Starting an ebay business.

finbar o toole

Hello, I was thinking of starting to dropship from a wholesaler and sell products on ebay. Has anyone any information on dropshipping that may help me? The wholesaler website I was looking at was dhgate.com, has anyone any information about this site in particular, is it legit?

D.W

finbar o toole wrote: »

Hello, I was thinking of starting to dropship from a wholesaler and sell products on ebay. Has anyone any information on dropshipping that may help me? The wholesaler website I was looking at was dhgate.com, has anyone any information about this site in particular, is it legit?

Finbarr-haven't come across that site before. Have heard of another called Salehoo.com which I know my brother used quite successfully for certain products. Might be worth a look.

Shzm

Yes - it's not as easy as you probably think.

Head on over to dropshipforum.co.uk and do a search for selling on ebay and any suppliers you've come across.

Good luck!

finbar o toole

cheers folks, ill have a look at these sites and do a bit more research.

Shaneod21

Hi Finbar,


Dhgate is a good supplier as long as you are using only the Gold, silver and bronze suppliers. Do not buy any branded products as they are all fake!
There are many items you can sell, but there are better suppliers. Salehoo is a directory. Make sure you know how to sell on ebay otherwise you can lose a lot of money.

For example, you might sell an ipod touch to someone in the uk for a profit margin of €40, however, you could have sold it on ebay.de for an €80 profit. Simple things like that.

Dropshipping is definitely legit. I have been dropshipping for quite a while, however, I moved to selling wholesale for the majority of the products I sell. Far more profit to be made.

The most important thing is to be able to research ebay.

The basic principle is to find out what is selling well, get a supplier and create killer ads that sell! What I have had huge success from is focussing in on an niche like for example pet supplies, dive further into this and look at something like a particular pet. Then you have a more specific niche. So you could choose a parrot. Then you could focus in on what is selling well, and sell a product like parrot cages.

For this kind of item you want to be getting a dropshipper as opposed to buying them on wholesale. As your more than likely aware shipping from Ireland is quite expensive.

If this item is making you good money then what I do is create a website related to the niche and get top rankings. Just research is paramount.

When setting up your ebay website make sure you do it right! Do not start selling all sorts of products focus on one niche with one ebay account. You don't just need to have 1 account.

Hope this helps.

Slippin Jimmy

Im starting to look into ebay myself. I was on the dhgate website and it seems good. Are the legit?

jon1981

hi i was looking at dhgate and it seems you order the goods to yourself firstly and pay up front... this seems different to other dropshippers i was looking at where

you put the good on ebay -> someone buys the good , pays you -> you push the transaction through to the dropshipper-> you pay them and they deliver directly to the buyer.

is my understanding correct that with dhgate you pay up front?

Slippin Jimmy

Guys im looking into selling xbox live cards or ipods. Where would be the best place to find a dropship for this? I cant find any on the net and ive been looking for hours

Son

Hi

I know nothing about this stuff but am interested in it......

I had a look on the dhgate website and the stuff I looked at seemed expensive?? shouldn't it be cheaper to buy it there than anywhere else?

finbar o toole

Hi shane, that was very imformative, im guessing you have a fair bit of experience in this. Just a few questions....what wholesaler do you use mostly, is it a website or what and I understand the advantage of finding a niche product but what do you mean about using the killer ads??Wher do I advertise??Sorry if these seem like stupid questions but I really am
new to all this.

clusk007

looking at doing something like this myself. (Shane) you really seem to know what you're talking about. thanks for your advice and experience-- any chance you could point us in the right direction with wholesalers?

Kur4mA

I've had a brief stint doing this type of thing myself with games and consoles. I did ok but didn't have the time to focus enough on it. I'm getting back into it fairly soon but switching my focus to other types of products if all goes according to plan. I can tell that Shane has a lot more experience at this than me and has given some brilliant advice.

I can see where this thread is going but just want to point out that you'll get a lot of advice and tips from people that do this but the one thing you'll find is like getting blood from a stone is getting a persons supplier/wholesaler information from them. The reason is simple... it's letting the cat out of the bag and essentially ruining your own business plan by allowing someone to buy your products from your supplier therefore you've created a competitor for yourself. It's VERY bad business.

If Shane was to give you this exact information he'd have to be mad lol

What I will advise anyone serious about this to do is firstly to be aware that it is TIME CONSUMING. This is something that hit me quite hard and you need to be on the ball if balancing it with a full time job also.

Right, next...go to the following forums and have a good read of them.

http://www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk

You'll find a lot of trusted and respected guys making a living from this on there and a lot of them started out on eBay and are still selling their. Some of them (like Shane above) have moved into the wholesale business themselves due to much better profit margins and actually sell directly to members of the forum at wholesale prices (in the Wholesale Marketplace section). The prices are decent sometimes but you obviously would rarely get products as cheap as if you were to buy in bulk directly from a Chinese wholesaler/supplier yourself.

PROTIP Again, DO NOT go on there and start asking these guys who their wholesaler/supplier is or you'll firstly get laughed at and possibly banned from there altogether. Most of them have done all the hard work researching and building a relationship with their supplier over many years and they will never ever give you this list or information. I've seen people on there get offered major money for supplier/wholesaler information and it just never happens.

So... back on topic lol. I work in eBay CS and have been there a good length of time so know the sites pretty much inside out. If anyone has any questions about eBay go ahead and post in the thread here (if that's ok with mods?) and I'll help if possible.

Kur4mA

Duffff-Man wrote: »

Guys im looking into selling xbox live cards or ipods. Where would be the best place to find a dropship for this? I cant find any on the net and ive been looking for hours

I've seen a few of the guys on wholesale forums uk here selling xbox live cards wholesale:

http://www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk

Sorry for the double post guys and no, I'm not a shill for the above website... just a reader and past buyer.

AntiRip

If you were going to buy from lets say dhgate, will you also get hit by customs charges? If you bought stock from UK will you be hit?

Thanks

dermothickey

Hi everyone just following this thread. Ive a product which I'd like to sell on ebay. It is a low cost product in the 3:50 euro range including envelope postage to ireland and charge a small extra to the U.k Europe etc. Is it worth my while? My sister looked in to it and after paypal charges and stuff, she managed to tell me it would cost a lot and it probably wouldnt be worthwhile as the profit margin would be so small. In reality I was looking for her to run it as I'm busy selling the product daily, through other means. Can someone give me a breakdown on the charges? Im sorry I got very confused when inquiring in to it as im not very tech savvy.Hope I don't sound stupid!! Or if I do keep it to yourselves