Can You Make Money on EBay Using Doba Product Sourcing?
Good question! There are actually two questions here to deal with:
Can you make money on eBay using Doba product sourcing?
and,
Can you make money using Doba?
Doba would certainly like you to believe that you can make money on eBay using its dropshipping service, afterall, Doba promotes itself as an eBay resource. However, Doba is owned by eBay, so it makes sense that it would promote itself. And then, this is ironic because using dropshippers is supposedly, last I understood, against the eBay TOS.
Something else to consider is the Doba monthly fee, $49.95 for the Start Up package, and $59.95 for the Advanced. I mention the monthly subcription price because it is an additional cost to take into consideration when figuring your overhead. Remember, too, that you will have to factor the cost of eBay auction fees and shop fees when calculating overhead.
On the Doba “Free Trial” page, you will find some examples of products with the Doba price, an eBay selling price, and the difference between the Doba and eBay selling price. Doba lists the difference as your profit. But this is a misreprentation because this does not take into account the eBay insertion fees, final value fees, fees for extras, and PayPal/merchant processor fees.
When I look at the Doba site, it appears to be offering a great service. That is, access to thousands of suppliers, thousands of products, a site fully loaded with 120,000 products, training, and more. However, when I consider the cost of doing business on eBay plus the competition from sellers purchasing their inventory in bulk from liquidated stock suppliers, I have to seriously question whether or not this is the best business strategy for me. One other reservation I have is that Doba is suggesting that you go straight to eBay without any product research. If you are strongly considering using Doba as a resource to sell on eBay, at least do the market research to figure out which Doba products are likely to do well, roughly what you can expect to make in profit for your product line, how much the auctions are going to cost you, and be sure to figure out projections for monthly expenses and budget. Personally, I would not advise using Doba or any other giant warehouse dropshipper, such as Mega Goods or Dropship Design, to sell on eBay, but that’s just me.
Let’s consider the second question, Can you make money with Doba? Here, I am much more optimistic, though there is still a lot to think about. Too much, really, for this short blog post. But, once we leave the eBay market place and start selling to people who may not use eBay, the Doba discounted prices become much more attractive. It still pays to do the research to figure out who your customer populations are and which products are likely to sell. Doba, afterall, advertises a site stocked with 120,000 products, and that represents many different product niches. Please give thought to how you plan to use the resource. Again, you also need to calculate expense and budget projections so you know whether or not you are making money. Keep in mind that you’ll be responsible for finding your markets, promoting your site and generally driving targetted traffic to your business. Don’t just think that because you have a site stocked with cool stuff that people will throw their credit card at you. I don’t want to be negative, I think ecommerce is great, requires minimal investment and is generally a relatively low cost way to get into business. But it does take thought, persistence, and it helps if you love what you are doing.
Ultimately, the question of whether or not you can make money with Doba product sourcing comes back to you. Can you make it make money?
You may want to consider looking into alternate product distributors for wholesale, dropship, liquidation closeout, and manufacturer goods. Have you considered a good online wholesale directory with an active forum? Personally, if you happen to like sheer volume of information, I would find a good wholesale directory that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and sign up. There are some directories that are very good, and just because they cost money doesn’t mean they’re not legitimate. World Wide Brands has a very good reputation. It is also very expensive. Salehoo is another reputable directory but much less expensive. At some point, you’ll have to be willing to invest in your business.
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Umm.. where did you get the idea that Ebay owned Doba? If you actually did your research you will see that there are Three co-founders have nothing to do with eBay and is privately owned. EBay is a publicly traded company.