While product sourcing for eBay is a practically ideal eBay selling strategies for beginners, it does have its fair share of disadvantages: 1.
You need to juggle at least two or three different business relationships at the same time (and the corresponding paperwork).
To have a consistent income, you need to sell at least two or three different types of product at the same time.
Why? Because many types of product are cyclical in nature.
Among the most obvious of these are summer beach gear, winter wear and Christmas toys, which follow the seasons.
But sales of other types of products can rise and fall randomly, e.
g.
entertainment related goods like music CDs and DVD movies.
Yet others are fairly consistent, like cat litter and dog food.
Since many wholesalers for eBay sellers only stock one type of product, (e.
g.
a music CDs dropshipper only stocks music CDs, a pet accessories dropshipper only stocks pet accessories) this means you need to work with at least two or three wholesalers for eBay sellers at the same time.
2.
You need to continuously look for what's hot on eBay and a wholesale dropship supply partner who can supply this product.
The secret of the most successful eBay sellers is that they always sell what's hot on eBay.
To make the big bucks, you need to do the same thing.
You need to do market research to discover the best items to sell on eBay.
Since this can change anytime, you will have to keep on looking for new product sourcing for eBay partners.
Sometimes, you will only work with the vendor once.
Other times, you may work with the same vendor again and again.
3.
You will face a lot of pressure from family and friends.
This business is difficult to explain to other people.
Your loved ones, your friends, people whose opinions matter to you - most of them will never understand what you are doing.
The closest old economy example to eBay sales would be the mail order business.
They, too, faced the problem of trying to explain how they make money to people who don't want to listen or understand.
Unfortunately, as Robert Kiyosaki (of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame) said many times, people in modern society have been conditioned to become workers for other people.
Very few of them have the breadth of mind to accept what you are doing.
This is one reason some eBay sellers give up just as they start to see success in their business - their husband or wife, parents and in-laws put so much pressure on them to go find a job with a large company that they just give up.
4.
You don't get paid immediately! Your product sourcing for eBay will not pay you immediately for your sales.
Depending on their commission structure, there may be a one or two month delay before they pay you.
Many vendors have a minimum sales threshold - some may be as little as $100, others as high as $1000 or more.
On top of that, many wholesalers for eBay sellers only pay up at the end of the month or the beginning of the month.
And some vendors don't have a direct debit/credit facility, only sending checks to their partners through registered mail.
In other words, you could potentially earn $1000 of commission on the 15th of the month, your partner writes the check for you on the 5th of the following month (because they need time to process everything), and the postal service finally delivers the check to your mailbox on the 12th.
One more thing you want to be careful of - some vendors withhold 10% of your commission every month to cater for returned products and cancelled orders.
They only release this money the next month.
Of course, this amount varies.
Some companies withhold more, some less, some not at all.
5.
Too easy to give up.
Using the product sourcing for eBay strategy, you spend very little money up front.
To some people, this becomes an excuse to let their old habits overtake them and give up on the business.
No one ever said running a business is easy.
While the product sourcing for eBay strategy is very forgiving of mistakes, it has its fair share of problems.
You will need to make your own decision.