Is e-bay 'dropshipping' a scam?

[Bobbieo]

I made $447 selling a laptop on eBay! Best of all,
I didn't have to pay for the laptop until after I sold it.

Doba even shipped the product to my buyer for me!

This is called "dropshippping" and people are making a lot of money doing it on eBay.

Doba gives you instant access to over 1,000,000 brand name products at wholesale
prices that you can sell on eBay and Amazon for a PROFIT! Doba's suppliers take care
of warehousing and shipping the products for you... all you have to do is SELL and PROFIT.



Start making money today - Try for Free

[KittyWampus]

1. errr, what?

[Bobbieo]

7. Sorry - Thought everyone was familiar with the term

[ColbertWatcher]

2. I'm going to say "Yes". n/t

[greguganus]

3. I've been ebaying for over 10 years. What is dropshopping? n/t

[sakabatou]

4. I have no idea

[WePurrsevere]

5. Do you mean drop shipping? I've been an ebayer for

many years and run a small board for online sellers/buyers (mostly ebay sellers or ex-ebay sellers) and dropshopping isn't a phrase I'm familiar with.

:hi:

ETA: I see you've edited in the correction. Not all drop shipping is created equal... some are scams, some aren't.

If you think you might want to sell on eBay there are some places that may help you do so that won't cost you and may even save you money. :)

[conspirator]

6. I think you work for doba nt

[greguganus]

8. Shop till you drop! n/t

[girl gone mad]

9. This sounds like a scam..

where Doba gets all of the profits by selling instructional materials and taking a guaranteed cut of sales revenue. Drop shipping margins are usually very low.

ETA: if you want to get into selling online, I think it would be best to find a niche and to carry inventory. Drop shipping is fraught with problems, even for experienced retailers.

[rollingrock]

11. Drop shipping margins are very low

Yes indeed, and after all the ebay fees and paypal fees, which eat up something like 8-10% of the sale price, you will probably be selling at a loss.

And that's not a percentage of your profit, but a percentage of the final SALE price of your auction item that they take from you. Really, I don't know how anybody can make a living selling on ebay with all the outrageous fees they charge you.

[martymar64]

10. Drop-shipping

Drop-shipping AKA Blind-shipping is where somebody ships a package with somebody else's name listed as the shipper.
An example:

I work for Company A, my customer Company B orders something from me to be shipped to their customer, the Client.

I drop-ship the product by having Company B's name listed on the package as the sender.

It is done so that the Client will not order directly from Company A, instead going through Company B as the seller to the Client.

I'm not familiar with how it's being done through EBay, but that is essentially what drop-shipping is for those not familiar with the term.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[canetoad]

13. I'm sure you posted all those

links in error, but they sure gave me a giggle.

[Occam Bandage]

16. It's the attack of the zombies.

[uppityperson]

17. What? Um, welcome to DU and I hope you get your skin tags under control soon.

[htuttle]

19. Gort! Klaatu Barada Nikto!

...and get back to the ship.

[Ghost in the Machine]

14. Not if you find some reputable dropshippers...

Here's how dropshipping works:

A wholesale business/manufacturer offers you their product for wholesale, below wholesale and/or clearance prices. You set up an account with that wholesaler, who then allows you to sell their product at retail prices (or whatever price you choose, above wholesale).

You place a photo & description of the item on ebay, or any other site, even your own if you have a website with a storefront and shopping cart. PayPal lets you accept credit card payments online, I've used them for over 5 years with no problems.

When someone purchases the product, at your marked up price, they pay you via credit card (or funds from their own PayPal account). Make sure you include shipping in your price.

Now, you go log in at your wholesale suppliers' website and purchase the product at your wholesale price. The wholesale company then ships the product to *your* customer, in *your* name.

The money you make is whatever you have left after paying the wholesaler and the shipping fees (which, again, you always collect shipping from the buyer... unless you mark the price up enough to cover the shipping charge and advertise FREE SHIPPING!)


Finding *true* wholesalers and/or distributors is tricky at times. There are many companies out there that say they're wholesalers, but they're really just playing middle man between you and the real distributors. They're only making a buck or two, but still give you wholesale prices.

Here's a site I use. I paid to join several years ago (bought a lifetime membership). The site maintains a database of reputable dropshippers for just about any product you can imagine. There are member sites where you can buy anything from a single purse to a container load of products.


Peace,

Ghost

[Occam Bandage]

15. lol.

[haele]

18. Contractors dropship all the time -

But then again, a contractor usually is sending a crew out to do a major project, and dropshipping allows the contractor to send the components out to the site without having to deal with warehousing it themselves before they're ready to do the installation.
Sounds as if "Doba" is a company that sets you up to set yourself up to be a middleman retailer or something like that without taking out an authorized dealership or a franchise for the product. If so, your profit margin is probably going to be very small and dependant on volume.

This is probably a half a step above MLM. Which isn't saying much.

Haele

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. this sounds like an ad

[Duer 157099]

21. In theory, it works just fine

However, the problem with using it on ebay (from what I can tell) is that the competition is so high (so many others doing the same thing) that it's difficult to break through.

You need massive volume for it to work, or some unique way to attract buyers to you rather than all the others.