Anyone know of an honest drop shipper who'll actually ship products and not rip me off?

In the early 80's I dealt with one drop shipper out of New York and lost a bunch of money. Don't ever want to repeat that experience.

Anyhow, I'm looking to write some copy for cell phones, computer peripherals (printers, speakers, etc), surround sounds systems, and pretty much anything else that falls into the ‘tech’ category. Preferably high-end stuff.

Yes, I see there are thousands of drop shippers on Google but none stand out as trustworthy.

So... a referral or two would be greatly appreciated.

OK to pm me if most appropriate.

Thanks!

Andre

Andre,

I have no faith in dropshipppers. I think between the low margins they'll offer you and the fact that most can't be trusted to ship products on time... not to mention they "have" your customer too I wouldn't consider drop-shipping-- period.

Here's what I would do...

1. Focus on a particular product.
2. Use Alibaba to find a potential supplier.
3. Order a few samples-- even if the unit price is going to be high.
4. Write your sales copy.
5. Run your ad. See if it brings in orders at a profit.
6. If it does, I would ask the supplier to work with you and offer you lower prices for smaller quantities while you build up your business-- many of them will if you simply ask them.
7. Continue to run ads and build up your customer list.
8. Find or create cross-sell products for your customers that are closely aligned with the first product they purchased--- and "sell" to those customers.


I had a choice when I started my business-- have someone drop ship or spend the money to inventory my own products. By inventorying my own products I received a lower price from my suppliers and I control my customer list-- and that is where the true "gold" is in any business-- the customer list. I repeatedly hit my 7,000 customers with new offers. It's like a "bank" that never closes.

Thanks Michael for the idea. Thanks too for the mention of Alibaba (http://www.alibaba.com). I hadn't heard of them before now. Added them to my rolodex.

For me, the structure of a business is definitely a life choice. Warehousing, ordering, and shipping inventory is 100% contrary to the way I want to live. Not even for ten million dollars would i be interested in that.

I'm too busy with other areas of life to deal with ordering boxes and shipping supplies, then stuffing the boxes, exporting mailing labels, affixing labels, printing invoices, dealing with standing in line at post office or UPS/fedex or whomever, dealing with returns and refunds and all the other junk that goes along with inventorying physical products.

Been there done that.

In the eighties I wrote two self-published books. Was excited when I got my first order. Was angry and hostile by the time I got my 100th.

I spent too much time at kinko's and doing the above shipping activities that it was no longer fun. So I abruptly stopped promoting tangible self-published books even though orders continued to come in for months. Back then I marked all incoming envelopes 'return to sender' and moved on to someting else less taxing.

That's why for me a reliable drop shipper would be the perfect solution even if the margins were low. But only if the dropshipper were honest. To date I don't even know if such a thing exists.

Anyhow, I've registered with a few but have not taken the risk of sending them any money or writing ads for the products they sell. Was too painful the first time through. So instead, I hope to find a referral or recommendation from someone who's had success selecting a dropshipper.

Otherwise I'll just stay away from trusting any of them.

Andre