Hello Brandon,
If a dropper asks for an annual fee or a drop shipping fee per transaction, it does not necessarily make them dodgy :)
Some of the drop shippers including those in our directory do charge small account set-up fees. While by no means ideal, a small account set-up fee is fairly common practice among drop shippers. In most cases we can understand the charge because it costs the drop shipper time and money to process a new account. That said, not all drop shippers in SaleHoo charge a fee. And even if an account set-up fee is charged, you can often get around it by purchasing through the wholesale area of the site rather than the drop shipping area.
All 3 drop shippers look legitimate and have been online for over a year at the very least. Unfortunately without any previous experience in dealing with them we cannot vouch for their safety. The 3rd on though - Link hidden: Login to view was previously listed in our directory but around 2013, they confirmed that they re no longer accepting new merchant applications thus we have removed them since then.
You see, here at SaleHoo we take a number of steps to ensure that suppliers meet our rigorous standards before they are added to the database.
* All our wholesalers must meet minimum standards of service. Most notably, we insist that suppliers provide secure payment methods so that in the unlikely event of something going wrong, members can always get their money back.
* We make anonymous purchases from all our suppliers and then rate them on price, speed, quality and service.
* Our three-tiered review system means that you don't only get our opinion on a supplier - you also get ratings from other SaleHoo members and independent eBay powersellers! You don't need to take just our word for it... find out what everyone else is saying, and judge for yourself.
* If a supplier receives a poor review, we keep both the supplier and the review in our database to alert other members. We believe that knowing who you can't trust is as important as knowing who you can.
Here are some simple things you can do to protect yourself when dealing with any supplier (especially those found outside of SaleHoo).
1. Run a whois check on the supplier's website to verify when it was created (it is safest to deal with suppliers who have been online for at least two years), who owns the domain, and where the domain was registered (the country should match the contact details on the supplier's website). We recommend using Link hidden: Login to view (replace salehoo.com with the url of the supplier).
2. Search the SaleHoo forum for the supplier's website/company name and see what other members have to say.
3. Call the supplier's telephone numbers to ensure they are genuine.
4. Purchase a sample before bulk ordering to ensure that the item meets your expectations.
5. Watch out for sellers asking you to "safeguard" your purchase by sending your money transfer in the name of a friend or loved one, or by establishing a "test question". These actions will not protect you from a fraudulent seller.
6. Low prices do not necessarily mean fraud, but radically low prices should warrant a closer look. If a price seems to good to be true, it probably is. Ask the seller as many questions about the item's authenticity as you can before you go any further.
7. Always use a credit card or Paypal to purchase goods. These forms of payment are safe because they give you a comeback if something goes wrong. With these payment methods, you can usually have the transaction reversed fairly easily if necessary.
I hope this helps :)