Wholesale vs. Dropshipping

There are two kinds of sellers on eBay, garage sellers and business sellers.

• Garage sellers are people who sell products they are not going to use any more and that are usually not new. Garage sellers are not profit driven. They will be happy to make some money by selling something that is no longer useful to them.
• Business sellers are people who buy and sell products for profit, they consider eBay a business and need to earn profit on the products they sell.

Business sellers need a steady stream of products. That's where wholesale product sourcing and drop shipping come in.

You probably know what wholesale is. That's when you buy in bulk at a steep discount, then sell at higher, retail prices. The difference between what you buy the product for and what you sell it for is your profit.

You may not have heard about drop shipping, but, if you've purchased products online, chances are you've bought from people who are using drop shippers.  In a nutshell...

In other words, you can list a product for sale on your website or on eBay, without ever having it in your inventory! Once someone wins your auction, or buys the product from your website, you then give that order to the drop shipper, who ships the item to the new owner. Your profit is the difference between what the supplier charges for the item and what you sell it for.

Benefits of Buying Items at Wholesale and Reselling Them

• The prices you pay for the items are usually much cheaper than with drop shipping, so you tend to make higher profit than when you use a drop shipper.

The Downside of Buying Items at Wholesale and Reselling Them

• You have to pay for the items ahead of time. If they don't sell, you're stuck with the items.
• You have to store the items.
• You have to ship the items yourself.

The Benefits of Using a Drop Shipper

• You only put out money when you sell an item. But, since you probably have sold it for more than what the supplier is charging, you then have a profit.
• You don't have to store any items.
• You don't have to ship items yourself - the drop shipper does that for you.

The Downside of Using a Drop Shipper

• Competition. Other sellers on eBay are doing the same thing. You have to be careful to choose items to sell that aren't already being oversaturated on eBay.
• Your profit isn't as high as it is buying items in bulk and reselling.
• The internet is flooded with less-than-reputable people selling drop shipping lists filled with Middlemen. You want true wholesale dropshippers, not middlemen who charge higher prices for the products, thus lowering your profit. 

Finding Reputable Drop Shippers and Wholesale Suppliers

Go to our page on Drop Shipping on eBay

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Synonyms: drop shipping and dropshipping are used synonymously. 

wholesales, wholsale, holesale, whoesale, whole sale, whosale, and whole sales are typos and mispelling for the word, "wholesale."