October 14th, 2009 by Skip McGrath

The answer to that question depends on the kind of drop shipper you are looking at.  I like to place drop shippers in four categories:

1. Total scams
2. Large general product dropshippers
3. Specialized drop shippers
4. Small and medium-sized manufacturers that drop ship.

Let’s take a look at each one.

1. Total Scams – there are a few companies out there that claim to have thousands of famous name brand products that in fact ship mostly fakes from China.  I once bought a dozed Polo dress shirts from one of these companies. I didn’t know I was buying from China, but that’s where the package came from when it arrived. Actually the fakes were pretty good quality, but they were fakes so I couldn’t sell them on eBay. I ended up selling them on Craigslist and telling people they were knockoffs. I didn’t make any money, but I got my money back that way.

2. The large general dropshippers are the companies you see advertised in Google Ads all the time.  They claim to have virtual warehouses stuffed with millions of products. In fact they are nothing more than middlemen, who buy at wholesale from the real distributor, mark up the product and sell it to you. The problem is that others are selling the same things on eBay for less than you are buying it for.

3. Specialized Drop Shippers are a little better. These are distributors who buy from manufacturers and specialize in one type of product. For example, Safety Technology sells all types of safety and self-defense products such as stun guns, and pepper spray.

4. Small and medium-sized manufacturers that drop ship are your very best source because you are dealing directly with the manufacturer.  There are thousands of these companies out there. Yes it is a bit of work to find them, but when you do this can be a very profitable relationship.

My long time readers know that one of the best companies I recommend for wholesale sourcing is World Wide Brands (WWB). For several years now they have provided real wholesale sourcing information. Unlike other companies that simply sell wholesale lists, WWB actually has a staff of people who research the sources and contact the companies listed to make sure they are real wholesalers and that they will work with eBay sellers.  They list about 7000 companies that will drop ship –many of them small manufacturers.

Worldwide Brands has long been known as a highly trusted authority on Wholesale Product Sourcing for online entrepreneurs. They have a revolutionary new tool that combines their extensive Drop Ship, Light Bulk, Volume Wholesale, Liquidation and Import Wholesaler contact information with instant analyses of how well each product searched will SELL online.

The integrated research tool helps you select profitable products by showing you how well a product will sell online and how large the competition is.

Their service also includes over 20 hours of training videos and webinars related to wholesale sourcing and selling online. Click here to learn more about World Wide Brands. You can even get some free sources from them as a demo if you click on the Free Trial Link