Some detailed questions from a beginner

Hey everybody,

I'm new to this game. I'm trying to start producing a (very) moderate side-income from drop-shipping and eBay, at least until I have more money to begin expanding and growing my business. Before I do anything really, I'm trying to get my head around the nitty-gritty of how this all works, so I'm trying to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge on SaleHoo and I'm also starting to take the lessons at Sky High Auctions (which I got for free). But off the top of my head, I have a few questions I'm hoping somebody might help me with:

1) Do drop-shippers have any specific requirement to whom they will drop-ship? Do I have to register myself as some sort of re-seller before I begin to drop ship or can I do this as an individual?

2) Do the drop-shippers typically provide the pictures and information for their products, or must one do that himself?

3)Anybody know of a dropshipper that might be particularly well-suited to a newby?

4)Any of you BEGIN your eBay careers dropshipping?

Thanks

Hi Sellingforacause,


Welcome!

1) Generally dropshippers do not have any requirements, Generally the true dropshippers will not require you to purchase a membership. You can start right away to become a seller without any certificates, but I would recommend at least getting a tax ID because some companies that you come across will require that, and if they do, then you know you found a legit company to deal with.

2) Generally dropshippers will provide pictures and descriptions for you to use on your website or auction sites, but that information is very limited and if you really want to compete with this type of product I would at least buy 1 of each product and take your own pictures, for authenticity purposes.

3) I only have 1 recommendation and I don't want to speak for him but you can PM a user on here named: PLANES. He's a great guy to deal with and has a pretty darn good dropshipping service. I use to use dropshippers in the past and never really made anything of it but PLANES from most that I have seen is a pretty good start!

4) Again I have started and used dropshippers over the years and you will find that many promise ALOT of once you find those that say a promised amount of income from selling these products are only wheeling you in, trust me stay away from those that try and do that. There are thousands of dropshipping companies out there that pose to be the direct company but in reality they are only the middle man and most of the time they are beefing up their 'wholesale' prices so in reality your paying more to deal with that company. Do lots of research before you go and invest.

Wish you all the best!

Hi Selling for a cause, and welcome to the site.

Well, Don looks like he has covered your initial questions pretty well, so I'll just that it will all come down to research, research and then more research.

I think Planes would be a good place to start, I'm sure you'll find him quite helpful. Stay well away from any drop shipper charging you a membership in my opinion, most are making their money from the memberships, not on the products you are trying to sell for them.

What that of course means is that they don't care if you sell or not because they are already getting your cash, and being that there is no real incentive to help you sell their products, you will usually just end up with over priced garbage that you have no chance of competing with.

Just yell out anytime you're in doubt, plenty here will be happy to help.

Thanks for the help guys...I've PMed Planes to see what he has to say.

Hi sellingforacause,
I am in the same situation than you. At the moment I am trying to get my head around it. I have been looking for products which are not to competitive but find it quiet hard. Salehoo is good and I am sure that if I keep looking I will find a good dropshipper with descent products. I have been trying to look for planes but cant find thid drop shipping company would you have a link to it?
Many thanks
Didier

Hi Didier, that's the link to Planes drop shipping site, but you can PM him with any inquiries.

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