Feedback needed on Albany Distributing

I was trying to start a dropshipping business based on videogames and electronics since I'm very knowledgeable about the topic and where I live they have become a rare commodity due to our Gamestops leaving the Island. So while I was doing research and before I found out about SaleHoo. I was having a hard time finding videogame drop shippers but after a while, I stumbled upon albanydistributing.net looked into their videogame list and saw that they have almost up to date merchandise so I signed up with them. While doing a bit more research, I found someone complaining about them here in these forums, the post was from a few years ago. Just a few minutes ago, I got an email that my application has been approved so I logged in and saw their prices and found out that they are even higher than the retail prices and most of the new ones barely give me space for profit margins.

EX:
New spiderman sales at retail $59.99
Shipping $ 3.99

Albany Price: $51.13
EX profit margin. $8.86 (I think that's too low) Worked on retail and It was around $20 to $15
Sale price would be $59.99
Albany Shipping $9.99
Final Price $69.98

With the low-profit-margin and that shipping price so high, there isn't any business to do - not even vapes ship at those prices and they are heavier than blue rays. Anyway I'm looking for some advice on the matter like should I drop them, look for other products in their catalog, is there any other drop shipping business that deal with video games (I have not found any on SaleHoo), are those prices normal - anything that you could do to help me would be greatly appreciated. I also tried drop shipping vapes and found a great company but eBay or Amazon won't let me list them even though eBay send me promotions about vape listings which I find extremely unfair.

Hi Kelvin and welcome to the forum,

The important thing to understand about Drop-shipping is that it isn't Wholesale, which many people believe it to be and often refer to Drop-ship prices as Wholesale prices. Drop-ship prices in the vast, vast majority of cases won't come close to reflecting genuine Wholesale prices because you're not talking about the same risk = reward equation in play.

Wholesale requires a greater risk because you are buying in volume, no more cash outlay upfront. You are also taking risk that the market will hold and you can clear all of your stock at a decent margin to make the risk worthwhile taking and in so doing, gain the reward of a decent margin across your stock profile.

Drop-shipping is a supply model to eliminate most, if not all risk that exists with a Wholesale supply model by not needing to invest upfront cash in stock and so when you remove risk, you also remove a lot of the potential reward that goes with taking that risk.

So in most cases, Drop-ship prices are always going to be on the skinny side when stacking them up against Wholesale prices. Combine that with a very popular product like Video Games and that has the effect of compressing the margins even tighter because suppliers know they have a stream of people wanting to Drop-ship their products and can work on offering only skinny margins.

It's just how the business model works unfortunately and you will find that across the board. Sure, you may find someone a few cents cheaper, but doubtful you will find a huge breathtaking price gap between suppliers.

Now, in regards to the supplier you mentioned. Be advised that Albany was a member of our directory but was disqualified due to what SaleHoo considered to be an extremely sub-standard level of customer service to members following a review from the support team due to some issues raised by some SaleHoo members.

For the eBay Tabacco Policy, this may clarify the situation for you Link hidden: Login to view

Cheers