"Sometimes bulk sellers tell you this is a one time deal or their offer is time limited. I did buy some wholesale liquidation from ______ (name blanked out for privacy purposes) which was a bulk assortment of stuff. I did get wholesale merchandise but most of the packages were damaged, although the products inside them 97% were okay. They promised the items to be in good condition. I wrote to the wholesaler and received a reply saying they no longer deal with Canadians. Please keep the products as we didn't make any promise of the package conditions! We don't refund!
Yikes! That one hurts! At least most of the products were okay.
The difference here is that these products were more than likely not surplus items. They were probably wholesale merchandise. Most people do not understand the difference between wholesale liquidation, wholesale surplus or wholesaler products. If you're dealing with wholesale products make sure there is a returns policy and find out what that percentage is.
Even though products may be damaged, there may still be a market for it to get your money back on it or at least recoup something from it. However, depending on what type of product it is, it is difficult for me to say. For instance if you purchased TV's that have broken picture tubes - that will be very difficult to recoup your investment on it unless you can sell the parts to a TV repair store or similar or parts outlet.
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My suggestion on damaged products (please keep in mind, depending on what it is) you can try to bundle it and put it in kits, look for parts suppliers in that area and offer a deal as a discount lots package or as a wholesale lot package.
A short story: I got burnt with over 300 Panasonic phones that were ALL either missing the handset or base or had broken parts. NOT one of them worked. However, even though it was time consuming I was able to bundle some and sell them as parts and kits in wholesale lots and was able to recoup some of my money.
Here's another email I received asking some very good questions. The answers will help keep you from getting burnt like the person who wrote the email above:
"First let me say thanks for the great info in your newsletter. I am a fairly new subscriber so please excuse me if you have already answered this question in a previous issue. I have an interest in selling products on ebay, but my concern is the initial investment required. By this I mean, if I used your methods do I have to purchase these products by wholesale pallets or even truckloads? Are there usually minimum order quantities required by your sources?
Since I am just starting out in trying to create an ebay business, I have a very limited budget. What can you tell me about the price ranges I might expect if I were to buy wholesale lots or surplus merchandise? Assuming there is a substantial investment, are there any tips or advice you could provide to make this work even on a shoestring budget?
My response:
Thanks for your email and your feedback on my newsletter. I appreciate your questions and they are great ones.
In short, it all depends on what you want to do. Are you planning to purchase wholesale products or surplus products? With wholesale you will be able to purchase bulk lots of units or an individual pallet all the way up to a truckload. With surplus and liquidated merchandise you can purchase by 1 pallet or an entire truckload. It's up to you.
If you come across someone telling you that they have minimum purchase requirements... run the other way! 99% of the time this is a middleman (if not all of the time). Now if you're purchasing bulk pallet loads of wholesale lots, surplus merchandise, and liquidation items, there may be 1 pallet, 3 pallets, 7 pallets, 15 pallets etc in the load that you will not be able to cherry pick from and that is good but that is not a minimum purchase requirement.
In other words, the answer would be no, there aren't any minimum purchase requirements or minimum order quantities.
Sometimes wholesale directories just list a bunch of sources without taking into consideration if they are "legitimate" sources. Beware of cheap wholesale lists and make sure you know what kind of product you are purchasing.
As far as the price ranges - it all depends on the product category you are purchasing in as there are various product categories. Different product categories have different price percentages from the different stores and they can vary depending on who you purchase from. If you're not buying direct from the source, then the prices will be inflated because you will be paying a wholesaler or surplus dealers costs so he can make money. It also depends on the market of the products as well.
Tips and advice would be to start slow and low on a shoestring budget. You can do it and succeed if you do it right. Make sure you have a plan - learn all you can (read my book) and then do it.
Read it and learn all you can. I say that because the questions you are asking will have much more detailed answers in it and it's why I wrote the book.
You will have not only the know how but instant access to over 1000 sources as well as the reclamation centers directly that almost every seller goes through in the industry. Why go through the middleman when purchasing wholesale lots when you can go direct?
Hi Chad,
