Dropshipping Made Me Realize that I've Been Selling All My Life!

Recently, I accidentally wrote a book on the topic of dropshipping. I know you're probably thinking: "What?" Believe me, I can imagine how that must sound.

It's a long story, and in an effort to relate my experience about it, I shared the story: Why I Did a Deep-Dive Into Dropshipping and What Happened When I Did!

Apparently, after reading the story on Medium, my buddy Paul van Gool, a loyal reader and longtime follower, asked this, in response to the story: 

"Is your book only based on your research or have you real experience with dropshipping. Here in The Netherlands dropshipping is getting increasing bad reviews, mainly because of those who hide what they are doing and by such harming buyers."

I replied back and explained to Paul, I don't have "real experience", just like I disclaim in the 67-page guidebook that was merely supposed to be a cheat sheet and helpful resource for myself.

I make it perfectly clear that my interest in learning whatever I could about the dropshipping industry is how the book came about.

I also made a point to thank him for the thought provoking comment about the Netherlands, and assured him I'd be checking out that particular aspect of things in the future - and I will.

My goal was never to come off as a dropshipping expert, and I cringe even at the thought of possibly being viewed as a fraud or insincere. As you will see after reading this story, I actually have quite an extensive background with selling. Even some of the terminology and activities specific to being a dropshipper were familiar to me. But I don't claim to know the business, no more than what I've gathered from my research.

Anyway, with that said, in spite of the possible implication in my title, obviously I'm not writing the story you're currently reading, to claim that I'm a new dropshipper and suddenly I'm an overnight success, because I'm not.

I'm writing to elaborate further on why I wrote the book, once I began considering the possibility that dropshipping might be the new financial venture I needed. With an unexpected decrease in my finances this past year, I've been seeking something else to generate an online income and make my retirement days more awesome.

But I've begun to ponder what initially made me think I might want to get into dropshipping to begin with, particularly since the process of writing the book has managed to trigger all those warm and fuzzy feelings I get about being an author working on my next book release. I miss that.

Suddenly, I find myself desiring to write more books, even as I question whether I was presumptuous to write about ecommerce.

Just what was it about the idea of dropshipping that pulled me in anyway, apart from the obvious :

"With a dropshipping business, once you get things set up, you'll have yourself a 24/7 online store; a store with the potential to continuously earn you money all day and all night." Justiss Goode - Best Beginners Guide to Starting anOnline Dropshipping Business.

Pondering over my initial inspiration is what led me to realize what I said in the title of this story. 

For as long as I can remember, "I've been a seller" and the art of selling (accompanied by a genuine love of people and the gift of gab) has always been a big part of who I am.

For example, I took a walk down Memory Lane, and thought about all the jobs and entrepreneur ventures I previously engaged in over the years, all of which required me to sell something.

Notice what my prior selling experience has been.

My entrepreneur spirit has been with me always

I guess I never really thought about it until now, but my entrepreneur spirit has always been with me. And the part of salesman always played a role, when I wasn't trying to run some other type of business (Like the time I had a 20 line phone system installed in my home for my "Thank You For Calling" answering service).

All my life I've been a go getter, and not afraid to try different ventures. Here are some of my most memorable selling activities.

Telemarketing selling- In 1976 - the year I graduated high school, my first job (not counting babysitting) was as a telemarketer, selling "bicentennial" ink pens in bulk, to businesses. The pens had the name and location of the businesses, so they could give them away as promotional items to their customers.

Another telemarketing job was for "Together" dating service - a company I worked for less than a month, when I realized they were unscrupulous and scamming the lonely people they had me soliciting to purchase memberships. 

Campus Referral Business - While attending Junior college, I ran my own referral biz and sold paid listings, utilizing the campus message boards to compile information and connect those in need, with people who had what they needed.

Weekly yard sales - I used to hold weekly yard sales that started out just once a week, and was successful enough to ultimately conduct 3 times a week, once I began tapping into the convenient foot traffic headed to a nearby Auction House less than a block away. In addition to the other items I began accumulating for the sale, I even ended up getting hold of a few pieces of antique furniture that sold really well.

It was laborious work, hauling everything out and putting it all back at the end of the day (not to mention finding places in the house where I could put everything), but I loved it. I felt like a real business owner.

Selling used books on Amazon - This was something I started, that snowballed into way more than I planned on doing, but I really embraced everything the process involved. Being the writer that I am, naturally I even wrote a book about it all. It's a bit outdated, but it's still available on Amazon.

Sell Used Books Online (How to Make Money Selling Your Old Books)

Just like I did with the yard sales, I absolutely loved selling books on Amazon, even when it came to wrapping and distribution. Unlike my self published digital books I had on sell on Amazon at the time, the used books were actual inventory I was storing, and I had a lot of it.

Thanks to my son's obsession over the previous years, with comics and graphic novels, the regular trips to the conventions that him and his friends made, resulted in a big source of my book inventory at the time. But I also had friends and neighbors giving me used books left and right, besides the ones I went out and stumbled onto at thrift stores.

My book business did well, and it felt good taking weekly trips to the Post Office, at least 3–4 times, even though I could have signed up for Filled By Amazon (FBA), an option that is still available to Amazon sellers even now.

This book selling venture of mine pretty much ended thanks to Covid, and after the pandemic, I wasn't too keen on resuming it. In fact, I currently have huge boxes of Graphic novels still (cluttering up my closets). 

Those were the major incidents of me being in "seller" mode in my life, but there were many others.

• I sold goldfish on an island in the street near my house (after having several dozen small gold fish bowls left over from my yard sale days)
• I made and sold holiday baskets (artificial flowers, etc) on that same island in the street

Once, me and a good friend of mine tried to go into the cookie business when we came up with our famous "Nutbuster" cookie (Pecans, almonds, walnuts, Hazelnuts, peanuts and coconut). LOL

We made one huge batch and tried to take them to a festival to sell, but between me, her, and our kids, by the time we made it to the park, there wasn't enough left to even bother with, so we ate them all. 😄

Yep! Good times. Good times…

Final Thoughts

Now that I understand myself a little better, and why the ideal of dropshipping was so appealing to me, it's prompting me to take a real hard look at the various aspects of ecommerce.

My activities and various efforts at affiliate marketing over the years is yet another indication of where my obvious strengths and talents lie. My past limited success with Ebay, Clickbank, and even being an Amazon Associate, has taught me that I'm capable of making money with these opportunities. 

I'm still not sure if I'll be going into the dropshipping field, even after having written and publishing a book on the topic, but one thing is certain to me now. 

My online future clearly involves selling. Apparently, it's what I do best.

Thanks for reading…

By the way folks: