[Solved] Buying from liquidation.com and reselling?

Scott -

I've been buying Amazon returns through liquidation and selling them on both eBay and Amazon for a couple years. You can easily get 2-3 times mark up on your purchase. The real kicker is if you setup an Amazon store, you can just plug in the ASIN to post the product for sale. Much faster than setting up eBay auctions.

Now.. Liquidation.com. I bought from them when they first started. I got fantastic pricing on all kinds of Amazon returns, eg power tools, lawn and garden, kitchenwares, etc. I'd buy Toro, Hayward, DeWalt, Yakima, KitchenAid, Black and Decker, Makita, Hoover, Dyson, and more. Then suddenly about 18 months ago the companies selling through Liquidation.com pulled out and set up else where.

Now 90% of what you find on Liquidation.com is Salvage grade, not suitable for resale without repairs or replacing parts. And even with that, the pricing is very competitive. You can check out the manifest for each auction to see the condition of the products.... mostly junk. And all the name brand stuff is gone.

As for setting up a store, unless you are planning to sell bulk to resellers, don't bother. You can do FAR better selling direct on eBay and Amazon. I never had an item not sell for me on one of those sites. And if you do your research right, before you even buy products, you'll know what your profit will be and how long it will take to sell. It's just not worth trying to drive traffic to your own site when you have power houses like eBay and Amazon that will sell your inventory for you.

Most of the smart ones go with the established liquidators. There are a lot of them out there now and they make the process pretty easy.

It doesn't have to be that complicated. If you are buying liquidation items to sell on eBay or Amazon, just look at the history of previous auctions for the price and number of bids. If you see a product selling regularly at $50 with several bids, then you know purchasing an item at $25 will give you a nice return.

I've sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of liquidation products on eBay and Amazon which were purchased through online bulk auctions. I can review eBay auction history on a pallet of 30-40 items in about 15 minutes and know what my bid limit should be for the pallet. Not only have I never failed to profit from an item using that technique, I can precisely dial in the profit I want.

Agreed. Liquidation products sell very well on Amazon. Folks expect a premium service on Amazon and will pay a higher price than on eBay. But the items must be clean and in good shape otherwise customers are quick to criticize.

eBay on the other hand is an extremely good research tool to gauge pricing and demand. It also has the benefit of giving you control of when the sale will occur. On Amazon you need to be more patient to get your price.

If you don't mind me asking what kind of margins are you making on your lap tops through Amazon ? Are these refurbished, customer returns, or used items?

I've been hesitant to venture into the electronics market. I often see pricing for flat panel TVs and computer products selling at liquidation auctions for 50%-70% of their original retail. That's for used or customer return items. Can you still make a profit at those prices? My comfort zone is buying at 20-30% of retail and reselling at 50-70%.

Hi, I use to sell on e-Bay and did exactly that. I actually managed to turn a very good profit on it but I disliked having to handle inventory so I turned to digital products.

Anyways, my best product was buying rustic looking shower sets. I bought them at $36 and resold them at $100-130 :-)

You just need to do research and know the max price you can pay for it.

You have made an important point. Too many people try to copy what other people are doing without sufficient research.

If someone finds their own niche they can source anything other than brand name products direct from the manufacturer in China at huge profit margins that can eclipse what they would make buying and selling liquidated stock.

A big benefit is that they can establish a permanent supply line, and it does not need big orders to do it.

If Warriors are willing to outlay hundreds of dollars, sometimes thousands, on inventory that is by all accounts a lucky dip, perhaps they might consider a safer option.

It is possible to establish a stable supply line of first quality products by buying small or large quantities direct from real manufacturers overseas. No guesswork. No nasty surprises. The process is easy, and if you choose items that are ex stock, you can have them delivered to your door within a few days.

Many will think door to door air courier charges are too high, but I and my franchisees used air couriers or EMS (International Express Post) almost exclusively. After all costs including those courier charges, we were able to sell at a minimum of Cost X 250%.

The secret? Buy direct from genuine manufacturers and know how to be sure you are getting the very best price. Our orders ranged from $100 per shipment to $50,000, with most around $500.

One of my students posted on the forum about buying for a total cost of $2 and selling for $25. Until people get real quotes from genuine manufacturers they cannot imagine what profit margins are possible.

By the way, check out the 141 adverse reports on Ripoff Report | ATI Search of Complaints & Reviews and see if you would prefer to buy direct from an overseas manufacturer.

You've got to be creative with product damages. Multiple sales channels re: Craigslist, eBay, Amazon, Flea Markets, etc. Diversify, diversify

Also, the horror stories we all hear about are in relation to customer returned items. There are millions of dollars of closeouts, shelf pulled, and overstock items that exhibit minimal to no damages whatsoever. This is what Amazon sellers are purchasing.

Still risky, but there's risk in al business ventures

I know most people don't read more than the last two or three posts, so please see my post #35 in which I say much the same.

Buying direct from genuine manufacturers overseas, even in small quantities, gives you profit margins much better than the Monopoly money profits (or pizza money) you can get by buying liquidated goods.