Drop Ship Facts

What is Drop-Shipping?
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You can sell merchandise on the internet (or anywhere) without buying it first. Eliminate inventory, packing, trips to the Post office, and paperwork. You don’t pay for shipping. No wasting time taking pictures and writing descriptions.

Drop Shipping is when you order an item or items and the DS ships the items directly to your customer. Drop Shipper help customers who are auctioneers (ebayer etc.), retailers (yahoo store), and web site owners. Any Retail, Internet, or mail order business will benefit from this program.

You use the information from the DS’s website – Images, Merchandise Quality, and descriptions. The customer will receive these items as if it were from you.

The real basics:
You have to be sooooooo careful when it comes to drop shippers.
If someone tells you they are a drop shipper and they change you a Monthly or Yearly fee – RUN!!
Real Factory Authorized Wholesale Drop Shippers do not charge a fee (well, I’m sure there are a few exceptions).
Actually to only factory authorized wholesale drop shippers I’ve ever known to charge a yearly fee are those who deal with jewelry. Jewelry is a hard one, the price of gold goes up and down so they have to charge a fee.
However, many drop shipper charge a fee to drop ship – confused? It’s called handling. Yes, you know what I’m talking about Shipping and Handling. Think of it this way, you do not pay for the boxes to ship the product, you do not have to drive it down to the post office and wait in line, you do not have to warehouse the products, that’s called handling. Many factory authorized wholesale drop shippers don’t charge any handling fee, some do. It can run between $1 – $15 (if you are shipping TV’s)
I personally never use a drop shipper that charges me more than $5 and that $5 best be on a large item like an air conditioner.
At first it all looks easy – you sell, they ship! Then you start reading about using factory authorized wholesale drop shippers and it gets scary. THEN they tell you about the paper work and you stop, because no one wants to deal with that. Well, that leaves you driving all over town looking for deals at thrift stores and yard sales. Yes, they can be a gold mine, but are you factoring in the price of gas, insurance, the extra wear and tear on your car into your auctions?
When I worked outside the home my employer gave me $.30 a mile. How far is it from the thrift store to your home AND back again? Sure you can say I was going there anyway, but honestly how often do you really need to shop for clothing for your children? Drop shipping saves you time, money and your car.

The fact is if you want to use real factory authorized wholesale drop shippers you have to have a business. If your business is selling on eBay – great or you can have an online business.
To become a business you have to have a name, that will probably take you 30 seconds. Then you can consider yourself as DBA your business name (Doing Business As).

Next you need a tax ID number – lets stop there before you go screaming from this post thinking this lady is crazy.
1: anyone who tells you they are a wholesaler and you don’t need a tax id # is either lying or a not running a legitimate business.
2: People automatically think Tax ID, I’ll have to pay taxes. Yes, if you make $1000.00’s of dollars on eBay or your online business you will need to pay taxed. But if you are making $1000.00’s of dollars why wouldn’t you just write a check and pay the taxes? If it doesn’t work and you make nothing – you have nothing to pay in taxes.
Same old redneck story – there’s no risk in nothing. If you made nothing you pay nothing. Plus, you have to factor in all of the expenses you get to deduct. New PC for your business and classes you want to take and marketing you do. My mother is an good and honest tax accountant, it’s scary all the legal – legitimate deductions she can dream up. I got to deduct a bathing suit once because I purchased it to wear in a picture for my business. I got to deduct the expense of the pictures also.

Other states require other paperwork. For example my state requires a business license – its free. I called the department of revenue and they took down the information and sent it to me in the mail.
Let’s say you live in New York and you are purchasing from a drop shipper in New York you will need a State Tax Exemption Certificate so you won’t pay sales tax on what you purchase.

I bet if you google the name of your state and the words “small business” you will come up with a state website that will give you all the information you need for starting a small business. Believe me, I live in Maine, if we have a website so does every other state.

Now you maybe thinking, but I didn’t really want to start a small business, I just want to sell on eBay and make enough money for diapers and a really cool cell phone. Ya me too! I run my small eBay business from the computer in my kitchen. I have a purple folder that holds all my paperwork. I tell me husband if I die tomorrow take this purple folder to my mother at tax time, she’ll know what to do. In the folder are all of my receipts, all my passwords, all the information on all the companies I deal with.

Other than the purple folder all of this has been FREE. The purple folder cost me $3. at Target. I already had the PC, desk, printer, scanner, pens, pencils, coffee, everything. So for $3 I’ve started my online business and everything I purchase from now on is a deductible business expense.

Section 2
How I mistakenly found drop shippers.
I learned how to find drop shippers by mistake. I was looking for a hand cream I loved and had called all over town and couldn’t find it. So I went online and found the Eucerin website. I contacted them and ask if they knew where I could purchase the cream. They told me they no longer made that type. So I wrote back and asked if they had any left or maybe some in their warehouse. I was told that they didn’t sell to the consumer, but he gave me a phone # and an email address to “of all things” a drop shipper.

Now finding drop shippers like that is a little work or you can buy into Chris Malta “one source” program, it’s about $300. I use one source and I can tell you it works, but not everyone is willing to shell out $300 and I don’t blame you. I did because we received a $5000.00 tax return one year. (Told you my mother was good).
That’s why I told you the story. If you find something you KNOW will sell on eBay, just call or email the people who make the product and ask them for a list of their wholesalers. They will be happy to give it to you then start calling or emailing the wholesalers and ask them if they drop ship.

Section 3
The fakers and what I want to become
Honestly this isn’t an ad for the company I’m starting, but it is a good place and time to explain fake drop shippers, the “Start your own business for $30 and up scam” purchasing wholesaler lists on eBay scam, googling drop shippers and yes, plug my company.

I was laid off when I was 4 months pregnant. I was showing and NO ONE would even meet with me once I told them I was pregnant. So I did what every other mom is doing I started looking for work at home jobs.
I can type (my spelling and grammar are horrid, but I can fake it when I have to.) I was a bookkeeper, technical assistance for a very large company where I ran their email department, I was a nursing assistant, I’ve had a lot of jobs and I was pretty much willing to do anything as long as I could do it from home.
So I found CafeMom and looked into all their groups “WORK at HOME MOMS and SURVIVE!”, “Moms in Sales or Direct Selling”, “Real Work From Home Moms”, and my all time favorite “Mom’s who want to work from home for under $50”. All the ladies in these groups are very nice and they want me to join their team. I have to tell you I’m not a team player. Most of the jobs they offer come with a fee – “$50 and we will give you a free website all the products in our catalog and coaching. You can sell, build your team and make loads of cash just like we are.”
HOLD THE PHONE. First if your business is so grand why are you telling me about it? I don’t know about you, but if I knew a way to make loads of cash I sure as hell wouldn’t tell you. You’d be my competition! If you are making loads of cash why do you need a team?
Ever work for Tupperware? Great products, but it’s the same problem. You make % depending on the amount you make. OH plus a lot of free gifts – free gifts don’t fill your gas tank. AND if you really want to make any money you have to build a team of other people and hope that they can make money. Your income depends on a group of other people. I’m 34 years old I don’t own 1 piece of Tupperware, I purchase the cheep stuff at Wal-Mart just like everyone else my age.

I did work for Tupperware for a short time, it cost about $75 to get the kit. I can tell you they are a good and probably honest company. They use to drop ship to my eBay customers, they don’t any longer. However, they told me they would give me a website and take care of everything for about $7 a month. The problem, my website looked exactly like every other Tupperware rep. website and we were all selling the same products. And I still had to promote my website, a website with a name about 40 characters long http: //www. tupperware. com/ sales/ xyz_? / first_and_last_name_here NOT like you can just put that on a flier.
It was a business, it wasn’t MY business. I was a sales person for them and I hardly broke even. I wouldn’t call it a scam, but it shows how despite moms get sucked in, it looked like such a great deal.

So I started looking for drop shippers and I came across Chris Malta and contact ebay. eBay told me he and his company were on the up and up. I didn’t have $300. to spend on his company, so I purchase his book “what to sell on eBay and where to get it” Good book, let it be your first business expense. I started looking around for drop shippers, I googled them, I purchased lists off eBay and he’s right when he tells you “You cannot find Real Factory Authorized Wholesale Drop Shippers by googling them”. And you cannot find valid drop shipper lists on eBay. Believe me I’ve purchased them, very bad idea.
I was told by one so called “Drop Shipper” that I could become a drop shipper also. I could buy into their company and raise my prices and scam others into thinking I was the wholesaler. Then I could offer them the same deal.

And that was the moment I realize that I was a middle class mom wanting to stay at home and make an honest living.
I want to try to help moms stay away from those schemes and build honest to goodness eBusinesses they can be proud of and not become penniless.

My business plan has changed over the past 2 years, but the priority has stayed the same – help moms find honest to goodness home business and home jobs and some how make enough money for cable and internet.
I started by trying to help moms get into using drop shippers on eBay using my site and it worked, but it didn’t seem enough.
So next I created a web mall run by stay at home moms – because I use drop shippers I can sell the same products you find in the mall for much less and still pay my employees. I provide 6 rent free kiosks for moms who create and sell handmade items. I put Google Ads on the sites to help pay for them. I started a forum (you are here) to help moms find REAL at home jobs, understand selling on eBay, create their own websites but I’m actually building a community. As corny as is sounds, I want all moms to come together, learn to recognize the scams and teach others to avoid them.

In closing, no matter what you sell on eBay you need to make a profit. Using drop shippers takes a little prep work, but it’s worth it in the long run. You also need many sources to bring in products and customers. If you just sell on eBay and don’t go out and find your customers you’ll probably sell, but you won’t make a living. You need to create a website and link it to your auctions, a blog is another great idea – tell people what you are doing. eBay provides a blog area for you for free. Join eBay groups and tell people about what you are doing – that doesn’t mean post an ad. I mean tell people what you are doing – “this week I added a new banner to advertise my new line of handmade children’s clothing. I am so proud of it, I stayed up all night, but it finally came together. What does everyone think?”
Yup you just got 40 people from our group to click on your link and view your auctions because they want to help you with your banner placement. Are you getting the idea? Don’t just post a link – WHY WOULD I CLICK YOUR LINK? I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU SELL AND I DON’T CARE I HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO. Show me what you sell – post some pictures!

That’s about it. I’ll probably edit this 100 times within the next few days just for spelling errors. Sorry, the grammar error will probably stay. I’ll add more as it comes to me.
If the errors are really bad, please don’t post them, send me an email and let me know.

Please go read the eBooks. And don’t stop just because you don’t like what he’s saying. It’s probably something you can get around or something that is a lot easier than it looks. Don’t purchase wholesale list on eBay. Don’t buy into drop ship companies for X amount a month or year. AND whatever you do, don’t try and start a business at 6 months pregnant with swollen feet.