The perils of dropshipping/fulfillment on eBay

StaffsSW

A lot of lessons can be learnt from this example - http://www.tamebay.com/2009/07/ebay-former-seller-drstevew-talks-to-tamebay.html

It also demonstrates how a successful business can be the victim of external forces through no fault of their own.

dollydoodah

Sorry to hear that, Steve.

soolin

Relying on third parties is a necessary evil for many successful businesses and it is always a shame to see how one change of business model can affect a whole chain of people.

Guinness_is_good_for_you

Yeah, the DVD business is pretty bad at the moment. We are still having problems at work since SGolds went. It's so hard to buy at good prices at the moment. Hope things get better soon as a lot of people are being affected by this.

StaffsSW

Guinness_is_good_for_you wrote: »

Yeah, the DVD business is pretty bad at the moment. We are still having problems at work since SGolds went. It's so hard to buy at good prices at the moment. Hope things get better soon as a lot of people are being affected by this.

DVD is a dying format - High Def formats and digital download is quickly catching up, and in the media industry, there is never a comeback. Vinyl found it's own level in a niche market, but has never seen, nor will ever see, a return to previous sales levels.

There will always be a specialist collectors market, but the money is in the mainstream, and the mainstream is always changing.

Hintza

Well good luck Steve.

I myself have done no trading since Christmas. I used to get a 10% discount from one of my suppliers which they stopped offering. One of my other suppliers was sending me too much junk that was getting returned and costing too much to handle. My last supplier had problems getting stock and the margins got hammered over Christmas. The major retaulers were selling the stuff cheaper than I could buy it.

I have spent the last few months trying to get some planning permission through but things are starting to hurt and once the school holidays are over I will havbe to get my backside in gear!

Just to clarify I sold 99% via Amazon in recent years (3) as I found EBay too tricky to make any return on.

Guinness_is_good_for_you

stevew8975 wrote: »

DVD is a dying format - High Def formats and digital download is quickly catching up, and in the media industry, there is never a comeback. Vinyl found it's own level in a niche market, but has never seen, nor will ever see, a return to previous sales levels.

There will always be a specialist collectors market, but the money is in the mainstream, and the mainstream is always changing.

I agree that it's not as big of a market as it used to be, but most people still buy it, as not many can aford / want to spend much more to get a blu-ray player/discs, and still there's a bit of a "bad reputation" related to downloading even from a legal source imo.
DVDs sales where i work have been good and we've been getting lots of requests for some titles (mostly european/art house films) that we can't get anywhere since SGolds went into administration (we can't get another supplier that offers something apart from "big blockbuster films" at a good price)
I personally think DVDs will still do ok for a few years untill blu-ray or some other format gives a good value option.

StaffsSW

DVD's will certainly continue to sell - but margins are much less than we've enjoyed in the past, meaning volume will have to increase, or costs have to be cut.
Now that ebay have mandated Free P&P on DVD's, it will either reduce margisn for volume sellers, or increase prices/reduce sales for lower volume sellers.
It's such a tempestuous and turbulent market at the moment.