Fudjj I have seen you write this thing about 1,000,00 times now! Maybe you should write a sticky ;)
But the man is spot on as always, When I signed up to salehoo I was exactly the same in all honesty, I thought I could join, find myself a dropshipper and retire by the time I was well, 18.
Truth of the matter is I was too naive, and I learned the hard way. I made all sorts of mistakes and lost a lot of money thinking that all this was easy. I never got scammed but didn't really know what I was doing. It is only because of that I am where I am today, so expect to have a bit of a hard time to begin with but if you can get through that and still want too do it, then you are pretty much there.
I think at times people are a little hard on people starting out. Yes, you are not going to compete on eBay buying 5 units at a time and yes most people who start out don't have tens of thousands to spend on stock or even tens of hundred for that matter. All you can do is put time and effort into making it in the end. You may well have a few things around the house to raise enough to buy in a batch of ex catalogue returns, you may then fix them up and make a bit and then keep going from there. Everyone goes down their own different paths and makes it in their own way.
The things recommended generally on the forum are going places like garage sales, car boots, flea markets and buy whatever catches your eye and resell it. Seems to work for a lot of people. Other option is to find a niche, one of the dark corners on eBay where the majority of sellers don't even think about.
Sorry, but business is business, be it offline or online, it makes very little difference, and without at least some basic business knowledge the chances of success are extremely limited.
I think a lot of members would benefit more from leaning some business basics, rather than looking for invisible suppliers, and their magic money making products. These types of skills would at least inform them of what is realistic, and what is simply fantasy!
This is another really important point. Business is Business when all is said and done. Is an online business the same as owning a shop? No nothing like it but they still carry the same fundemental ground rules. You still have to learn the trade, invest, eventually find staff, pay rent (hosting fees, eBay fees etc).
Cashflow will be your biggest issue in the early days, so you buy $500 worth of goods, what are you going to do? Sell all your stock and then rebuy after that, leaving delivery time doing nothing. Spend on two lots? Buy new stock every week? bi-weekly? monthly? All these things need addressing unless you are dropshipping...
You need a plan, you need a product, you need to prepare.
'Fail to prepare, prepare to fail' says it all really.
Best thing to do is to forget iPods, Video Games consoles, Mobile Phones and anything else that is majorly branded! Read the forum and just keep researching...