mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@katzrul15 wrote:
@sweetlittlepiggy wrote:Are there any hints on the user profile? Thanks.
You mean if a Seller is a drop-shipper? Buyers buy, they do not usually drop-ship.
Stock photos, items shipped from China, Indonesia, etc. Cheap, mass-produced, often fake copy-cats. Shipping times very long, etc.
The FB left by Buyers is usually very revealing/strong indicator.
Sometimes and I stress sometimes stock photos are a clue, but certainly NOT always.
Sometimes suppliers of a seller's inventory will allow them to use their stock photos. I know as I do it all the time.
Sometimes they pull the pics from the Ebay catalog and they may look like a stock photo.
Not all drop shippers are created equal. I dropshipped perfume for years. All during that time I retained my 100% positive FB as well as my TRS status. I worked hard to make sure my inventory availability was correct and it was very rare for me to sell an OOS item.
Other drop shippers don't do that. They just hope for the best.
If you have concern over dealing with a drop shipper, then ask your seller. Just because a seller is a drop shipper doesn't automatically mean they are a bad seller or a seller to be wary of.
Their FB should tell you if they don't handle drop shipping well.
Another thing to look for is if the seller is shipping from an address that is not the same as their seller address. That can only mean one of two things. Either the seller has multiple warehouses for the products they sell or they are a drop shipper.
What is causing your pause about being a drop shipper?
@bashort wrote:Dropshippers are usually easy to spot, they will have thousands of listings with stock photos and lots of bad feedback about out of stock and the item came from somewhere else,
That is SOME drop shippers, NOT all. Dropshipping can be done well and responsibly. Some just don't. Others do fine.
@toysaver wrote:Look for free shipping, nothing but stock photos, poor feedback and the most offensive behavior of all - the American Flag used as a straw shipping decoy.
MANY sellers offer free shipping that do not drop ship. Stock photos is NOT an accurate indicator of a drop shipper.
While I did drop ship for years, I no longer do, but most of my listings use stock photos because my vendors allow me to use their pics. There is also the Ebay catalog that many use those pics.
@store_spark wrote:Seller location and item location are different, He seems to be a dopshipper
Sometimes. But there are sellers that have their inventory in multiple warehouses and they are not drop shippers.
@releasethekraken_1 wrote:
@a_c_green wrote:
@releasethekraken_1 wrote:A buyer can purchase an item and have the seller dropship it to the buyer’s customer. I don’t think you can tell whether that’s what the buyer is doing.
That's not dropshipping; it's retail arbitrage. eBay allows the former but not the latter.
You can sell stuff on behalf of a supplier who's contracted to ship your sales from his warehouse. You cannot sell stuff you don't have and then race around trying to find someone else to sell it to you (and ship it to your buyer).
People engaged in "retail arbitrage" don't look for an item AFTER they get an order, because they risk not being able to fulfill the order.
"Retail arbitrage" is a ridiculous term anyway. You buy something from a retailer, and then sell it. Wow, what a concept. I guess some sellers do "yard sale arbitrage", LOL.
That is not what it means. You just misunderstand.
It means to purchase items from vendor/seller without an agreement to act as their drop shipper and then have them ship directly to your buyer.
It does NOT mean purchasing items from someone else and then sell those items on Ebay.
@releasethekraken_1 wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
@releasethekraken_1 wrote:
@a_c_green wrote:
@releasethekraken_1 wrote:A buyer can purchase an item and have the seller dropship it to the buyer’s customer. I don’t think you can tell whether that’s what the buyer is doing.
That's not dropshipping; it's retail arbitrage. eBay allows the former but not the latter.
You can sell stuff on behalf of a supplier who's contracted to ship your sales from his warehouse. You cannot sell stuff you don't have and then race around trying to find someone else to sell it to you (and ship it to your buyer).
People engaged in "retail arbitrage" don't look for an item AFTER they get an order, because they risk not being able to fulfill the order.
"Retail arbitrage" is a ridiculous term anyway. You buy something from a retailer, and then sell it. Wow, what a concept. I guess some sellers do "yard sale arbitrage", LOL.
That is not what it means. You just misunderstand.
It means to purchase items from vendor/seller without an agreement to act as their drop shipper and then have them ship directly to your buyer.
It does NOT mean purchasing items from someone else and then sell those items on Ebay.
I found a dozen definitions of “retail arbitrage”, all fairly similar, and none matched what you think it means.
Ebay often has their own definitions to certain words. This is one of them.
