Dropshipping - why it latest buzzword among eBay sellers

The latest buzzword among eBay sellers is "Dropshipping." But, if you've never heard the term before, it must be a bit confusing.

First, what is drop shipping? Well, Wikipedia describes dropshipping as:

"Drop shipping is a supply chain management technique in which the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to wholesalers, who then ship the goods directly to the customer. The retailers make their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price."

Huh? The listed "Retail price" will be higher than you've ever seen the products sold for.
Sometimes the price they charge YOU will be higher than normal retail.
They charge a "drop ship fee" per each item bought.
They charge you just to view their catalog, calling it a membership fee.

A real drop shipper is, in actuality, a "wholesaler" who buys their product directly from the manufacturer and sells to retailers. Their drop ship business is secondary. In fact, to be honest, most wholesalers don't offer dropshipping services. They want to sell in bulk rather than dealing with one item at a time.

This is where most eBay sellers give up. I should know. I myself have literally spent hours and hours for days at a time searching the web for a dropshipper that offered quality products at wholesale prices. And to this day I've never found one on my own.

This includes all the "wholesale directories" that I purchased on eBay that were only full of outdated links to manufacturers that wouldn't have sold to me anyway because I was not a distributor.

In plain English, a drop shipper has a large amount of stock on hand. Could be any product Depends on the dropshipper. But, this drop shipper is willing to sell his products to you, the eBay seller, at a discount. He will then ship the product to any address you ask him to. Not only that, but his name will not appear on the product anywhere, thus making it appear as though the product has come directly from you.

What are the benefits of dropshipping to you, the eBay seller?

You don't have to spend any money up front. You don't pay the drop shipper for the product until you've been paid by your customer.

You don't have to fill up your garage or spare room with products.

You don't have to pack the item, address it, and take it to the post office.

Here's an example. You visit your dropshipper's website. You see that he has 1000 digital cameras for $50 each. You go to eBay and do your research, and find that these exact cameras are selling for around $80 each.

So, you take the pictures of the digital camera from your dropshipper's web site (with their approval) and put up a listing for this. It sells for $78.

When your auction ends, you receive your customer’s payment. You then go back to the dropshipper's website, order the camera for $50, input the customers address as the shipping address, and you're all done.

You've just made $28 for about 30 minutes work and never even touched the product. Not bad, huh?

Dropshipping has revolutionized eBay selling. The biggest problem for sellers has always been about finding products to sell. But, it's not a problem anymore with drop shippers to help us.