subject: Drop Shipping Pitfalls and the Middle Man [print this page] Lets talk about the drop-shipping and the middle mans role. When I first arrived at eBay I really got excited about all the money that was being made there. I proceed to do some research and decided that it should be easy to do what other folks do on eBay. First get set up with a drop-shipping company, List my item on eBay, get a buyer and have the product drop shipped to my customer. Easy right?
This is the reality of my endeavor . I signed up for a drop shipper that I found on the first page of the search engines. I paid them a fee up front to be able to do business with them, and see the products and wholesale prices they offered . When I began searching their data base of products I found to my surprise and disappointment that all the products they offered were being sold for less on eBay. Now let me tell you friends, I am not a mathematical genius, but I figured out really fast that I could not make any money this way. After some research I found that what I had actually done was signed up for a middleman wholesaler which means they actually are buying the product wholesale from another supplier and marking up the price to me. this is a really sweet deal for the middleman but does absolutely nothing for your profits.
Avoid my Pitfalls.
Follow these Tips
Be Skeptical- lets say your looking for a wholesale partner for your business and you run across someone that claims they have such a wide variety of items that you will not have to go anywhere else to source your product. You are probably dealing with a middleman. unless they can prove to you they stock these vast inventory's at there location. which is not feasible you can be sure what they are doing is marking up the wholesale price and purchasing the product through an actual drop-shipper on your behalf.
Don't pay upfront fees- actual wholesalers will not charge you a fee to view there products and pricing or for a membership. You probably will need a resale or tax number to do business with true wholesalers.
Don't let their presence on the first few pages of the search engines be a deciding factor when selecting a drop-shipper. It is highly likely that your search has turned up middle man.
