Anyone here dropship?

[jscan]

i dont dropship, shipping takes too long. i usually buy a batch of items then sell them off, then order more product.

[biz2customer]

Dropship is safe

Originally Posted by ivegotinfo

drop shipping straight from china seems dangerous. what if customs takes the package, and also people get package straigth from china theyll think its worse quality

[ambercolour]

Drop shipping to UK mainly depends on the merchandise you selling, if you selling high value merchandise then you will get taxed!
Also its bad to send merchandise to Germany/Italy/Belgium and Portugal from China as these countries seem to either destroy the merchandise, keep it or charge you a way over priced tax fee. However sending merchandise to UK/USA/France/Canada doesnt seem to be many problems.
What I seem to find when people trade with chinese drop shippers is can they be trusted? Generally yes, however I would strongly suggest to use Paypal and not western union as many sellers prefer to use.

[Ballsack]

I JUST started dropshipping. It's too easy not to do. There is no investment involved. No worries about being stuck with an item you can't sell, etc. No trips to the post office, no filling out address forms. If someone questions why it's been shipped from china just tell them that the majority of ppl dropship from outside the country to their themselves and then ship directly to you. You're just cutting out the middle man which is you. Although I have no experience with this yet I don't see many ppl wanting to return an item for a refund. The stuff I plan on selling will have a high shipping fee. Customers are not going to travel to the post office, pay the return shipping fees on top of losing shipping from their total. It's not worth it to them.

[thelizardking]

I used to do drop shipping from China on ebay but now I do drop shipping for website sales and ive never had a problem. Once I was confident in what I was selling I started buying in bulk and send to myself (which is cheaper) and then send USPS, but if you don't want to invest anything or your just getting started and don't have money to start with, drop shipping is a good way to go.

[Ballsack]

What was the reaction of buyers on ebay when you dropshipped from china?

[alexzin]

Originally Posted by Ballsack

What was the reaction of buyers on ebay when you dropshipped from china?

They would accept it as long as the quality is good.That's my experience.I have been doing drop shipping business for a while.Sometimes the coustomers were not satisfied with the item and wanted a replacement.My drop shipper would do that without returning..

[ebayhateluv]

HI guys: What do you do for returns/ not as described. etc..

[411guru]

That is a problem I've always thought of. Since you can't see the item, how do you know if its good? Do you ask them to send you a sample?

[thelizardking]

The items I was selling on ebay they had pics on the dropship website, so I just used those pics in the listing, most people knew what they were getting by the way I worded the description, it wasn't easy I had to let them know what it is but stay away from getting the listing removed by eBay, Its not as easy anymore especially when a competitor turns you in, I only had one person return something and I ended up re-selling it for more than what the first person bought it for, I also sent a separate email before I shipped and used words like "Special Edition" "Licensed Import" or "International Version" something like that...

[kevinxu]

how to do you explain to buyers if the item is out of stock after buyer paid?

[thelizardking]

When the place I drop ship from goes out of stock its because they upgraded the product, so anytime that happened, the customer has gotten something better than what they originally ordered and ofcoarse they love that.

[aking]

Drop shipping is merely impossible now with this 21 day hold thing. You cant pay the supplier their cut unless you pay it out of pocket. Its better just to order in bulk, sell and when you run low just use profits to order more. Plus shipping takes way too long with dropshipping and you never know what the customer is getting.

[wilma2]

Hello there this is my first post and I am glad i found this forum. Like everyone here i am suspended from ebay with a lot of inventory. I sell cell phone accessories and am sitting on a lot of inventory here in Canada. Since there is a lot of people out there selling this as well i have toyed with the idea of becominig a drop shipper. Informally. Talking to some of the people i have brought things from in the past and offering to be thier drop shipper. Sending out for them, doing things a drop shipper would. It may cost me as i dont know for sure i woudl get what i paid for the inventory but hey it is something. do you think this is a good idea? Obviously outside ebay. Then if i am reinstated on ebay i could still do this on the side. What do you think? Trish

[GreenBean]

TBH, not a good idea unless you have a great amount of money. I would recommend you try to get your account re-instated or make new ebay accounts. May I suggest you read the forum and you will find out how people do get back on ebay without needing to drop-ship. I know it takes time but time is better than spending your own money.

[chostin]

I sell almost exclusively dropship now from Hong Kong and with the items and supplier I deal with things usually go great. They are very reliable and only maybe 1 in 50 orders have a problem with broken/lost, etc. Takes about 10 days something a couple more to arrive.

I don't have problems with customers or ebay generally, and sell a decent volume. I DO however have big problems with this whole arrangement, which is dealing with PayPal problems. Especially recently...

I have mentioned some of this in a seperate post but think it is very relevant here, sorry if I am repeating at all.

But recently I have had a few paypal limitations where they want the tracking info as well as supplier contact info for the items that I drop-ship. Basically these are the main issues I have faced (and some methods, not at all ideal, that I am still trying to use to deal with it):

- because it is drop-ship I don't have the item to photograph with today's newspaper, etc. Though I can see why this makes perfect sense for other situations

- they do not ship with tracking numbers but ship everything very timely by usps airmail - these are low cost items generally where I do as many as 100 orders a day, this is the only way to make it financially make sense for shipping (and the ONLY option the supplier has other than a ridiculous 35 dollar fedex option, for 7-20 dollar items, as I also make some of my profit off shipping costs it just isn't an option anything but untrackable airmail).


Because of the volume of orders and the inability to enter tracking numbers for them in PP I think this is the main reason my PayPal accounts are quickly getting limited right now. These are orders of usually 15-35 dollars each., from 40-130 per day

I have once tried to send info to PP a year ago that I am using a drop-shipper and showing them proof of their inventory (which is constantly updated online) but they didn't like this it seemed and gave me a dismissal for the 180 days.

Though I get that PP wants to avoid any and all potentially risky circumstances, I wonder how they could be this against drop-shipping when there are a bunch of very legit and ebay sponsored or supported dropship suppliers out there (I guess many will still provide tracking). Also what if this were digitial goods without tracking info??

Anyway,
I have therefore been forced to get clever with sending in my own 'supplier invoices' as if I am indeed sending out the products myself. This has worked at least temporarily twice now, I will know for a couple other accounts in a few days.

When they have needed tracking info I have sent some thank you coupons / docs to those customers directly and put those tracking numbers in for those transactions in question.

I hate the pain of going through all this crap! it is crazy frustrating, but when my sales flow is working it is lucrative enough to make it worthwhile... (even though I suspect some readers may say it isn't worth bothering without the ability to enter tracking info)

Generally the benefits of this system of dropshipping are great for what I am selling.... these are customized items where I have about 500-700 different items and unique ebay listings.... and could never stock them all myself realistically. It doesn't involve the upfront money issues and actually would barely be possible without a huge amount of investment without the dropship system.

I can also manage to process 50 orders in about an hour - which if I was doing the packing a post would take me all day, it is WAY more practical for me and my schedule this way.

This whole PayPal problem though is really the roadblock in an otherwise great system right now!

Anyone who has similar experiences with dropshipping and paypal issues I would love to hear your thoughts.

thanks!

[imthatguy]

ebay and paypal hates dropshipping

[suspendedagain]

I am currently having paypal problems with drop shipping.

Im finally back on ebay (once again) and at last its running smooth with my new paypal account which is verified in my name (ebay not).
I find a gold mine just before xmas, Im buzzing and my sales go how I thought they would, as ebay is very predictable to how certain items sold, if you've beign watching them over time.
Anyway, so its close to xmas, i need to sell and sell fast. So I set up 20 3 day auctions as I didnt have 1 day feature active. But I set them auctions to something that wasnt going to ring alarm bells, but what I knew wouldnt get bids, with about 16 hours left, I revised my items to what im selling. Knowing they would take 6-7 hours to go live, that leaves them 9-10 on ebay, which was just right.
The sales go crazy leaving me with a lot of profit on each item and plenty of second offers which most snap up.
I knew I had to be quick as my paypal account went through the roof (more than expected). £6,000 had gone into my paypal account over 24 hrs, so I ordered my goods staight away through paypal (to my little chinesse supplier) which left me just short 4k profit. Im thinking oh sh*t this gone too well, Ive no chance here. So I transfere 1k to my bank and goto bed with my fingers crossed. I awake and log staight onto my ebay, and yes its still kicking and others are jumping for my products. I log onto paypal and suprise, suprise its limited. they want invoice this, invoice that, suppliers details and contact numbers (paper format only) blah blah blah and proof of postage.
So I phone paypal explaing I only have email based invoices etc, well if thats all youve got send them. So I used web page snapper to take images of invoices etc, but thinking this is not going to work. Then get on to my supplier for tracking numbers.
I uploaded everything and tracking numbers.
I then recieved a email and to my suprise all invoices and contact info was accepted, But my tracking numbers wasnt live yet, so they said tracking numbers are invalid, you must send all 35 transactions with active tracking numbers or refund the people in question, this was 2 days ago. I have beign checking my tracking numbers and 34 are now active, just waiting for that last 1 to activate (dam ems are so slowwww). I know theres no point emailing them and stating 34 are active, cos I know what there going to say.
Anyway just waiting for that last tracking number then I wil see what happens.
This time they didnt ask for ID or proof of address, which was a suprise.
Ebay account is currently limited untill paypal is sorted (yesterday).
Every time Ive beign asked for invoices which have beign accepted before with paypal they have always re-activated my account but I dont know how this 1's going to turn out
Will keep you's updated
Take cares

[chostin]

Well, thank god... today PayPal dis release one of my above mentioned accounts...
It was one where I was asked for probably more than any other as it was newer (1 month or so) and suddenly had a large influx of over 120 orders in 2 days. These were all dropship as described.

I had to in this case confirm address with a new cc gift card, do the expuse process with a cc which in Canada isn't usually required (you have to verify with a bank account deposits)
Also wanted tracking for 10 items, so these were all ones I had sent after the fact a thank you letter and coupon to those buyers by courier (cost me like 12 bucks each) so I could provide tracking.

Also wanted invoices for all 10 transactions, so I sent in doctored ones for all of those... however - which were accepted. I do however use the real supplier info for my dropshipper but make it out as if I ordered all the items in advance do I could send them out from my own location.

They accepted them all (was a pain making that many unique ones) - and reinstated this morning. It seems PayPal is reviewing the appeals very quick, whenever I send in info later in the day they have been reviewing the material and getting back to me the next morning about it.

FIngers crossed it last for a bit with this account, I can have one more weekend here of xmas selling before shipments won't arrive on time.

good luck!!

[chostin]

crap.... now the same PP account that got reinstated thursday morn. got limited again, ALREADY! :(

I was able to pay for some shipments and withdraw a little... basically covering the amount that had been in it the first time it was limited... I had also been selling again and had about 100 orders come in which I guess may have gotten them suspicious again. I had been hoping they would take it easy on me for at least a week or two!!!

A few slightly weird issues, which may have to do with the fact that I in the interim upgraded from a premiere account to a business account in PP. I had read in the guide and elsewhere if you set to business you may get less limitations, so I hoped.

Now they are asking for:
- me to remove items I am selling that are against their user policies (the items I dropship do use some imagery that are potential trademark violations, I suspect this is why) but strangely there are no violations in the corresponding ebay account. I didn't know paypal questions whether you have the right to sell what you are selling and may limit your account based on this.
- again more tracking info (fewer this time)
- again supplier info

I hope I can get this one resolved much quicker but still a serious pain.
I have another 50 or so sales with payment coming and predict as many sales tomorrow and of course the account still accepts payments... so the balance is quickly going up and will probably be back into the 2.5-5k range tomorrow. So I really hope to resolve it but have other accounts I am still getting unlimited, I really need to get a modem and just start a larger number of rotating accounts so I have a couple useable at all times.

I just can't believe (well, actually with PP I guess nothing surprises me at this point) I only got 2 days out of an unlimited account with activity not much different than what had been happening before the last limitation.

I'll let you guys know....

[MYC]

I stock TONS of lower priced items but when it comes to high dollar items I dropship them. This system works great for me. My dropshipper is in the US and is a company I trust and have done business with for years. You have to be careful especially if paypal is involved.