These include PHP5 snippets for the Ebay Trading API.

Get Ebay API Ajax Categories here.

It’s actually quite hard to find this both at Ebay and through Google.  Have you developed any php apps for the Ebay trading API?

If you have please let me know I need to hire somebody.

He says he makes 2 – 5 times more money with drop shipping than affiliates. Three interesting new web services from Amazon Web Services are Amazon WebStore, Amazon Fulfillment, and Drop Ship by Amazon. Doba is also an interesting contrast in recommendations and flames.

DBL and Moteng seem quite genuine.

aaanativearts

Do some searches for whatever product you are looking for +”we dropship”

For example widgets +”we dropship”

Be sure to write it just like that with the quotemarks and plus sign. That should bring up pages that have widgets on them and also specifically contain the phrase “we dropship”.

Of course, many of the suppliers you will find that way aren’t the source, but if you keep digging, you should find some of them.

If you live near a large flea market or go to a large once-a-year festival, go dumpster diving. While they may not dropship, you will definitely find some good wholesale sources on the discarded boxes in the trash. Then you can contact them to find out if they dropship.

I agree that you should NEVER pay to see a dropshipper’s inventory or wholesale prices. If they charge a fee just to see what they have, they aren’t true dropshippers and are making their money off guilible people who pay their “membership fees.”

Also don’t pay for those lists of “1000 dropshipping sources” you see advertised all over the Internet, most of those are way outdated sources at best, and most of them just include lists of all the places that charge membership fees and all the middle men they’ve found on the Internet that aren’t true sources anyway. You might find a real source or two included, but don’t hold your breath. Think about it, if you have a truly good source, why would you tell other sellers about it and create competition for yourself?

A true dropshipper will want you to make money, because if you make money, so does he, so they won’t be hiding thier inventory, they’ll be glad for you to see what they offer without cost. Many of the legit dropshippers will make you fill out an application and give them a business tax id before they will give you the URL of a private website with their wholesale prices that are hidden so the public doesn’t see them. That’s not the same as the ones who charge money to show you their prices or inventory.

However, I would have to disagree with the statement that you can’t make a profit dropshipping. I make a very good living dropshipping things. But there is more to dropshipping than just finding a good source to supply you with goods to sell.

My whole catalog isn’t from dropshippers. I also buy some stuff wholesale in quantity and ship it out myself when I get an order. My business is art related, so I also make some of my products myself so I have some original things in my catalog the shoppers can’t find anywhere else. I also work with multiple suppliers, don’t make the mistake of putting all your eggs in one basket.

If I find a supplier that sells 1,000 widgets but only 2 are worth selling in my store, then I only sell those 2 items, and don’t worry about the rest. A true dropshipper will ship one item, so you shouldn’t have to buy the other 998 that you know aren’t going to sell to get the 2 that will.

You also won’t make much if you try to sell everything under the sun just because a dropshipper carries 10,000 items. Specialize in one narrow area of tightly related products. If you get a complaint on a product or otherwise find out it’s crap, take it out of your catalog. It doesn’t hurt to order a few sample products from the company you are thinking about dropshipping from BEFORE you put their merchandise in your catalog. That way you can see the quality of stuff you are selling, and you know for sure how long it takes them to ship, whether the products are packed properly so you don’t get a lot of complaints due to breakage, ask them some questions and see if they answer their email, etc. In other words, check them out thoroughly, just as you would in a brick and morter store before you invest a lot of effort in them.

It’s always best to undersell and over deliver on what was promised to the customer. A satisfied customer will maybe tell a couple friends. A dissatisfied customer will tell everyone they know and those people will probably tell their friends, too. Offer a 100% Refund-No questions asked guarantee. You will get LESS RETURNS if you offer a guarantee than if you don’t have one. And even with a guarantee, less than 1% of your customers will ask for a refund if you sell quality products.

And you won’t make much if you just throw up a catalog without a supporting content rich website. On average, a shopper has to see an ad 7 times before they make the decision to buy, so you have to give them a reason to keep coming back so you can show them your products again.

They also have to trust you, the internet is full of crooks and people are afraid to buy from strangers. The way you make them your friends is to develop a content rich website on a subject related to the products you sell. You collect email addresses from an opt-in subscription to a free weekly or monthly newsletter to keep them updated on what’s new on your content website and throw in a couple ads for your catalog in each issue. Maybe let them know what’s on sale, stuff like that. But for the most part, you make the newsletter interesting and informative FOR THE READER so they will stay subscribed and keep coming back. The fastest way to get them to unsubscribe is to make your newsletter one big sales pitch. And be honest with them. Over time, they will come to trust your expertise, and THEN they will buy from you. And keep buying. And tell their friends who will buy from you because someone they know personally recommended you.

A supporting content rich site will do something even more important for you, it will drive traffic to your catalog via search engines. Because your catalog really doesn’t have much content that is search engine food other than product descriptions that probably trip duplicate content filters because a bunch of other catalogs carry the same products and have similar if not exact duplicate descriptions, it’s hard to get good rankings with just a catalog. On the other hand, a SEO’d website will not only rank well in the search engines, it will get backlinks from a lot of other websites who also have traffic that would be interested in the products you sell.

Dropshippers do sometimes charge a handling fee for small orders, and the postage may be a bit high, but most people on eBay charge high postage rates, and the customers pay it. I just look at the rates my dropshippers charge and set my own postage rates to match the most expensive one, so none of the freight is coming out of my profit. If they charge more than $3.00 handling fee per order, I just don’t do business with them. I’ve found plenty who don’t charge anything extra.

I’ve made far more money with dropshippers than places like Amazon. Most affiliate programs pay on average 3% to 12% of retail, with a rare one allowing you 20%, and they often have a cap on expensive products, while I make 2 to 5 times my TOTAL cost for the products for my profit on my dropship orders. And I get paid immediately BEFORE I even order the product. With most affiliate programs you have to wait 30-45 days for your money, or even 3 months like Amazon. And I have worked for some affiliate programs who went bankrupt and didn’t pay me at all.

And I agree with Rightz that it can be very lucrative to become the middle man yourself and sell to all those other people looking for dropshippers.

Another interesting concept is Amazon Ebay Arbitrage.

Here is the original WebMasterWorld Forum article How can I find more dropshipping resources?