The article "The Myths And Magic Of Ebay Drop-Shipping Vendors." is about auctions, it has been written by Kirsten Hawkins.
If you've never heard of drop shipping, then prepare to be impressed - it sounds like every eBay seller's dream. With drop shipping, you don't have to keep any stock at all.
You simply list auctions for what your drop shipper sells, without atcually seeing it yourself.
Each time something sells, you let them know, and they deliver it for you - directly to the customer. They'll charge you a near-wholesale price for the item they delivered, you charge the customer whatever price you agreed, and then you pocket the differnece as profit.
The Magic.
Just think of the sheer amount of trouble that takes out of eBay selling.
You don't have to find space in your hosue to keep your stock in, or money to buy it with. You don't have to take any risk by byuing things that might not sell.
You don't have to deal with suplpiers. You don't even have to pack or post the auctions yourself. Wow! Can you imagine how good that would be if you could pull it off?
But, as with all things in life, if it sounds too good to be trueÂ…
The Myths.
Drop-shippers don't do deals with just anyone - any drop shipper who says they'll take orders from unregistered buisnesses is likely to be a scammer.
They might not send out anything at all to your customers, or you might send out very poor quality merchanidse that they will then return to you for a refund.
Also, beware of companies that claim they will put you in contact with drop shippers for a fee - they are inevitably rip-offs. At the end of the day, the hottest way to find drop shipping companies is to contact them in the 'real world', not by typing 'drop shipping' into a search engine.
Doing it for Real.
If you want to make a profit with drop-shippers, be prepared for it to be quite a small one: you're not going to make sales on eBay at a monumental mark-up from drop shipping prices. You will also have to accept that you can't inspect stock before it gets sent out, and of your descriptions mihgt not be as good as they could be.
You should also be prepared for a few frustrating experiences with your drop shipper, as they might not share the same customer service values as you. The first time you'll realise that they never sent something to one of your buyers is when you hear about it from the buyer a week later.
If you can accept all these things, though, and find a reputable drop shipper, then there's money to be made. Good luck!
If you'd like to give up a little more profit and control over your eBay business to save the trouble of doing evreything yourself, then you might be interested in eBay consignment centers. You can sell your items at an eBay consignment center by just leaving them there. Stay tuned to these emails for more.
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