The Dropship wait?

Hi,

I am currently importing and selling from my home address, but I can see the obvious advantage of dropshipping, I only really have two questions.

How do you compensate for the time it takes for you to purchase the object and then to have the wholesaler send it to the seller?

It takes about 5-10 days for me to get goods that I order from America or China and what am I supposed to tell the buyer when they have deposited their money but are waiting a fairly lengthy period of time to get the product.

Also how do you go about advertising a product that you don't have? Do you need to say in the auction, 'Product sent straight from manufacturer' or something like that? Any legal problems with selling an item you don't actually have?

What do you guys that dropship tell your buyers?

Cheers,
Tom

This is how I do it.

I order item as soon as I get payed.

I wait 1 day after order is placed and then say the order is being processed and they will recieve tracking number in 2-4 days.

Send them tracking number in 3-4 days.

You have just took up 4-5 days and dilivery will only take a couple more days. The customer thinks your great for keeping them so informed.