One of the features I thought to be impressive is the ability to view all sellers in what the site calls the Sellers Directory. When I clicked on this link I was taken to a page which listed sellers based upon their category, ie retailers, liquidators, manufacturers, importers etc.

One thing I was a little concerned about was the fact that a lot of merchandise listed has been on the site for sometime, in fact I noticed some offers with dates as far back as early 2009. Anyway, this site seems to be another source for wholesale liquidation merchandise. Take a look and tell me what your thoughts are.

I am thinking about exporting shelf pull apparel and designer bags, belts, wallets outside of the USA. I would like this merchandise to be new with tags and I would like to select brands. I am interested in Guess, Coach, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Victoria Secrets. The wholesalers that I have talked to only offer mixed merchandise and of course it is not as cheap as buying directly from the department store.

Pricing is very important to my business. In my country there are many wholesalers that sell similar merchandise for very little, and for me to enter that market I have to have similar pricing or even better prices. I know that my competitors have to be buying from direct sources. I have spent hours on internet, but unfortunately I cannot find information I need for my exporting business.

Is is possible to buy directly from a store selecting only the brands I am interested in? Can you explain what is the Federated merchandise that everybody is talking about?

The best answer…yes, and no. Just about every department store that liquidates stock is interested in one thing…moving merchandise as quickly as possible. To do this items are typically sorted into a few categories and then resold at low pricing. For example, In the apparel category you might find clothing, accessories and jewelry. It is best to ask what types of items you might find prior to making a purchase in any one category.

You can read about the Federated chain of department stores HERE. When most liquidation buyers refer to Federated they are talking about Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s merchandise.

As far as purchasing quantities of a certain brand name, the liquidation department of Federated will at times sell brand specific lots. Stock is not available ongoing and you must act quickly when a pallet becomes available. I know historically one of the brand specific lots a liquidation buyer could acquire was Tommy Hilfiger.

West Coast off-price wholesaler, DLM is one of the few companies that will sell liquidation lots of your chosen brand name. They will even take your request for specific size ranges! Give them a call to see how they can help your business.

I immediately thought this might be the end as I have noticed a decline in the maintenance of the site over the last few months. Dead end links and a lack of surplus offers started to become the norm. I often wondered if the value of this directory was even worth the browser bookmark anymore?

I have close ties to this directory, or an association as members call it; back from 2002 until 2004 I was an acting member. I advertised on the site and the leads that I received from ready and willing buyers were welcomed. During my participation I appreciated the traffic that was driven to the offers that I had posted on the Surplus.net website.

But then something happened. It seemed as though there was a membership push of some sort and all members were told that there was going to be a membership split. Those that had active memberships would be given and “extra” membership to go out and peddle.

At first I thought this was a great idea allowing every active member to make some money by bringing other dealers in, but what happened next was what I felt started the decline of this directory. This is speculation, but I really feel as though “extra” or “split” memberships were sold at a very discounted rate. This brought to the table a bunch of dealers that could not have afforded a membership before at $3500 per pop.

To me the advertised price of a membership back then was steep, but it did keep out those that were just dabbling in the Surplus trade. So, with the discounted memberships came a flood of “overnight” Brokers and even some eBay sellers who were just trying to unload extra stock.

Membership numbers were up, but quality of dealers participating was down. The directory become too competitive as there was an influx of brokers, with no overhead, peddling too many low-ball offers. Many of the brokers who were now members of this website were trying to under cut everyone. Hey, don’t get me wrong competition is great, but a low price means absolutely nothing if the goods are not delivered or misrepresented altogether, right? This type of trading comprised the credibility of the directory.

I talked with a few of the members who had been there for a while and they agreed with me about the move to bring anyone and everyone on as a directory member. The community started to lose its value. I moved on and left the directory and I know of at least two others who hung on and tried to sell there memberships without much luck. I have a friend today who went through two of the membership splits. He now has a few memberships to resell, but without membership value…does he really have any equity in his extra memberships?

Now, having said the above I do want to be fair and mention that there have been active members at Surplus.net who have been there for years. I would almost consider these dealers to be founders as they run very reputable surplus merchandise companies. After searching through the directory back in early September I came across dozens of blank or dead-end pages. Dealers with no listings.

What is the fate of Surplus.net? Will it come back online….If I had to guess I would say there is a great chance this directory will be back. On the Surplus.cc forum a member posted the site is down due to a malicious attack. It was disclosed that someone redirected the Surplus.net urls and due to this hack the site is down for maintenance and rebuilding. I guess we will all have to wait for now and see how this plays out. Maybe this could become an opportunity to “clean house”?

What experience do you have with Surplus.net as either a member or just a surplus merchandise buyer?

Where do these preassembled pallets come from and how can you purchase a few for your store? Today I want to feature a closeout wholesaler who has been supplying discount and dollar stores for over 20 years. This company, based out of Carson California, is called Kole Imports.

Kole Imports has grown each year providing expert store planning and building strong “supplier – customer” relationships. Check out their website and be sure to sign up to view wholesale pricing. As a closeout wholesaler, Kole Imports offers several categories of merchandise and has created an out of the box point of sale program they call Promo Pallets.

They have a dedicated website that offers nothing but pallets of pre-merchandised inventory and you can visit this site at Promopallets.com.

After visiting the website I was surprised to find out they offer free freight for orders over $1,000. This does not appear to be a limited promotion, so retailers can base total landed cost on website pricing! This is a great example of a strong supplier commitment to each and every valued customer.

What happens when large warehouses filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of inventory catch fire? If properly insured the company that owns the inventory will be indemnified for the loss. Once a settlement is reached for the insured, the damaged inventory will become property of the insurance company that just wrote a large claim check.

Not all claims result in a total loss…sometimes just a portion of insured inventory is deemed a total loss.

The remaining “smoke damaged” merchandise can often be salvaged (cleaned, repaired, repackaged, etc) by somebody. The insurance company, who now retains title to said merchandise, will often utilize a third party to auction off the assets in an attempt to offset any claim payment made. Here are a few examples of claims that could result in an insurance payout and subsequent sale of salvaged consumer inventory:

1. Partial fire losses
2. Smoke damage from an adjacent fire (building owned by someone else)
3. Water damage that affects a portion of merchandise in a warehouse.
4. Merchandise involved in a trucking accident during transit
5. Merchandise that is labeled incorrectly (error found after packaging 50,000 units)
6. Theft Claims (merchandise stolen, claim paid and then merchandise recovered months later)

Purchasing insurance salvaged merchandise might be a viable option for your business. You may need to take a little risk, but if you are buying liquidated customer returns you already understand there could be a portion of your purchase that cannot be resold. In addition you there might be some work involved with cleaning, repairing or repackaging items for resell.

One of the best auction websites for insurance salvaged merchandise is Salvagesale.com. Most of the assets auctioned off tend to be larger industrial equipment pieces, but there are at least 1 or 2 auctions per week of retail inventory (consumer merchandise). Make sure to bookmark this website and check back often…you just might find a goldmine!

Many of the suppliers found in this magazine are leaders in their prospective field. Over the years I have found distributors for high end apparel, cosmetics, shoes, home décor, furniture, jewelry, tools, general merchandise and many other categories.

The May issue offers an excellent article about improving order fulfillment, while lowering costs in the process. Each issue is packed with relevant articles that touch on several areas of retailing. I learn something new each month.

In addition Web Wholesaler writes about “Spotlight Suppliers” and offers extensive information about wholesale trade shows. If you are looking for new sources for inventory you should take up the offer for a FREE Subscription.

There are several liquidators who advertise on a regular basis in WebWholesaler offering subscriber only discounts…What are you waiting for!

I have found that these loads have a great resell value for eBay. I thought I would show our readers here at the blog the actual manifest from the load I just purchased…it is below. I paid $1,500.75 for the entire lot below and I am hoping to more than double my investment by reselling on eBay and through our retail discount store.

I bought the following load, which was fully manifested, from the source found in my guide….Liquidation Secrets. Loads of wholesale and customer returned video games can also be purchased from Doba.com.

Wholesale Video Games

Shoenet offers a wide selection of branded and non-branded shoes for retail stores, eBay sellers and exporters. Before diving fully into this website, please visit the “New Buyers” web page to checkout information about first time purchases and shipping options. Shoenet distributes a wide variety of shoes from the casual flip flops to career and dressy styles. There is also a large selection of athletic and tennis shoes available.

Not only can you chose to buy cased packed shoes in original manufacturer sizing, but you also have the ability to chose by individual style as Shoenet offers a complete description of each inventory item.

Shoenet also sells higher end designer shelf pull shoes by the pallet offering a complete manifest (inventory breakdown) of each lot available. In reviewing current pallets I noted shoes are sold ranging from a low of $11 per pair up to $17, which is competitive with other liquidation offers I have come across while researching shelf pull shoe pallets.

Name brand shoe pallets

Wholesale Pallets currently available through Shoenet offer brands like Coach, Michael Kors, Kensie, Steve Madden, Nine West, Jessica Simpson, Skechers, Converse, Casadei, Rocket Dog, Kenneth Cole and others.

If you are an exporter, Shoenet advertises the ability to assemble 20-40 foot containers of new shoes in several price points.

Please complete your due diligence research before buying from this wholesaler / liquidator. I have no first hand experience buying from Shoenet, but they look to be a formidable source for small and large lots of shoes. If you have purchased from this company, please offer feedback in the comment section of this post.

I was shocked at what some of the medium and large size paintings were going for. The pricing did not seem to detour many shoppers from snatching up landscapes, portraits and abstract themed paintings. I knew that the vendors who were selling were not the artists because I asked a few about the works. One fellow explained he buys bulk loads of hand painted artwork and resells them at craft and art shows throughout the state. Interesting.

When we got home after what seemed like an eternity to me, I immediately went to my computer and started researching wholesale oil paintings. I found a few dealers online who sell paintings, one in particular that is located in China. Deep sigh…..yeah, you have to import the paintings, but pricing looks reasonable. I went ahead and chatted online with one of the sales Reps and they were very helpful in answering the questions that I had. My biggest concern was shipping as far as how they pack the paintings. I was told they ship in custom hardboard tubes, which can hold up to 30 24 X 36 paintings! Paintings are shipped un-stretched.

The China Wholesaler is DouPine.com and the minimum quantity for each order is 100 paintings, mix and match. I was told that new buyers can order small quantities as a sample order to get a feel for quality and time in transit.

Here is the price list:

20 x 24 inches on canvas $5.95 each
24 x 36 inches on canvas $9.55 each
36 x 48 inches on canvas $17.95 each

With pricing this low you could set up shop at fairs, malls and even open a small retail art studio. If you are uncomfortable importing paintings I did find smaller lots of hand painted oil paintings on Liquidation.com. Once on the auction site perform an advance search by seller FramedArt123

What are catalog overstocks?

Major catalog companies continuously have last season’s stock that must be liquidated. Overstocks are considered new and 99% of the time still wrapped in the manufacturers original poly bags! When buying catalog overstocks you will be dealing with brand new merchandise!

Most of the time pallets of overstocks are available and you will have the opportunity to review manifests when buying direct from the catalog retailer. The only drawback is simply the minimum purchase requirements’ imposed by the catalog liquidation department. Most catalog retailers will not sell in small lots and the typical order must be multiple pallets, if not truckload quantities.

There are a few liquidators who specialize in reselling smaller quantities of catalog overstocks and while researching this blog post today I found a great deal on small lots of Chadwick’s (Women’s apparel) catalog overstocks. In fact most 100 piece lots can be purchased for about $1-$1.50 per item!

Here is a link, but please follow my instructions to find this seller:

1. Once at Liquidation.com, go to the search field and search by Product Category (Chose Apparel)
2. Scroll down and look for a listing that looks like the picture below stating Catalog Overstocks and the seller STR_NationalSupply

This apparel would be great as a clearance item in your small clothing store or on eBay. I did some research on eBay today looking at the completed auctions for Chadwick’s apparel and there were a a few that were selling in the $7 – $12 range. This is not huge, but I think a small lot of Chadwick’s mixed in with other branded apparel would make a great inventory for eBay sellers.

If you are looking for other sources for small lots of catalog apparel you might check with Via Trading who sells Victoria Secrets and United Auction, who distributes catalog overstocks from the Haband and the Blair apparel catalog.