Ways to Find and Buy Liquidated Products

The primary goal of any business, whether big or small, is to make money by selling products at a rate higher than the purchase price and all other expenses. One of the most lucrative businesses that you will find is that of buying and selling liquidation goods.

However, in order for you to make money in product liquidation, it is of utmost importance that you be on high alert and have the capability to spot liquidation stock for sale at throw-away prices to sell it at a substantially higher price and quickly.

This is why your success of using liquidation stock as part of your resale strategy doesn’t only depend on the type of liquidation goods that you buy, but also on your ability to tap into the demand that the liquidated goods were unable to attract while they were on sale the first time.

However, you must keep in mind that not all liquidated stocks are equal and you will find them varying in grades (e.g. from brand new to damaged or beyond repair). You should especially avoid highly defective or poor quality goods as they may be hard to sell.

Where Liquidation Products Come From

Liquidation goods come from clearance items that a business or shop wants to sell when it’s closing down and wishes to liquidate its inventory. These goods may also become available from the stock of an individual or business that has gone bankrupt, from surplus stock, overstock, end-of-line stock, or sometimes also sold as liquidation goods right from the start.

Depending on the amount of liquidated stock, there may be a number of intermediaries involved in the process, such as liquidation wholesalers, retail shops, market traders and online merchants.

Here are some of the most common places or sources where you can find the liquidation merchandise that you are looking for.

Liquidation Wholesalers

The variety and range of product liquidation items available through product liquidation wholesalers include virtually everything that is sold in retail stores. You will find jewelry, furniture, seasonal merchandise, decorative items, kitchenware, bathroom items, and even fashion accessories that you can sell to your customers for a considerable profit.

However, because the wholesale inventory keeps changing, make sure that you have a business that mixes many lots and doesn’t only depend on one or two products. Because these liquidation wholesalers won’t insist on selling whole pallets of a single product, it will be possible for you to buy at least one case of each and have a variety of goods available for sale.

Moreover, with this strategy, you can even make use of unprecedented bargains because the wholesaler may have bought the stocks inexpensively and will be interested in liquidating them as soon as possible. Therefore, these wholesalers will provide good solutions for those who want to buy liquidation merchandise for resale purposes.

Websites That Offer Liquidation Stock for Sale

One of the best places to find your desired liquidation products is the internet. Browse the online world and look for websites that provide valuable information regarding the most reliable and popular wholesalers. If you spend even half an hour doing research, you’ll be able to find many reliable websites that have databases of thousands of legitimate suppliers of liquidated stock.

Some of the top benefits that you’ll be able to make use of by sourcing from websites are:

Direct and Instant Support

You probably know that all websites aren’t alike when it comes to the reliability factor. However, professional ones will always provide you with 24/7 support. Through such websites, you’ll be able to ask for any kind of help or post a clarification, information, or query.

While some take days to get back to you, websites that focus on customer satisfaction will provide feedback almost instantly via their expert customer representative executive. Moreover, because these representatives are trained and up-to-date about their company’s offerings, they will be able to give you accurate information.

Reviews of Wholesale Suppliers

There are thousands of suppliers who are trying to sell their wholesale products online. Unfortunately, not all of them will provide you with the quality material that you need and some may be phishing to con clients. Therefore, when you seek help from these websites, you’ll be able to find reviews on the most reliable product liquidators and identify the ones who can’t be trusted.

Repair Shops

Another good alternative for obtaining liquidated stocks is your local repair shop. A lot of these shops have enormous stocks of refurbished goods whose owners didn’t want to foot repair bills. This is why you will find that repair shops are willing to sell this type of merchandise for the cost of their repair plus a small markup for storing the repaired units.

However, when buying liquidation products from repair shops, you need to carefully examine and check them. If the piece has been damaged too much and not repaired properly, it won’t be of any use to you either.

The Types of Liquidation Goods Available

When you start selling liquidated merchandise, you will come across terms like salvage, closeouts, overstocks, shelf pulls, and returns. This is why it is important that you go beyond looking for liquidation goods and know which ones you should be selling to your customers.

Here is a list of goods which you will most commonly find in the market.

Customer Returns

Customer Returns

One of the most common liquidation products available in today’s market is customer returns. These products are mostly those that have been purchased from a store but returned by the customer for some reason. You will find that different stores have varying individual return policies and product liquidation policies that will have an effect on the type and condition of products that you buy.

Most of these customer returns haven’t been tested by anyone before making their way into the return load, which is why it is important for you to check and test them prior to making a purchase. Moreover, in order for you to sell these products successfully, you must make sure that you process, test, check and research the correct and appropriate pricing of these goods before selling them to your customers.

Shelf Pulls

Shelf pulls are mostly overstocked merchandise that has been displayed for sale in a physical store but has never been purchased by a customer. These shelf pulls are mostly considered as excess inventory from store shelves and require much less work than customer returns.

When investing in shelf pulls, you won’t need to go through long processes of testing and repairing, but you’ll need to do some checking and cleaning to make sure that it is presented to your customer in the right way. Shelf pulls will consist of the end of season goods, discontinued goods, items that are a little more expensive than usual, and other such items that have no functionality issues.

Overstocks

Shelf Pulls and Overstocks

Overstocks, best known as closeouts, are goods that have never been exposed for sale in a retail store. These goods can come in from distributors, importers, or manufacturers who are closing down or simply have an excess of the goods in their warehouse that they need to move.

Though these overstocks tend to be a little less assorted than typical customer return loads, they will mostly be in perfect condition. Buying closeout merchandise will also be very beneficial for your because they have no additional retail, discount, or warehouse labels on the items.

Defective Goods

Defective merchandise mostly includes high-end electronics which have gone through a testing process and are either visually defective or incomplete sets that can’t be sold for their original price. These goods can prove to be very profitable if you have the ability to repair or strip them of their parts and sell them individually. For example, you may find iPods that don’t have the company headphones; these fall under this category.

Refurbished

Refurbished Items

Refurbished items are those that have gone through extensive testing processes and have been restored to their original working conditions. Refurbished merchandise is mostly repackaged in generic boxes and doesn’t include all the items that were found in the original manufacturer’s packaging.

If you decide to buy refurbished items to sell through your liquidation business, make sure that they are all in good working condition, have the parts that are needed the most, and are repackaged properly so that they are visually appealing. However, you should know that some of these items may show signs of slight usage and/or cosmetic blemishes and may not come with a manufacturer’s warranty.

When you buy liquidation items, make sure you carefully check out the condition of the products when trying to calculate their resale value.

How to Buy Liquidation Goods

Now that you are aware of where you can find liquidation products and the many types that they are available in, you should start by buying wholesale liquidation merchandise for your resale business.

But before you end up buying a bad lot that your customers won’t be interested in buying, you must learn how to sell liquidation items and what are the most important factors that you have to consider before purchasing anything. Here are just a few things you must keep in mind.

Never Buy From the First Source You Find

The first thing you need to find out is where to buy liquidation merchandise. In any kind of business, research is the key to success. Therefore, when you enter the industry and start buying worthy items that you can sell, make sure that you research and spend time looking for multiple sources.

Do not under any circumstance make the mistake of buying liquidation merchandise from the very first product provider you meet just because they’re making promises because you may still be able to find a much better deal. So, even though it isn’t recommended that you spend many months looking for the right source, you should at least look around a bit before making a final decision.

Check the Products

If you have a list of sources that will be able to provide you with the best liquidation goods for a bargain, the next step is to check the products that they are offering. Even before you make a deal, ask the seller if they can show you the products so that you can be certain that you’re buying what you need.

Aside from the products, you must also read their terms and conditions as well as the contract carefully before signing it because these documents will often contain important information that may not have been shared earlier.

Whether you are buying closeout merchandise, customer returns or refurbished products you should always check the manifests of the pallets you are looking to buy. One of the common mistakes made when you are starting out with looking for wholesale liquidation merchandise for your resale business is to buy the cheapest loads first, or one that appears to have at first glance some quality products, without looking down the full list of contents and taking into account the full condition of the items.

Compare Price and Features:

Once you have decided to buy liquidated merchandise from certain sources or suppliers, you should compare the prices and features that each of them is providing. For example, if you’re getting a damaged lot of electronic goods for $10, would it offer better value than a refurbished lot for $20? No, it wouldn’t. The simple reason for this is because even though the price is low, you will need to spend a lot of extra costs, time and effort in repairing the damaged goods whereas refurbished products can be sold as they are.

The Bottom Line

Finding and buying the right sort of liquidated products will take up most of your time when you’re trying to be successful as a product liquidator. While this task may seem challenging and tiresome at first, you will get used to it and be able to do it a lot quicker once you have a few sources that you can trust.

Once you know that your suppliers are providing you with top notch products, most of your business will depend on the relationship that you have with these providers. So make sure that you know how to build them.

Now that you have a plan for where to buy liquidation merchandise, check out some of our guides on how to sell liquidation items.

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Henley Johnson

Henley currently works as a sales representative for Direct Liquidation, assisting businesses with product sourcing of liquidated merchandise from the largest retailers in the world. Whether you are looking for a pallet or a truckload Henley is here to help you grow your business.

View Henley’s Bio on YouTube.