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Greg's Experience with Drop Shipping

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Hello. My name is Greg and I’m 17 years old. I stumbled across this thread searching through Google. The topic came of interest to me because I am involved with dropshipping and I’d like to share my not-so-good experience with it.

I first found out about dropshipping back in February a little after I started a not-so-profitable business on eBay selling cell phone accessories and such. I saw dropshipping as an all profit method of business. You don’t pay for shipping. You don’t pay for inventory. You basically just advertise the product on auction websites such as eBay, take orders, collect the money, and pay the set amount for each item to the dropshipper keeping the remaining amounts for yourself as profits. I now realize that it is only that easy when you’re dealing with the right person.

I first started dropshipping with a guy named Chris. I was selling Nike Air Jordans on eBay. I saw that Jordans are real popular on eBay and people pay huge amounts for them. I’ve seen some pairs go for $1,000+. Chris only charged me $67 a pair. So, I basically just doubled the price and sold them on eBay for $134 a pair. I sold about 20 pairs of shoes within a week giving me a profit of $1,340. I suddenly became happy with the success I had because obtaining over $1,000 in a week at the age of 17 is pretty rare. So, I wanted to start putting up way more auctions so that I could make way more money. Unfortunately, this is when Chris became unreliable. He never returned any of my e-mails and never got back online. Plus, he only had shipped half of the 20 orders I had. So, I decided that I needed a replacement quick before I started to have some unhappy customers on my hands.

This now brings me to dropshipper #2. I talked to the guy about the situation and he said that he would be able to handle it. I paid him for the remaining 10 orders I had left and he shipped the shoes off to my customers. I respected the fact that he picked up right where my previous dropshipper had left off at and took care of business. So, I assumed that this guy was all about business and was a very reliable and legit dropshipper. So, I started to put up more buy it now auctions and these shoes were selling faster than I could put them up for auction. This is the unbelievable part. I had sold 250 pairs of shoes in a matter of 4 days. I collected over $40,000 in 4 days. That’s $10,000 a day! This came as an amazement to me especially since I’m only 17. I’ve made some people’s yearly salaries in a matter of only 4 days. Little did I know though that I was in over my head. I got a little too money hungry and and started to splurge on money that wasn’t even mines yet, buying clothes, shoes, and even put a $1,000 down payment on a new car. My dropshipper shipped my first 30 orders only to find out that he had shipped off nothing but all wrong sizes and wrong colors. So, I had a lot of complaining customers. Some even went straight to PayPal to complain causing PayPal to limit access to my account. So, now I have over $40,000 sitting in my PayPal account that I have absolutely no access to and over 200 orders that need to be shipped off. So, my only option was to refund everyone their money back to get my PayPal account back to regular standing, which brings me to my next dilemma…

I spent almost $4,000 of the $40,000 I thought would be mine to keep. So now, my Paypal balance is negative $4,000 and I need to come up with that $4,000 quick before PayPal takes legal action to get that money. I think, the only way to get me out of this mess is by the same way that got me into this mess. This is what brings me to dropshipper #3.

I stumbled upon a guy named Jarell. I found him through a legit business website so I decided to sell enough pairs of Jordans to make up the $4,000 and then I’d call it quits because this is too much for someone so young. Everything went smooth and I was able to make the $4,000 using my girlfriend’s PayPal account. Unfortunately, PayPal then limited access to her account also finding out that she was linked to me. This then aggravated me because now I have 15 orders that I in no way can pay my supplier to have shipped to my customers which will bring more complaints and negative feedback which is very bad for business. This is my current situation that I am now in.

After reviewing my whole experience with dropshipping, I realized all of the mistakes that I’ve made. For anyone who is looking into working with dropshippers, please pay close attention.

  1. Before going into business with someone who is going to be dropshipping merchandise for you, be sure to get to know the person really well. Don’t go by instinct. Have a few converstations with the person before you start anything. Collect all methods of contact of the dropshipper for emergency contact.
  2. I suggest that you do not start off having the dropshipper ship the merchandise to your customers. Order some of the merchandise for yourself and examine it thoroughly before you go into business. I started to recieve e-mails from angry customers stating that the Jordans were of terrible quality when I was told by my dropshipper that they were of authentic quality.
  3. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. As stated previously, I sold 250 pairs of shoes in 4 days. Within those 4 days, I had to deal with about 600-700 e-mails which is almost impossible for only one person to deal with that also has school to worry about. Patience is the key to success.

These were a few of the mistakes that I made dealing with dropshipping. I now have a price to pay for my mistakes. I owe $4,000 to PayPal and I have a $2,000 eBay bill that I am currently working to pay off. My purpose in writing this is for everyone considering going into business with a dropshipper to take precaution and use the tips I provided. I would also like to say that even though I had a bad experience dealing with dropshipping, that is not always the case. I know there are some people who have become successful and wealthy off of dropshipping. My time is just yet to come.

This was originally posted at the Associate Program Forums – Reprinted with permission from the Original Author

The Moral?

Be careful who you deal with. A company like World Wide Brands is respected and honest. Sometimes that company you find willing to cut you a deal isn’t so honest. It could be a middle man (someone who is between you and the actual drop shipping company). They just forward your orders and collect a percentage.

And start slowly. Make sure the company your dealing with can provide what you want. Order a few items from them to test the quality and accuracy. Before starting to sell product from one of the vendors we deal with, we ordered several products. They all shipped fast, and were all of good quality. And the company has a good return policy.

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