[K4Lic0]

If I have a dropshipping account with a company and I sell their products on eBay, would I need a resellers permit?

[mxer210]

That's basically an oxymoron, Selling on ebay and dropshipping. It just doens't work unless a musuem dropships their collectibles for you. Dropshippers have high prices, which is the problem. eBay is meant for stuff people don't want, (newor used) or businesses who have items on clearance, and want to sell them as loss leaders, or get rid of teh stuff that doens't sell.

Yes, reseller permits are required. It basically lets you get stuff tax free from the supplier, and also allows you to report taxes, whcih is required by law.

[Aletheides]

It all depends on the product.

I've heard of people buying items @ Costco and selling them on Ebay for 2x what they paid.

[teana]

You would need a resellers permit regardless if you sell your products on ebay or anywhere else. Most dropshippers require this because they need to submit sales tax info to the irs and their states board of equalization.

As for dropshipping on ebay, I know many people that do this. Technically you aren't supposed to do this because its against their policy for you to list something that you don't have, but a lot of people do it and they do it very successfully.

The way to really make money off of ebay is usually off of the shipping prices. You aren't supposed to do this either but its become common practice. That's why you'll see items that sell for like $1.99 but the shipping is like $9.99 or something. The total price is just a bit lower than what youd buy retail. But this circumvents the ebay fees because they only take commission from the sale price, not including the shipping and handling.

You just have to make sure that you can manage your listings. The companies that make money doing these things is by using auction managers like Channeladvisor.com or auctionworks.com.

We were looking into this for some other products but figured that it just wasn't worth it because when you factor in all of these services, your take is very low. You really need to do volume to make some money.

[Outta Hand]

Ebay = cheap goods... i mean most people look at ebay as a great sales tools and it is but most times people people try to do what everyone else is doing.... and that is... selling stuf on ebay and expecting profts to roll in. It really depends firstly on your business idea and model if ebay fits into it nicely then fine and if not then keep looking.

[pentupentropy]

Let me throw this in the ring... guy I knew went through some company he found god knows where. It turned out not only could he not make any money on the stuff they had for him, but they were importing it illegally.

Be real careful about wo you buy from if you're going to sell on ebay.

Also, I use ebay a lot. My wife uses it even more. If I'm buying something new, I'm looking for a good deal on it on ebay. Rarely have I seen this with new stuff, especially electronics, unless they were stolen. It can be a handy marketing tool, but it's not an easy game. For that matter, no business is unless you happen to have an awesome idea and it's the first of it's kind. Even then, sometimes... just food for thought I guess.