Buying Pallets of Store Returns and Reselling? (insurance, wholesale, sales)
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Anyone have experience on doing this? I see you can buy pallets of Returns and store pulls. There are a few outlets here in Florida which I could drive to and pick up myself to save the money on shipping.
Seems to me housewares and tools would be the easiest to move and pull a profit from. Markets would consists of EBay, Amazon, Craigslist, Garage Sale and possibly Flea Markets.
Anybody have experience at this? If so, what sort of success did you have? If you don't want to share publicly please PM me.
I have never done it however it looks like it could be a solid business plan. I hope that if you proceed that you let us know how it works out for you.
Your post inspired me to look into it a little bit and a few things "jump out" at me.
1) I would probably avoid the "loose" merchandise that isn't sold in its original packaging. The product would likely bring far less on resale than boxed product.
2) The "mixed pallets" of product seem like there is a lot of room to get screwed by the wholesaler. Unless you knew the value of everything on the pallet it would be difficult to figure out what kind of margin you are looking at.
3) Another issue is the wholesaler might be pushing off the marginal product by the pallet while selling the good stuff themselves. (at least that's what I would do if in the business)
I think that if you can find product that is "new in box" and know the market for the product you might do pretty good.
There is a place up in Crossville, TN near me with a showroom- I might go up there one day and poke around just to see what they are all about.
I haven't been there yet so I know nothing about it- I am in Wartrace so it is a bit of a drive. If you visit the place let me know what you think (if it's worth the drive).
I noticed a store in Tullahoma selling "catalog returns"- I have to stop in there to see what they have although it is retail, it might be interesting to see what kind of margin they are trying to get on items.
A place in a nearby town (Shelbyville) has closeout merchandise and it seems as if you bought right there would be room for profit. The store has a lot of "trash items" that I probably wouldn't get involved in but the concept is intriguing....
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Not exactly, but I have scored on purchases at a freight salvage place north of here. They buy up shipments that are damaged in transit, sell it so cheap that one can still sell the scratch/dent items for a decent profit. Some of it was undamaged but the insurance companies would cover the whole load. Who cares if a few of the 4x8 sheets of plywood are dog-eared if you don't need the full sheet for a project. I mostly bought building materials and other items I needed for my business a the time but also did sell some of it on E-Bay.
Years ago, my ex and I did this as a business.
We would buy these pallets that were returns from stores such as Kmart, PicnSave, Target for the most part and other places.
It would be like an auction as the pallets came off the truck, people discovered where to buy the pallets (previously, the pallets were set prices).
We would buy the pallets, put the boxes in the van and take it home and go through the items.
We would sort out good, bad, expensive, cheap and set prices.
On the weekends we would go to the swapmeet and sell. The weekend sales then would pay for the next pallet and extra income. (there was no Ebay back then).
We got so good, we opened a store.
The downfall ? I let her run the store!
And let's not forget that these sales have become a business for the sellers and with shows like Auction Hunetr, Pawn Stars, etc, everyone is jumping on these as a way to make money quickly based on what they see on TV or read in magazines & books. So years ago instead of 6 guys bidding on a couple of train cars of salvage goods, a trailer of returns, some odd lots of delivery mess ups, you now have 100 people all thinkimg they are the skilled buyer and instead of paying 20% of value, you now see bidding going over 150% of value. The best time to get in on these types of sales are before eveyone knows about them.
Buyer Beware of store returns its a good way to get Rid of there garbage Yes I took a visit to crossville Tn and shelled out $5000 For Kmart trash. I think its a good business if you buy Right. Today I'm in the wholesale business and I advise my customers what they should buy and what to stay away from. Tools/hardware make money, and I buy them buy the truck load and sell the untouched merchandise to my customers, Before buying do a scam or complaint check and then only get 1-2 pallets before doing a nose dive
Hello everyone!
i am interested in buying and resaling. I live in Georgia between Atlanta and Columbus.
Can anyone give me a heads up on where to start or maybe how to start?
All help is appreciated.
Gwyneth
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