Expert: Marvinator - 6/15/2004

Question
Hi,
I am interested in doing more business on Ebay and am looking for reputable wholesale/dropshipping companies.
I have been a buyer and seller on Ebay since 1999, so I have a good handle on how it all works, but wholesale is new to me so any info you can give me I would appreciate.....also any tips or things I may not have considered.
Thank You
Lisa Marshall

Answer
Finding a wholesaler or dropshipper is reletively easy. Many of the merchandise marts have wholesale offices and any manufacturer of an item you want to sell will be glad to give you the name of the wholesale company that sells their items.  

I find two problems with using wholesale companies, however. First is that many wholesale companies require a large first order. THis means you have a large outlay and have merchandise sitting around that you may or may not be able to sell on ebay.  Remember, just because you have an item to sell doesn't mean Ebay is the place to make a profit.  More sellers have gone bankrupt finding this out.

Secondly is dropshipping.  Many sellers do well with wholesale warehouses that will dropship.  However, you're held to their inventory level and they are not held to your sales agreement.  Ebay's sellers agreement says that the item you sell MuST be shipped within 30 days. THis is also a regulation of the FTC.  A wholesaler, however does not care about your sale. If the item is not in stock, you are not charged and without that payment they are not obligated to get the item to you until their is an item in stock.  If the item is from China, you can be waiting for many weeks!  

There are many sellers that deal with dropshippers that have a large number of neg. feedbacks related to not being able to deliver the product in the 30 day deadline.  Some buyers will get upset and leave Neg FB if they don't get the item in 2 weeks!  Keep all this in mind when deciding on a dropshipper.