Dropshipping in the forum?

[Csmiami]

Since the beginning of the lockdown, I've been having different ideas on how I could earn some BTCBTC. I've never been a fan of how the whole "dropshipping" industry works, but I think I've finally managed to see it as something rather good. I'll explain myself with an example, and if there is some rather positive feedback on this, that example will be my first "attempt".

Let's say I organized a raffle of a brand new Trezor One Hardware Wallet. AFAIK, forum raffles are decided on the end hash of a randomly selected block, so there are 16 spots (I currently have started a "lottery" following this principle, take a look if you want to).

Now, what is the idea here? There are 16 spots, so the price per spot is going to be obviously way cheaper than buying the product first hand. In this example, a Trezor One costs 59€; that divided by 16 spots, gives the base price of 3.7€/spot.


Benefits of this? You can win a product paying a lot less than what it actually costs.

Why I am bringing this here to solve doubts if I have the idea so clear and don't post it straight away? I personally don't like the whole dropshipping system, and I feel like some users will complain and even raise scam accusations if they saw a thread/raffle like this one. Why? Because I'd be earning some money doing pretty much.... nothing?

Still, someone has to actually come with the idea first, right? And at the same time, it's a way for crypto users to "buy" products related to crypto without needing to use fiat money (in case it's something sold on a platform not accepting crypto).

Anyway, I'm open to suggestions and constructive criticism as to why this would be a terrible idea, or why not

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[gentlemand]

Someone I knew had a very successful Ebay business drop shipping toys from a local company. Then one day the company must have gotten a monster order from elsewhere because their drop shipping ground to a total halt and they were told it was a two month wait for the items they'd already sold - cue a lot of very pissed off customers and one dead business.

I've noticed that crypto items often have large and sudden delays in supply and they don't seem very good in keeping customers informed of that. They seem to appear out of nowhere.

That would be my main concern if I were doing something like this and your customers would be extremely quick to jump down your throat if it happened.

[mk4]

Though dropshipping has always been in the gray area in terms of reputation, it's completely legal.

With your idea though, while it could work, you could potentially have problems. When you buy the product, I assume the information will be named after you(from your payment information), but just shipped to the winner's address? What if the shipping company asks for personal identification? How would the receiver accept the item then?

I think in this case in your example, a simpler and safer solution would be just instead of "dropshipping" the Trezor device, just send the winner 59€ worth of BTC or PayPal money, and let him/her purchase the item himself/herself.

[Csmiami]

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I'd have never tought about that, thanks for the insight!

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I believe most marketplaces let you use different information for payment and shipping. I've bought stuff for some friends and family on amazon, ebay, aliexpres, wish and some other "big" companies, and I could use my visa to pay and their info on shipping, or their visa with my info.... never had a problem really.

I had also considered buying the item first, and reshipping then, but the problem of international shipping is the price (and delays, loss of packages....). I don't really think that giving the money straight away is the best option, for that I already have the other thread in games and rounds, and thanks to what Darkstar pointed out yesterday, there is a house edge on that (I tought there was none, lol). If someone wants to do it for the money rather than the item, they can simply go to a dice game, and play with those same odds. It will be faster.

[Welsh]

Some drop shipping can be okay, and the whole industry as a whole is largely successful. The issue for me is the vast majority of drop shipping shops found in mainstream advertisements are drop shipping low quality manufactured goods, and are selling them for a premium price. However, I'll admit there's some actually quite good quality products out there, and if you can't afford having actual inventory its definitely a good option. Get in good quality products, and look to upscale the price a little bit is fine by me, as I would unlikely be able to get the prices drop shippers do because they order in bulk.

As for the raffle idea, this is organized fairly regular over in the hardware, and collection sections. Personally, I'd prefer to actually hold the item in my hands, and not approach this with a drop shipping approach, but as long as the rules are clear, and the winner is selected fairly, and that can be verified ideally then I don't see too much problems with it.

[pugman]

The idea seems really cool in concept, but on this forum it wouldn't be as ideal. Usually people want to have proof that the product is with the person itself, and that they could use an escrow as a trustworthy third-party to get the item delivered safely.

I don't know if people will be open to this sort of thing, especially when dropshipping  eliminates the escrow and makes you the third party instead. Now of course, a fourth party could be involved in this for example, where you ship it to the escrow.

Maybe people would really be into it coming from a rather more trustworthy source perhaps. But one has to start from somewhere to become trustworthy I suppose. Give it a go, see how the community responds. Either you'll have a failed raffle or you'll have a successful one. Either way, you won't lose anything I guess.

[mk4]

The idea seems really cool in concept, but on this forum it wouldn't be as ideal. Usually people want to have proof that the product is with the person itself, and that they could use an escrow as a trustworthy third-party to get the item delivered safely.

It's completely fine in my opinion. As long as OP is transparent about it, then why not? And it's not like OP is planning on selling a $4 item for $20. Based on OP's description on the main topic, it's pretty much just like shipping an item to someone straight from the supplier. There's little to no difference between that and OP buying the item from Trezor, and shipping the item himself. It's probably just going to depend if people are actually going to trust OP or not.

[Csmiami]

As for the raffle idea, this is organized fairly regular over in the hardware, and collection sections. Personally, I'd prefer to actually hold the item in my hands, and not approach this with a drop shipping approach, but as long as the rules are clear, and the winner is selected fairly, and that can be verified ideally then I don't see too much problems with it.

The idea seems really cool in concept, but on this forum it wouldn't be as ideal. Usually people want to have proof that the product is with the person itself, and that they could use an escrow as a trustworthy third-party to get the item delivered safely.

As a matter of fact, I do agree that having the item before actually selling it is the best idea. Nevertheless, these will not be "limited" edition goods; they're pretty much products that anyone can buy by themselves. Adding the whole shipping to me first, to then re-ship adds more inconvenience than benefits. Many people won't trust re-shipped hardware wallets, in case they've been tampered with; international shipping is a pain in the ass (and expensive, so price per spot would increase accordingly), and the carbon footprint of shipping something twice is less than optimal. It all depends on the object to be sold/raffled though; as it's not the same to raffle a loaded Casascius than a Ledger Nano

I don't know if people will be open to this sort of thing, especially when dropshipping  eliminates the escrow and makes you the third party instead. Now of course, a fourth party could be involved in this for example, where you ship it to the escrow.

Or.... I could use a escrow to manage the receiving address, and once there is a winner and the product is shipped (or received), the escrow would release the funds. I haven't suggested to collect the coins before buying the product first because I'm (that) broke; but because of the logistics involved in an international (and completely unnecessary) re-shipping. This way, the worst case scenario of me performing an exit scam would be covered. There may be some other reasons not to trust me, but I can't think of something obvious (besides being an anonymous user on a crypto forum, lol) that could be seen as an issue