Comments

# Jonathan Yudin said on January 25, 2007 8:20 PM:

The main reason I used Valor Corp. was because of the drop shipping policy. Your prices for tackle for tackle are more expensive than my other wholesalers. I am disappointed that I will have to lessen my business with Valor Corp. Jonathan Yudin jyudin@gmail.com

# Shannon said on January 26, 2007 2:06 PM:

Ouch...that's about twice what my other drop-shippers charge as a drop-ship fee.  This is seriously going to limit the amount of business I can do with y'all since that's a mark-up I can't pass on to my customers and keep competitive prices, except on high end items.

# Ted Koppel said on January 27, 2007 2:17 PM:

I've been working day and night downloading all of your fishing products. Now I guess I'll have to go back and eliminate all the items that can't cover the extreme drop ship charges. I can appreciate your need for a fee but just image, if we sell a $9.95 item with a $2.00 margin and have to fork out $5.00 to get it shipped? Why bother? Consider figuring what percentage of your gross sales cost is handling and add it to the price structure. Makes a lot more sense.

# philip said on January 27, 2007 3:15 PM:

every time i start to try and sell your items, you change the rules. i just started with you last year, and just when i thought things were going to go well, you implemented the fee for orders less than $9.99. now, i was just preparing to open an e-store for fishing and i see this change taking effect 2/1. that handling fee will just about make it impossible to sell your items.

# Ben said on January 27, 2007 8:53 PM:

Keep in mind we don't soley drop ship.  We sell to dealers and stores across the country and around the world that stock our products.  If you are serious about being in this business, stocking a few hundred $$ of your best selling items shouldn't be such a problem.  You are making very clear the main  problem most manufacturers and dealers have with drop shipping.  You want to be in the business without putting a dime into it.

Buy $500 worth of you  best selling sub $10 items, and you'd theoretically sell 50 orders out of those items and save $5 in fees per order by shipping it yourself. Plus save the freight from us on $500 or more order.  By doing this, you'd make an extra $250 on those orders + the freight saved..  If I were drop shipping and trying to build my business, I would do it that way to make every extra penny I could.

# Steve said on January 28, 2007 12:15 AM:

I completely understand the drop ship fee on say orderes under $100 but when you add it to all orders, it makes it tuff to swallow.  I think one of the things that has been overlooked is that by keeping you prices low your customers can offer a much larger selection of products to sell.  I don't have a problem keeping some products in stock but if I want to stock all of the products, I might as well open a brick and mortar store and negotiate deals directly with the manufacturers.

Valor fills a niche that allows me to make several orders each year.  These orders are very price sensitive and I can't help but wonder if the intent is to price yourselves so high that you get out of the drop shipping business ( i hope not).

# Joe said on January 28, 2007 2:09 AM:

Simply put. This puts me out of business. It just might do the same to you. Not to be spiteful, but since you just killed mine I'm hoping that it negatively impacts yours so drastically that you drop this insane policy. You have seriously underestimated how much your business depends on customers like me. Frankly, I'm pissed!

# Jonathan yudin said on January 28, 2007 6:23 AM:

Ben-

  That makes sense IF Valor Corps prices on tackle were better than other wholesalers. But they are not! Why would I buy for stock when your prices aren't the cheapest? The reason we use valor is for dropshipping. It doesn't make financial sense otherwise!

# Ben said on January 28, 2007 8:48 AM:

Joe,  thanks for the comments, I'll keep that in mind.

Funny, we certainly sell quite a few tackle dealers at our prices.  Maybe we're too high for you to sell online at rediculously low margins.  But I don't think that's the case either as we have quite a few successful online dealers as customers too.  I don't think we'll be going out of business because of this as drop shipping is not our main business.  With some of these comments, I don't even feel as bad about it any more.

For anybody that wants to sell online with no overhead and stock no items to think that a fee is going to put them out of business, then they are not charging enough.  If you are selling at margins that don't allow you to absorb a $5 charge then you are not selling the items at a high enough price which is exactly the problem with some drop shippers in the first place.

# Sam Danielson said on January 28, 2007 10:45 AM:

Ben-

  Your snide remarks "I don't think we'll be going out of business because of this as drop shipping is not our main business.  With some of these comments, I don't even feel as bad about it any more." are truly unappreciated for those of us who rely on drop shipping for business. You need to reevaluate the way you speak with loyal customers. I am sure Roberta Higgins would never speak to a customer like that. SHAME ON YOU!

# Buck & Bass Pro Shops said on January 28, 2007 12:20 PM:

I own a brick & mortar store in NC. I myself have never used drop shipping for the main reason I want to see and handle the merchandise myself. The drop ship fee Valor  is starting is for good reason. We ship worldwide from our store and let me tell you the shipping is high. For Valor to ship YOUR products to YOUR customer without YOU touching any merchandise for 5.00 plus shipping should make the persons who uses drop shipping very happy. I also have other wholesalers that I use that also offers drop shipping to their customers but their minimum order is between 500-2500 per order. Please don't put Valor down this company has done so much for us just look at all the great programs that ben has done for us no other wholesalers will do that. The grass isn't greener on the other side. I should Know I have been in this business for 10+ years.

# Ron O. said on January 28, 2007 2:35 PM:

Ben,

I've been trying to implement your products into my site for the past year with some growing success. This is primarily because of the no drop ship charge policy that allows me to price compete with the larger discount sites.  It is unfair of you to say that we are selling at to low a margin. If I must add $5 to all the orders, even just those under $100, I will no longer be competitve with Bass Pro, Cabellas, or even our local WalMart brick and mortar.  If this is your policy, I will have to find a more affordable supplier to remain competitive.  

# Kevin said on January 28, 2007 3:13 PM:

Our company has been in business for about 6 years using both brick and mortor store and internet. Mostly internet. We only started using Valor mid last year. However over the years we have learned alot about drop shipping and its effects on profits. Drop shipping is a great idea only if the company demands that the sellers use minimum order pricing. There are sellers (mainly on ebay) willing to list items for 1% profit. When you have a B&M store it is impossible to compete, also impossible for websites who would like to make a fair profit. I have seen great items lose all value because sellers are willing to sell at such low margins. This hurts everyone! Valor has it right and actually should stop dropshipping entirely. When this happens, you will see the prices climb and profits soar, since this will eliminate sellers who are unwilling to stock anything. Our company used to use drop shippers entirely at about 15% margins. We have since eliminated almost all dropshippers and now have nearly a 100% markup. Hopefully all current dropshippers will follow valors lead. Its better for the long run. Maybe in the future Valor will consider using MAP for all their items. This would eliminate conflicts with their dealers and leave a healthy profit.

# Ben said on January 28, 2007 6:01 PM:

Sam,  I apologize for those remarks.  When someone posts they hope you go out of business, it makes you a little angry.  I appreciate all of you that drop ship with us and hope we can all work through these changes.

# Steve said on January 28, 2007 8:09 PM:

Ben- Take a look at the people with positive comments, they all have brick and mortar stores and know that this increase in price reduces their competition. One idiot even suggested that all drop shippers should stop so that he wouldn't have any internet competition. I absolutely believe in a free market, in that if Valor prices itself out of the market for drop shippers then another business will open to fill this market. If not a new business then one of the companies in the market will increase market share. It's my responsibility to find the lowest price for the products I sell to maximize my profit to grow my business. If Valor doesn't fit in this picture then it's their choice. My job is to look for vendors that appreciate my business as much as I appreciate my customers business.

# Ben said on January 28, 2007 9:16 PM:

Steve - No brick and mortar likes drop shippers, that's always been the case.  We have lost brick and mortar customers because we drop ship.  With some of the prices out there on certain items, who can blame them.  You are absolutely right about finding the lowest price for your products.  If our fees price us out for some people, then that's what happens.  It certainly doesn't mean we don't appreciate our customers' business.  We can't continue to do business that is not good finacially for us simply to keep everybody happy.

# Don said on January 29, 2007 11:37 AM:

I don't have a problem with a REASONABLE fee. But $5.00 puts you at one of the highest in the dropshipping arena. A more reasonable fee would be $3.00. I can absorb that on a $50.00 sale, but the $5.00 lowers my margin to a point to not make it worth pursuing. Yup! $2.00 makes the difference!

# Jesse said on January 30, 2007 12:50 PM:

Ben, I'm very disappointed in this new drop-ship policy. I sell a lot of very small items in my e-commerce store (multi-tools, small pocket knives, and flashlights), all under $100, and most in the $10-$50 range. I can't absorb the additional drop-ship fees due to my already low margin of profit on these items. I built my online store as a small "niche" site using Valor as my sole supplier. I already stock some of the smaller items due to the $9.95 min order policy implemented last year, but as a home-based business, I have no desire (and no place) to store larger stock quantities or open a "brick and mortar" business. When you say things like “If you are selling at margins that don't allow you to absorb a $5 charge then you are not selling the items at a high enough price,” I’m frankly insulted. Honestly, you don’t exactly offer the lowest wholesale pricing, but your (up to now) great drop-ship service allowed me to be somewhat competitive, albeit marginally. Even with my pricing, I'm already finding it very difficult to compete with the likes of Target, Wal-Mart, Lowe's and other large discounters who carry many of the same products I do, but at a lower price. Obviously, these guys get the very best wholesale prices. In some cases, Target et.al. sell their multi-tools and other products for less than I can buy it from you, so the only real advantage I can offer customers is the convenience of ordering online, and a good product selection. As Ted Koppel suggested, it would make more since to figure what percentage of your gross sales cost is handling and add it to the price structure. Your arrogance is simply astounding when you say “…you want to be in the business without putting a dime into it." What??? I've put a lot of money and hard work into building my online business, and for you to presume I don't want to put "a dime into it" shows a real insensitivity and lack of understanding of your customers. How do you know what my business model is anyway? Due to your new “reasonable” drop ship fee, it apparently won’t include Valor Corp! Jesse

# Ben said on January 30, 2007 1:17 PM:

Jesse,

I'm sorry if you took offense to my comment about being in the business without putting a dime into it.  I obviously didn't mean every drop shipper.  As I have already said, there are many drop shippers we enjoy a great relationship with.  Most of whom have no problem at all implementing this fee.

But I have received quite nasty emails and posts in the forums from 'customers' that have never spent a penny with us.  Some of whom sell soley on ebay at prices that hurt everybody in the business.  So if I seemed insensitive to drop shippers, those are the ones I was directing my comments towards.  Although it may not have come  across that way.

As for not being able to compete with Wal-Mart and Target, I don't know anybody that sells multi tools who can compete with them.

# Jesse said on January 30, 2007 4:24 PM:

Sure Ben, no offense taken. However, I just want to point out that unless you've surveyed all of your drop-shippers, I don't know how you can be so sure that most of them "have no problem at all implementing this fee." Speaking for myself, I will not be able to absorb a $5.00 fee per order as most of the products in my e-store are small inexpensive items with small margins. What customer is going to buy a $20.00 item, pay $5.95 for shipping, and then an additional $5.00 drop-ship fee? I know I wouldn't. Since I don't want to abandon my domain which has hundreds of links, I'll probably have to turn my site into an adsense/affiliate site. Kind of a shame though, since I've had such a good relationship with Valor for the last 1 1/2 years. I guess all good things come to an end eventually...

# Richard said on January 31, 2007 2:39 PM:

First off there are not to many drop shippers out there without a dropship charge. The guys that say they can not operate on a drop ship charge are just fooling thereselves. You are the ones that are lowering the prices and standards of a lot of genuine retailers on the web. Small margin prices are the ones that have destroyed the internet community and hashed the prices so far down nobady can make a good living. If you are all only making a $2.00 margin i would look at my business real hard and get out of it alltogether. So what makes Valor any different is you do not know how to adjust. Get a life.

# Jesse said on February 1, 2007 11:56 AM:

Dear Ben, Just want to make amends for my previous posts... Please accept my apologies for replying in the heat of the moment, and especially for calling you "arrogant." That was uncalled for and unprofessional, and I regret saying it. I'm not one to "burn my bridges" and I hope I haven't burned my bridges with you. Yes, I was a little steamed, not expecting such an increase at this time, but in retrospect I understand and accept your reasons for adding the drop-ship fees. It's business reality that things are bound to change, and when they do, good business people will adjust accordingly. For me, it looks like I'll be taking a full turn toward niche marketing using affiliate and contextual advertising (Adsense etc.) to monetize my sites. (That is unless I can find a way to use your drop-shipping services without breaking the bank). As you know, most of what I sell are small, low profit items, and $5.00 per drop ship order is more than I can absorb and stay competitive. I'm not going to abandon MultitoolEmporium.com, I'll just convert it into an informational site with reviews and recommendations of multi-tools, knives, camping gear, etc. In the long run I think it will provide a good residual income each month. I will miss doing business with you, and especially miss talking to Clyde Bower, who's really an awesome guy, and great salesman. Keep him around O.K.? I wish you the best of success, and hope Valor Corp. continues to thrive and prosper.

# Ben said on February 1, 2007 12:12 PM:

Jesse,  not a problem.  I understand it's no fun to get bad news.  It's also no fun to give bad news either.  I wish that I could have come up with a better way to announce it, but there is no good way.

As you know, multi tools are one of the lowest profit items we sell.  Wal-Mart and Target sell them for less than even us during Christmas sometimes.  You will probably do very well with the adsense idea.  Good Luck.

# Jesse said on February 1, 2007 12:38 PM:

Great, just so there's no hard feelings. I know I should always wait before responding to anything negative, but in this case I did before the heat of the moment had passed. You're right about Target et. al., I was stunned when I saw the prices they had on their multi-tools, like when they were selling the Leatherman Micra tool for only $16.99! Hard to compete with that. Maybe next time I'll get into something with a higher profit margin/less competition. Again I wish you, Clyde, and all the rest of Valor staff the very best in 2007.

# Michael said on February 2, 2007 9:02 AM:

Personally, I welcome this change. We have spent many months investing our money to STOCK product. It's been a slow process of reinvesting our sales, but we now have many thousands of dollars of product on our shelves and no one can beat our prices because of that fact. We also have the best service since our products are always in stock. Unfortunately, dropshippers have ruined the internet because they've been able to sell product without ever investing a dime into anything they sell, which they then turn around and "retail" for ridiculously low margins. If someone had to first purchase, let's say a $500 sword, they would in turn want to make more than a couple dollars on the investment. Even $50 would only be a 10% profit. However, without the investment, they're happy to make as much on a very expensive item as on a very cheap item. That has devalued the retail sale of goods across the internet...it's like Wal Mart, driving down the prices until no one can even make a living. Again, kudos to Valor for making the tough choices. We hope your business doesn't suffer for the decision.

# Lawrence said on February 5, 2007 5:58 AM:

Ben, I'm glad I came by today. I came by to view the fishing knives as I need to add a line to my website and I'm glad I read this post. I will admit my business with Valor is somewhat limited and I will explain in a moment but I'd like to add some of my comments here as well. I agree that there are way too many people selling their items at way too low of margins and over the last 3 years I have steadily raised my prices as I've found there is something to be said for perceived value. When I first started I would sell a $14 (wholesale) sword for $25 and I've learned that the exact same sword will actually sell better at $49 or $59. There is a percentage of people (more than most think) that won't buy at Wal-Mart, Target et al because they feel the quality of the products offered are not what they would get elsewhere and to a point they are correct. Even in brand-name products what you see at these places are not the top of the line end of what manufacturers offer. I learned while in the appliance industry that a Maytag washer at ABC Warehouse is not the same quality as what you find at an independant Maytag dealer. This applies to all the major brands. They have quality models and price competitive models. Guess which last longer and have fewer repairs? Pay now or pay later. I'd love to see MAP's instituted. Even with the dropship fee (it's per order not item) we can simply add a handling charge onto our orders and offer a "no handling charge on orders of X (3,5,6) items or more" so that the handling charge is reduced on a per item basis. I will admit I was a bit insulted as well about your not putting a dime comment but you've covered what you meant and I understand because those who sell for next to nothing infuriate me but I know that they will do one of two things eventually. They will raise their prices or go out of business so in a way I do welcome this dropship fee but what kills me about so many Ebay'ers is the way they charge next to nothing on the item and an arm and leg for shipping so I hope this doesn't compound that problem but I digress. I would like you to however be aware of one of the other reasons for using the dropship model on the internet for one's business model. The freedom to travel whether for business or pleasure. If I decide to attend a seminar, convention or just plain want to go somewhere I can do so and take my business with me. If I stock items I now either have to take them with me or I am chained to a physical location. I love the fact that if I get a bug up my butt I can grab my laptop and process orders from just about anywhere these days. Yes I have cellular internet for the laptap and if I can get a cell signal I can process an order. I promised to explain why my business volume with you is somewhat limited. When I first began this venture 3 years ago I found you and one other company that would dropship. I had what was called a rolling reserve on my merchant account so it would take 3-4 business days for me to get the funds from orders into my account. I asked both companies for a Net 5 Day open account. This way I would be able to still enter an order and get the process started without having to worry about available funds in the bank account. I could simply pay the invoice the day funds were received. The other company agreed and it has worked great to this day. We've even needed to raise the limit to accomodate the amount of daily orders. The response I received from Valor however was a bit disheartening. I was told. "We don't offer open accounts to dropship customers." Not "We need to do a credit check." or "Let's see how your business volume develops" just a flatout refusal based on the business model I was using so my business with Valor to date has been limited to supplying United Cutlery items that you had in stock they the first company ran out of between my inventory checks. I have since added (and removed ) your Pirates of The Caribbean items depending on their availability. I still plan to look over the fillet knives as the funds availability issue is not usually an issue these days (sometimes but not often) but obviously I will have to focus on the higher end items and push the quality and perceived value a bit more to justify the higher prices. Only the future will tell if it will be a successful idea or not. To our mutual success. Lawrence

# Buzz Saw said on February 5, 2007 9:25 PM:

Since Valor's front page had BIG RED LETTERS saying "WE DROP SHIP" for at least the past three years, I see this as a BAIT AND SWITCH business tactic. Many of the retailers who utilized Valor for the drop shipping service did alot of work setting up their internet stores, configuring their databases and including Valor part numbers into their internet, brick and mortar retail system and/or printed catalog. Now it will be impossible for many of these legitimate operations, either large or small, to offer many of the lower priced products in the Valor system. For example, a $5 drop ship fee on a $50 item is a 10% price increase. On a $25 item, it is a 20% price increase. I don't know about everybody else, but my net profit lies somewhere between 10-15%. I want everyone to make money, but it has to be two sided. This is a decision that will haunt Valor going forward. It will certainly decrease or end our business affiliation with the company and we will remember this move as horrible disruption to the beginning of my 2007 fiscal year, since there are literally thousands of Valor SKUs in my database. Tonight I have to begin the process of removing the numerous Valor items priced under $100 in three separate systems, and then make a decision to remove the rest of the Valor part numbers from my database. This certainly will not kill my business, but it will leave a long lasting bad taste in my mouth, and will not be forgotten. This absolutley was a BAIT and SWITCH!

# Kerry said on February 5, 2007 10:19 PM:

I’ve thought about, but have not used dropshipping because, like someone stated earlier, I like to handle the product and know that when a sale happens I have the stock on hand. I’ve been building my business over the last year and a half and am affected more by the cost of shipping the product to my location because I’m on the west coast. Being able to order $500 or more and get shipping included plus save 3% for cash is a big plus. Because of that, I expect I’ll be doing more business with Valor in the future. Thanks.

# kevin said on February 5, 2007 10:21 PM:

All i can say is wow. $5.00 per order? Abosultely ridiculous. I can understand this on maybe expensive items over $100 but for little items? You guys are really shooting yourself in the foot. You cannot tell me that a smaller fee of say $2 or $3 would have filled the void for you guys financially.

Basicly you are now pretty close to retail or more for that matter on the less expensive items you sell. Do you want to be in the dropshipping business or not? Apparently not. Once again leave it up to corporate greed to ruin the day.

Forgive us all for basing our business models on your dropshipping services and being loyal customers. How do you expect us to react? Im sure you can expect your revenues to plummet this year, i know that your companies income from dropshipping is a farily large part of your business and not the step child you are trying to portray.

Leave a Comment

Name (required) 

Your URL (optional)

Comments (required) 

Remember Me?