for drop-shippers on their own.

7) Before purchasing a list from anyone, Google them to see if they have any complaints first. Many of these lists are hopelessly out of date and worthless.

8) I've said it before, but I'll say it again. When dealing with buyers, NEVER tell them to contact your drop-shipper. They have nothing to do with whatever deal you worked out with them. If a customer tells PayPal you told them to contact a third party about your order, your account will be closed, end of story!

9) If you are planning to sell phakes from China, be prepared to lose accounts. And also expect some VERY ANGRY customers. All it takes is for ONE customer to receive a seizure notice from Customs, and your account is done. These are scary letters that accuse the recipient of violating the law and informs them that the copyright owner will be notified. That particular customer will be VERY ANGRY and also scared that THEY could potentially be in trouble. So, they very well could turn over all of their information to the FBI or local law enforcement. Whether or not such a case would go anywhere, I don't know, but if you try to do this, expect trouble.

Having said all that, drop-shipping CAN work. You just have to learn as much as you can about it and try to avoid any potential pitfalls.

[GreenBean]

Both jeff and myself expressed the negative side of dropshipping to A NEW USER on the forum.
Factors against giving a more positive slant were the location of the user, the premise of the question. It's not been stated where the items are being listed, age of the account and most importantly, the user's knowledge of dealing with ebay/paypal AND upset buyers.
As I said dropshipping is not a (better) way to use an ebay account

lol, GreenBean tells it like it is, and dropshipping is never good for a new account, but it is allowed on eBay. In conclusion, what everyone is trying to say is "Stay away from dropshipping, order inventory first, list items, afterwards ship them out yourself".

[jbluntz]

Ok, sure thing, that settles that, no more dropshipping for me, I'm gonna be a good boy and do what I'm told lol...

[holymoly]

Haha, well dropshipper overall is not a SURE THING to do when on eBay. This has been proven by stories before to be a downfall.

[jbluntz]

I wonder why it always worked for me, I must of been doing something wrong, oh well...

[jamblix]

It depends heavily if not entirely on the dropshipper imo. If they have good service, products, communication and speedy deliveries it can be awesome. As for eBay, who cares just make sure they don't find out that you're doing it.

[sax4]

Works for me too, I started with £0, and my dropshippers are very very reliable. Oh well the more people that think it doesn't work then the less competition there is.

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by Jbluntz

Ok, sure thing, that settles that, no more dropshipping for me, I'm gonna be a good boy and do what I'm told lol...

Now now, don't make promises to me

Everything is relative as you know

Did I ever tell you about the account I lost when I did drop-shipping? That was back in the day before I became a cynic

[eBayMafia]

eBay allows dropshipping, but once they figured out that I was doing it and making more than $400/day in sales (not profit) they called me up and told me that due to my business, they required a $5,000 amount to be left in my PayPal account, so I always have $5,001.00 in the account. Took a couple weeks to build up to that point, and had to use my own profit from past transactions to fund the current transactions. They told me that if I didn't have such good reputation with eBay and PayPal, they would have just closed my account. The accounts were at least a year old with over $10,000 transacted, probably 10 disputes (mistakes mostly) and about 600 positive feedback. I started off selling stuff from yard sales and auctions, even if I didn't really make a profit.

[rsot]

Nice work eBayMafia

[IDK]

All I do is DS exclusively.... Been doing it since 2004. I'm not spending one red cent on stock just so ebay can close my account and have me stuck with a bunch of junk to move on another account.

[Sandy D]

Dropshipping can work both ways.

If you worked hard to build an account and start dropshipping and get into trouble with a poor DS company you just tossed a good working account out the window.

If you find a good dropshipper you can trust and make some money doing it then you will be ok.

As most as stated on both sides it can work and it can be a nightmare.

It comes down to testing your sources and not allowing a good account to go down until you have found a good reliable DS company.