about 3 years ago I sold sporting goods, such as footballs, baseballs, soccer balls, basketballs, soccer nets, basketball nets, baseball bats, gloves, football gear, soccer gear etc on one website and kids bedding (for cribs) on another website. I bought directly from the manufacturers and was able to make a good profit. The only problem was sometimes they would take 2 or 3 days to ship and that drove me crazy. Sales on the sites I operate where I stock all the inventory is always shipped the same day and I KNOW customers really appreciate the service. I sold the dropshipping sites and now just sold my other sites so I am looking to get back into dropshipping. You are right, you lose a lot of control but without worrying about inventory and shipping, you can run your business anywhere you have a laptop and the internet. I like the idea of running my business while away on a trip and I really like the idea of not having to rush to the Post Office every day. What I would Strongly suggest if you want to get into dropshipping is to Deal ONLY with the manufacturer not with any middlemen. The better your price, the better your profits.
www.ezosc.com has a B2B (business to business) shopping cart solution that is multi vendor and works very well for dropshipping.
if you use the right dropship product management software, there is not much work involved in updating your inventory data so that it is always synchronized with your dropship supplier.