Sourcing: Reddit Author: Sammy
I've been dropshipping on eBay for seven years and have scaled my business to selling hundreds of thousands of products to date. I'm making this post because I've noticed many newcomers tend to overcomplicate the process.
I still remember the first day I started dropshipping. It was 7 years ago, during the Christmas season, late at night around 2 AM, snow falling outside. Completely broke while working my security job, I pulled out my smartphone and watched a YouTube video about dropshipping on eBay. I thought, "This will never work. Who would buy the item on eBay when they can get it cheaper on Amazon?" Despite my doubts, I gave it a shot. I created my eBay account, saw another person selling a snow globe, searched for it on Amazon, found it, took screenshots of the image, copied the title, and listed it at a higher price on eBay.
The next day, during my night shift, I received a notification that the snow globe I had listed had sold. My mind was blown. I went home, logged onto my computer, went to Amazon, purchased the item, and shipped it directly to the customer's address. I had just made $10. Mind blown.
Here are the 7 steps I used to make my first sale:
Step 1:
Create an eBay account.
Step 2:
Visit Amazon and find a product you think will sell well, such as a snow globe.
Step 3:
Create a listing on eBay.
Step 4:
Copy the title, description, and images from Amazon and paste them into your eBay listing. If the price on Amazon is $10, list it on eBay for $20. Make slight changes to the title to make it unique.
Step 5:
Offer free shipping and free returns.
Step 6:
List the item for sale.
Step 7:
Repeat the process until you reach 10,000 listings.
That's it. That's all I did, and I kept repeating it over and over. There's no need to overcomplicate things. While there are ways to optimize the process, increase sales, and boost profitability, this is where it starts.
P.S: I did get lucky that the first item I ever listed sold, which sparked a seven-year journey. However, over the years, if executed correctly, the 7 steps outlined above have worked on every single account I've created, as well as for my friends, family, and community. If you're not lucky, make your own luck.
Comments:
C1
I started dropshipping Ebay, the same day I got banned. Asked Ebay reddit why, they said it was because i dropshipped. That was a fun run.
OP
It’s best you asked a specialized community. Most people who give advice on Reddit have no business doing so
Now it is over for me, no way to get unbanned. But I’d absolutely try again if there is a way.
I thought eBay allowed drop shipping?
OP
They do
Only to suppliers you have accounts with and it cannot be anywhere your buyer can purchase the items there selfs from such as Amazon
C2
This 2010 method is like to read post from the archives
OP
Haha it works today.
You list 10k product and sale once a week
OP
The average is 1 item per day per thousand listings. Is there a reason behind your strong feeling?
So that’s mean you sale 2k a month profit should be 25%
OP
The profit depends on your markup
Even if your profit is 35% it’s still a minimum wage in Africa
OP
Then don’t do it… or make more money, it’s a business, you decide how much you make
But they take a whopping 15% 2which is most of the times half of the profit
C3
Has Amazon ever cancelled your account if you are shipping to another address using your Prime account?
OP
This happens but only once you start generating a strong income.
In that event, you just make a new Amazon account.
When you get this problem, you are already making a strong income dropshipping and the solution is simple.
When you make a new account after being banned, do you use the same name, address, and etc.?
OP
No
So where do you get the new account, name, and address. Thanks!
OP
No problem, I have a very thorough video on how to do it on my YouTube channel, just watch that, but imo theirs no point learning this until you actually need it
How can I find your YouTube channel?
OP
On my profile
C4
this is an incredibly low effort post in addition to being an incredibly lazy business plan, this will not work for 99% of people. dropshipping course in your profile description as well.
its just designed to get newbies to follow him, and we all wonder by dropshipping has a bad name :S
in my country, they also sell ebooks and classes for this shit. they make money from there instead of the drop shipping 🤣
That’s the entire premise to get rich quick schemes—you buy a course, they get rich
OP
It is not a low quality post, it is a post intended for absolute beginners. I work with people all the time. As long as their foundation is set, they can grow from there. I stripped out the steps to the absolute foundation, so someone can read this and feel they can do it.
It is a low quality post and a terrible business plan because breaking TOS like this gets lazy people banned from both platforms all the time
C5
Share your eBay store name. You say you list anything and have done it with multiple accounts. It would be really easy to show an example of this working.
OP
We already have YouTube videos, of us doing it live.
Ok. If it’s already live can I get the eBay store name so I can see it too? If it’s already recorded there shouldn’t be anything holding you back
You just want people to view your video. This is the laziest attempt at a hustle. I have seen. It’s beyond obvious what you’re doing, and it’s not a business drop shipping. According to you the profit margin is like 10 dollars a month. Your real hustle is the biggest clout chase in the laziest most obvious manner
OP
Hey! I’m not sure what you mean here, I post videos daily showing my sales and how much profit I make on each sale.
You know what I mean! You claim this post is to help. Yet, every time someone asks a direct question. You refer them to your YouTube page to watch your videos or to your page for further instructions. Why not just answer it? You’re like that comment under a viral Instagram post by well followed people .. that tells some sob story and at the end it’s about working from home and making millions.
If you’re gonna run game try not to be obvious about it
OP
My friend I’m not sure what you have against me, everything I post is from my experience with ebay, and I dropship live and show everything so theirs no confusion. I’m sorry your not happy with my post, I hope you find what your looking for
C6
In my country prices on eBay is cheaper than Amazon.
OP
It doesn’t matter. People will buy from you assuming it’s cheaper.
C7
You have Amazon ship it to your buyer? Doesn’t it arrive in an Amazon box?
OP
They don’t care. They assume someone just reused an Amazon box.
Does eBay care? I thought I saw a post from someone on here saying eBay was removing their listings of Amazon products.
Yeah they care, they dont allow using other platforms as a source.
Bad for their image and amount of support work.
OP
If you’re a bad seller ebay will purge you. Do good to your customers, and ebay will be good to you
C8
Why would someone buy from eBay for more than Amazon? I have so many questions, I’m intrigued and would love to hear more
OP
It’s very intriguing! But it’s the same reason that all Dropshipper’s exist.
It’s because they don’t know!
They wouldn’t be just wants ppl to watch his YouTube
C9
You missed a few steps on how to get an account that lets you make 10 000 listings.
That would be more helpful than the rest of that post...
OP
You make a business account. The purpose of the post is to remove the complexity for beginners who are trying to get started. They don’t need the answer to that question, until they reach that obstacle.
I made many posts on nuance issues on ebay, but the post above is how someone can get started today.
You do not just get 10k as a new business account...
OP
You do
Again this is the kinda steps that would actualy be useful.
You can be an established business and still just get a few hundread as a business account.
You do not automaticly just get 10k.
OP
I understand how you feel, but I already gave the solution.
Here is a case study on this topic. Case Study
Nothing was about or based on how i feel, so not sure what you are supposed to understand about it.
You are just deflecting from answering about your false claim.
So you’ll watch his YouTube
OP
Sorry you feel that way.
Ebay made a change in 2023, where new accounts registered as a business get a huge limit increase, 50k+.
You can do a google or YouTube search and find dozens of examples of this mate. Good luck
Im just sorry for those buying a tool from somebody that cant even be honest in representing its use.
Lieing in sales attempts does not exactly promise well for the quality of the tool.
From your other answers in thread you dont even know how the search results work...
C10
Step 2:
Visit Amazon and find a product you think will sell well, such as a snow globe.
that's all?? sounds easy
OP
Keep repeating till you sell something
Why not AliExpress
OP
I just never tried it
C11
yeah okay, but wouldn’t the people receive an amazon package at their door? Would that screw up anything at all or does it not matter?
OP
Does not matter
C12
In light of the packaging worry, couldn't you do this for any ol eBay store as well?
OP
You bet you could
C13
This is just common knowledge. And nothing special.
OP
Right? Isn’t it ridiculous how people complain they’re not making money when it’s such common sense , what they have to do.
There's too many grey areas. Refunds, exchanges, breaking TOS on multiple platforms. Then the effort to carry out your scheme.
OP
Sorry you feel that way
C14
But you need to purchase the Amazon item with your own money right? As even if you sell an item on eBay you won't get money transferred in straight after?
OP
You get it the next day when your account is established.
C15
Great, makes sense. And how do you go about selecting products? Do you have a criteria?
OP
I do have ways i optimize my product selection. However, Everything sells. Somethings sell faster. When you list 10k items, things will sell guaranteed.
What’s more important than choosing products, is listing items. Listing items make those new items to appear at top of search.
It sounds like this is doable to get a customer… once. Doesn’t the item arrive in a box marked Amazon? What do you tell them about that ( if they bother to ask). Oh, I recycle cardboard?
OP
That we use a multi channel fulfillment centre (avoid the question)
Ahhh. The assumption you leave them with is… fulfillment packed it in the wrong box. Brilliant.
C16
Would you manually have to type in every buyers info to Amazon? Would you supply them with tracking? Wouldn’t all the addresses/customer names clog up your Amazon account?
OP
Yes, you can Manually type it. You don’t need to upload tracking. You can delete addresses after you use them
Why don’t you need to upload tracking? Wouldn’t it cause problems?
OP
No, ebay doesn’t force sellers to
C17
So you fulfill the order on amazon for the customer right?
I thought amazon doesn’t allow sending to 3rd party addresses.
OP
They do it’s called gift orders
C18
What happens when ebay customers returned the items?
OP
You send them the amazon return label, which is free.
C19
Surely this cant work still ?
No it dosent, or if it does its a very very short window for a specific few who can play ebay
OP
It’s working now
C20
Will not work in 2024.. Bans from Ebay and Amazon
OP
I don’t have issues, I’ve been doing this for awhile
C21
So what, do you buy the item on Amazon and ship it to the eBay customer? Sounds kind of annoying
OP
That’s how it works. It isn’t.
C22
This wont work in 2024 :)
OP
Course it works.
No it dosent, its the quickest way to get your Amazon and Ebay account banned along with any accounts linked to them. There is also no expansion and continus risk and not to mention feeding the fire that dropshipping is poor and giving all dropshippers a bad name.
Best to do it properly and find good suppliers :)
C23
Amazon is not always the cheapest place to buy something
OP
We change the title so we don’t compete in pricing
C24
How do you get the product? Just buying it from Amazon? I’m sure there’s a cheaper way.
OP
Maybe there is, I don’t know them
C25
How to you deal with fulfillment of large quantities?
OP
I have employees that order the items for me now. If you get to have this issue, it means you are doing well, and the solutions are simple.
And all of these are gift orders?
OP
They are
What are gift orders?
OP
You can send gifts to people on amazon
Oh so choose gift when putting in the buyers info?
And it will have a little slip inside saying "Here is your gift from X person" With the Amazon logo on, people get quite annoyed when they read this :S
I’m really broke right now and lost my job, what products do you suggest selling to make money quick?
OP
I don’t know. I just list whatever I see. You should do the same.
Healthy and Beauty has always been a good one
Thanks homie. What percent do you mark up?
So is something is $9.99 you charge $9.99?
No that's just 100%, not 100% mark up. Mark up is what you add to the base price, so 9.99 plus 100% mark up is 19.98.
C26
So, if you sell something, do you buy it and ship it to the person with the money they give you?
OP
Yep
C27
Doesn't it come in amazon packaging though?
OP
Yes
C28
The trick is what you said at step 2. You’re basically selling another person product for tiny reward. It’s not even worth it.
OP
We make 10$-100$ per order
C29
I remember that Amazon delivery would attach a receipt. What if your customer saw the receipt from Amazon? Did you use gift options?
OP
They don’t care, the majority of shoppers on ebay are older
Here are some related articles that may interest you：
1. How I Did 700K in Total Sales WITHOUT ADS (upvotes: 557)
2. Found my first 10k+ winner! (upvotes: 221)
3. Here's how to find a "breakout" product (upvotes: 191)
4. Effective Facebook Ads Strategy by Shopify Suppliers for Dropshipping Success (upvotes: 240)
How I Started My eBay Dropshipping Business in 10 Minutes Using These 7 Steps
byu/Sammy-Ecom indropship