Who do the 'liquidators' liquidate to?

For those on here who have businesses that specialize in liquidated goods, what do YOU do with your products that aren't moving? Do you sell them to other liquidation companies or do you just hold on to them until they finally do sell?

Depends on the quantity, really ... if it's just a few odds and ends, I'll typically mark them down to stupid cheap prices and offload them at a loss. Eventually, product-in-stock reaches a point where the opportunity costs of storage and showcasing are greater than the cost of just getting rid of it. If it's nice or useful small items I might give them away as bonuses to loyal customers, or incentives to sell newer stuff on which I have a margin.

If it's a greater quantity of items, and I got it off a truckload, I'll occasionally resell it by the pallet to other people who are in turn selling by the piece on eBay, in flea markets etc. Margins on pallets are pretty slim, but again, the opportunity cost of having capital tied up into something that isn't selling for me can be greater than taking a loss to get it out of the way.

It's just the nature of the business, really. Don't forget that pretty much everything you see on liquidation.com was pushed off at a loss by someone in the supply chain, to say nothing of many things you see in an offline retail store that are on sale more than 20-30% off. The other side of the liquidation equation is occupied by stores, entrepreneurs and other businesses that are trying to free up capital and space, not just selling off stuff at a loss because it's so much fun to lose money. And eventually, when you've bought enough volume you'll almost certainly end up on that side yourself with certain merchandise.


Frank


Frank

^^^that's the post so nice, I signed it twice lol

Hee, hee - it WAS a nice post!

That's a good point about how most of us will eventually land on that side of the equation.

Have you ever sold your larger lots on liquidation.com? If so, do you recommend them for getting rid of excess inventory (what's the minimum amount we can sell as surplus on there?)

My experience with selling on Liquidation.com has been pretty limited, but it was generally positive. No idea what their current policies are on minimums, unfortunately, but it ought to be easy to find on the site.

Most of my pallet sales I have just sold p2p to people I've met or done business with off of eBay and wholesale forums, as well as the odd offline sale. I don't do a lot of them, or even a few on a regular basis, so my experience is pretty limited -- I've probably sold

Hi roni3d1,

This is the information I found on Liquidation.com in response to your questions -

(what's the minimum amount we can sell as surplus on there?)

- What is the minimum quantity or amount for a sale?

Although there is no minimum quantity for assets, we target a liquidation value of $2,000 per lot. The Asset Sales Plan created by your Sales Executive will help to validate the best lot sizes to meet this objective.

To make sure items get competitive bids and sell quickly, sellers should:

*Have an attractive lot size so buyers are getting value and make a bid. Minimum value of the lot should be $2,000
*Provide a detailed and accurate product description and manifest, including accurate quantity and condition codes
*Attach clear pictures of the actual items in the auction and the packaging in which the buyer will receive them
*Look at their history of auctions and stop listing product that has received high no bids or been slow to move
*Default to standard auctions as they have the highest success of getting competitive bids

Hope this helps :)

Frank -
That's a good tip...informing people that they can get frequently used products at a fraction of the cost (and making YOURSELF that source) is a good plan!

Richelle-
Thank you for that info! I don't have $2000 worth of excess inventory (yet!) but it's good to know what they require. Wow, so if a person wins a $100 bid, they can 'potentially' get MSRP of $2000 worth, or so, of goods.

Some good tips here that I could use myself!

To answer your question, mine sit in boxes in the cupboard under the stairs gathering dust!

I lose interest in products after I move on to new lines, and rarely re-visit them. I have given a lot of stock away to friends and family members who I help start-up online retail businesses.

It's nice to be able to help them out by giving them some free stock.

Alice-
That sounds like something that I would do, lol! Don't encourage me to start any bad habits, I already have enough of those!

Another liqudation question:
If I go to a liquidation company close to where I live, is it considered 'standard practice' to negotiate how much you are willing to accept for a surplus load?

For example, at one time when I was selling merchandise through a brick-and-mortar, I needed to hurry and get rid of a small bit of excess stock of shoes that I had.

Well, I eventually got rid of them by selling them at a loss - $1 dollar or $2 dollars per pair. I think, like Alice, I might have given away a couple of pairs as well and kept a couple for myself.(I had paid about $7-10 for each pair).

I know that you can not recoup the whole amount you paid for the merchandise, but would It have been realistic to get more for those items than $1 or $2 dollars?

Hi ron,

In regards to it being standard practice to nego on surplus loads. Liquidators will have a set price on loads, but that doesn't mean that you can't at least try and negotiate with them.

Of course liquidators work on a broad based wholesale business model, and the absolute best way to negotiate the best price is to buy more, but you never know if you don't ask!

In regards to clearing stock, such as your shoes. You can always look at bundling products. Instead of asking below on one pair, offer two pair at cost or with a small margin. This offers the buyer good value on their purchase, and saves you from taking a hit.

The one thing I would also suggest in terms of what isn't selling, take a close look at why it isn't selling to start with. You'll find just because something isn't selling, doesn't automatically make it unsellable.

I'll use the story of the knife set missing most of the knives. One person will look at that and think, well that's pretty much worthless because it's missing most of the blades. Another will look at it and say, well I have a couple of products to sell here.

They will then sell what knifes there are, and the knife block itself as separate items.

Perhaps it's a late model vacuum cleaner that isn't working, that doesn't mean that there isn't a market for some of the parts that you can break down and sell.

I've dealt with a stack of second hand stock over the years, and rarely have I found that I have been stuck with anything that I couldn't make money on in one form or another.

I hate to go all Zen on you here lol, but treat a product like a room full of windows. If one window is closed, move to the next and so on, sooner or later the chances are that you'll find one open :)