Drop-shipping DID have a purpose back in the 80-00s when you couldn't buy the stuff one off from platforms like AliExpress, but most dropshippers aren't doing i

Drop-shipping DID have a purpose back in the 80-00s when you couldn't buy the stuff one off from platforms like AliExpress, but most dropshippers aren't doing it like the drop-shippers of yore did it. Starting the "back in my day rant": In the past, you would actually negotiate with your manufacturers about how many items you would purchase over the year, and that would determine the discount you got on their SRP. You could then mark it up, but for the most part you didn't, and your profit was your discount. Now days, though, everyone is just plugging directly into AliExpress/Temu/Wish, and marking it up. They are just a lazy low/no-value middle-person between me and cheap knockoffs from China. The "clever" ones are worse, because you might not even realize you are buying a knockoff. The packaging, images, titles, and descriptions will be 1:1 with the real product.