Selling drop-shipped items, either through an online auction site, or from your own online storefront website, can be very lucrative, and nearly as easy as Affiliate Marketing.

For those who don't know, drop-shipping involves a supplier who will ship straight to your customer ... you don't need to maintain inventory, worry about packaging and shipping fees, etc. In fact, you just advertise the merchandise, and then pay only for what you've already sold.

Imagine having a "virtual store" that costs only a few dollars a month to run, has no employees, accepts credit cards, and works for you 24/7!

You don't have to worry about maintaining inventory or being overstocked, how best to package certain items, the physical activity of packaging and mailing or shipping the item, etc.

Of course, you pay a fee for those services, and/or the fee is built in to the wholesale price you pay, but there is still a significant markup (read: "profit") on these items.

If you're interested in selling drop-shipped products from your own web site, or want to sell drop-shipped products using online auctions, here are several suppliers to look at to get you started.

Caution! I learned about these drop-shippers from reliable sources, and believe they are reputable, but, as with any other business venture, you owe it to yourself to check them out for yourself before spending any significant amount of money.

These excellent suppliers will either drop-ship for a fee, or will sell to you in bulk, at wholesale prices, if you want to do your own shipping.

EZ Drop Shippers is one of the largest and most reputable drop-shippers on the internet. Great "As Seen on TV" products (yes, the stuff you see advertised on infomercials) are available here.

Hot Buys on Closeout Merchandise are available here. As you probably know, "closeouts" are discontinued items, but you get them at rock-bottom prices. Be careful, though ... once they are sold out, they are gone. Buy in bulk and do your own shipping, or have items drop-shipped.

Maxam Wholesale has both print and online catalogs, FREE membership and hiqh quality products. A well-respected drop-shipper.

Specialty Merchandise is one of the most well-respected, lowest priced drop-shippers around. Their online catalog also has product pictures available, so you can just "cut and paste" items into your online store or auction.

Worldwide Brands is a widely respected resource that maintains a directory of reputable drop-shippers, and continues to monitor and research the quality of the services provided by them.