With the launch of their new 'All Auctions' page, B-Stock has changed the game and created the best and easiest way to find any liquidation inventory that you might want. I see little reason to go anyplace else. There is now a one-stop shop to buy from nearly all of the largest companies out there.
Be sure to bookmark this page.
Enjoy!
It has almost exactly a year since I've posted here. What a year it was. I thought I'd get back in the game by writing a basic post for anyone new to this site. Many people ask:
The answer is simple. Walmart operates their own liquidation marketplace located at https://liquidations.walmart.com. This is the only site from which Walmart sells excess inventory directly to small business buyers without involving a liquidator middleman. That makes this the best place to buy since you have direct access to the inventory with no filtering, cherry-picking or other game-playing by a middleman.
In addition, this is an auction site where the bidding on everything starts at $100. What that means is that you, the buyer, get to name your price, and if you are the high bidder, you win...period. No negotiations, no bait and switch, just view the manifest in the listing, calculate what you believe you can sell it for, figure out what you can pay to make an adequate profit, and place your bid. Then you can just sit back and wait for the auction to close to see if you have won at or below your maximum bid. Yes, that's right, you might bid $3,000 but if the next highest bidder only bids $1,200 then you win it for $1,225!
What I advise buyers to do is to download the manifest from any listings that look interesting to you and sort it by retail price from high to low. You will probably find that a relatively small percentage of the items make up the vast majority of the value of the lot, so focus on those. Next, spend some time looking up these items online to see what the CURRENT selling price is for each of the top items and fill those in an empty column in the manifest spreadsheet. If there are multiple quantities of any items, multiply the current selling price by the quantity in the manifest to arrive at the total selling price for all units on each line. Do this for as much of the manifest as possible to get the best estimate of your revenue once you've sold it all.
Next, estimate your costs related to buying and selling the items. A big one is likely to be shipping (which will be disclosed to you at the time you are bidding) but also third-party marketplace fees, if that's how you sell, credit card fees if you take payment that way, warehousing, receiving, packing materials, etc. Once you have a good idea of the costs you can subtract that from the total proceeds you estimated. If you paid this price, you would basically earn $0. Clearly, that is not what you want. So, next decide how much profit you would like to make for the effort involved in buying and selling this particular lot. Subtract that. Now you have your maximum bid amount.
But wait, that's not it. Some people go to auction sites and bid $100, $150, $200, $250, $300.....until finally, they bid the actual amount they have calculated. That can be extremely tedious and time-consuming. Walmart's auction site allows you to simply enter your maximum bid amount. You might be thinking 'why would I ever do that? I want to get this at the lowest possible price'. Well, relax, these marketplaces are fully automated and treat your high bid as confidential. No one else sees that number. The computer simply places the next bid for you IF someone else bids against you. It will keep managing your bidding until it hits your maximum. And again, it will only bid again if someone outbids you and the price is still below your maximum.
So it is all very simple. The most important thing to remember is to do your homework! Read listing information carefully and understand the various conditions that items may be in when you receive them. When you are getting started don't buy 'salvage' product if you don't understand what 'salvage' means. Now go make some money!
There is a major, multi-billion dollar seller now listing on B-Stock Supply who carries these very high end, and hard to find, brands. As you likely know, it is extremely challenging to find brands like these on the secondary market because the brands don't generally liquidate. You've probably seen stories in the news over the years about how certain brands burn their excess and returns products, rather than risk them leaking into the secondary market.
Well, here is a crack to get your foot in the door and acquire these brands.
Here is a link to this seller's storefront on bstocksupply.com: https://bstocksupply.com/luxuryfashionretailer
Unilever has launched a liquidation marketplace on the B-Stock Network. The site looks amazing. Lots of brand new, overstock inventory including many personal care brands and some food products. There are lots from just a pallet or two up to multiple truckloads. Here is the largest live listing at the moment:
The product they are selling would be GREAT for flea market sellers or retail store operators. Check it out now.
Here is another group of live listings on the site right now:
Recently I've noticed an explosion of direct liquidation buying opportunities for you that I wanted to share. The B-Stock Sourcing Network has added a bunch of new marketplaces that are worth checking out. These marketplaces liquidate a wide variety of categories and all of the products are sold direct from the retailer or manufacturer, so almost everyone should find some great products for their reselling business and you won't be paying middleman markups or risk being deceived by liquidators. Let's run through a few of them:
Nordstrom: Selling under the name Closeout Closet, the site is very new and has only a small amount of inventory so far. It is located at https://closetcloseout.bstock.com/. Shoes, apparel, handbags and mixed lots have been seen on the site over the past couple months. Great looking inventory!
Hudson's Bay Company: This is the holding company that owns a bunch of major US and Canadian retailers, including: Sak's Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Hudson's Bay, Galleria Kauthof, and Home Outfitters. The breadth of inventory liquidated here should be fantastic. So far, we've seen men's and women's apparel, handbags, beauty products and more.
Office Depot/Office Max: This site sells some great consumer electronics lots that include laptops, desktops, monitors, printers, time clocks, tablets and more. Almost everyone will love this site given the product mix!
Signature Hardware: This site sells some great hardware and home decor lots, including: sinks, faucets, shower sets, bathroom accessories and much more. Most of the products are brand new condition, overstocks! There are some great deals to be had here.
Euro Car Parts: For all of you European buyers, this site sells amazing auto parts lots that include new condition tool chests, clutch kits, turbochargers, disc brakes and tons of other parts and accessories. All of this inventory is located in Europe, so it probably won't work well for US buyers.
Clover Wireless: Mobile device buyers will love the ability to buy direct liquidation deals from this site sells amazing auto parts lots that include new condition tool chests, clutch kits, turbochargers, disc brakes and tons of other parts and accessories. All of this inventory is located in Europe, so it probably won't work well for US buyers.
For the cell phone buyers out there, inventory has been exploding in the network even beyond the Clover marketplace. B-Stock now operates marketplaces for several major carriers and giant phone manufacturers. Visit https://sourcing.bstock.com/mobile/ there have never been more Apple and Samsung products available. iPhones, Galaxy's, iPads, etc. Loads of them. In fact I see hundreds of lots live as I type this.
All in all, it's a great time to check out the B-Stock Network as we get closer to the holidays. You will want to stock up early so you are ready to meet the crazy holiday demand we expect to see from consumers given the low unemployment rate at the moment.
Are you interested in expanding your apparel business with some great, branded inventory at bargain prices? Well, the perfect inventory liquidation marketplace has just launched on the B-Stock Network. Gildan is now live!
So far, they have been selling brand new, overstock socks inventory but we have learned that a wider assortment of products are on the way. Not sure about timing on that, so get registered now and opt-in to be notified when listings go live so you'll hear about it as soon as it happens.
After running a marketplace on the B-Stock Network in Europe for several years, Amazon has finally launched an inventory liquidation marketplace for US buyers! The site is like others in the B-Stock family, offering a variety of categories in truckload and pallet quantities. At this point, it appears to be focussed on new, overstock inventory. This is great, as virtually everything is in 'ready to sell' condition. So, if you have a brick and mortar store or an online outlet, you can quickly flip these products for great margins if you have the demand.
Amazon pallets are known to be highly valued in the secondary market by liquidators who have been able to buy directly from Amazon in the past. Historically, it has been difficult to earn the chance to buy from them, however. With the launch of their own liquidation marketplace to sell overstock pallets and customer return pallets, Amazon is making it possible for any legitimate business to buy straight from the company. This means there is no longer any reason to buy from middlemen and pay for the costs they incurred to acquire the pallets and have them shipped into their own warehouses, not to mention the profit they will earn selling that inventory.
It is a well-known maxim in the liquidation industry that "you make your money when you buy". That is to say that when you go to sell your inventory, you have little to no control over the prices you will get. The one thing you can completely control is the price you pay for the pallets you buy. This is why it is so critical to do your homework, study the market, but then buy directly from the company rather than through a middleman. In addition to paying no markups, you are saving the cost of shipping those pallets an extra time and you are eliminating the risk of a middleman cherry-picking the inventory and leaving you with only the worthless scraps.
If you have been looking for high quality inventory in truckload quantities at great prices ought to get registered immediately!
Great news everyone! Walgreens has launched a liquidation marketplace in the B-Stock Network. This is the first major pharmacy retailer marketplace I've seen and I believe it will bring a great new assortment of inventory to B-Stock buyers. The first few listings have just gone live. I see inventory in the food/beverage categories as well as personal care. Of course, given the breadth of product carried in the stores, this will likely become much more broad-based over time as the marketplace matures.
I highly recommend you check out this new site and get registered now! It is located at here.
If you are not registered on the Costco Liquidation Marketplace, I highly recommend you do so RIGHT NOW! This week will be your best opportunity all year to buy incredible inventory at great prices. With holiday returns flowing through the marketplace in high volume, prices are sure to be very attractive!
According to Wikipedia, as of September 1, 2017, Costco has 746 warehouses, worldwide:
Another interesting claim that Wikipedia makes is that Costco is the first company to go from $0 to $3 billion of revenue in under 6 years.
All that being said, what is important here is inventory, inventory, inventory. Get registered on the marketplace now...you will not be disappointed.
Appliances, Appliances, Everywhere!
The secondary market for appliances has never been better for resellers. Just 7 years ago, Sears was the largest appliance retailer in the country. They not only sold their branded products, but they sold primary and secondary stock from other major manufacturers. They were the channel of choice for manufacturers wanting to flush excess inventory out of their warehouses and 5+ years ago would basically get their pick of any excess inventory their suppliers had.
Today, things are different. As you certainly know, Sears has been struggling. They have been closing stores steadily for many years. In addition, their secondary market purchasing of appliances has dropped substantially. This has created a huge opportunity for resellers to step in and fill that gap. One nice side effect for resellers is that, with Sears out of the market, the supply and demand dynamics have changed substantially. This has resulted in prices dropping across the market. Liquidation appliances are available now at better prices than at any time in the past 5-7 years.
Try Appliances
If you have the space and equipment to handle the inventory, I strongly recommend you take a look at this market. Consumers are still upgrading old appliances and are still motivated to trade down to 'like-new' dent and scratch models to save money. So consumer prices are holding up well. The difference is just that now you can buy this inventory at a lower price.
Here are several marketplaces that you can use to research and source major brand, secondary market appliances. Brands include Samsung, LG, Frigidaire, Kenmore, Whirlpool and others:
You can also see all listings across the B-Stock Network aggregated in one place by going to http://sourcing.bstock.com. Use the category filter for appliances to limit the results to this category. Good luck!