One reader emailed yesterday asking a few questions and offering a great compliment in reference to our book, Wholesale Liquidations Exposed. I am going to address one of her specific questions today with this blog post. I would also encourage you to respond to this post if you have any information about today’s topic. Having said that, lets move right along to her email:

“I purchased your ebook yesterday..  I was skeptical at first; however, thought well if the information is no good I only lost $22.  I must say I was pleasantly surprised.  This is one of the few information purchases I have made online that I believe was worth it. Your information is detailed.  I am sure It will take me a while to fully grasp everything you cover.  When you have a moment I would love to hear your comments about liquidation Baby Equipment.”

The secondary market for infant and children’s merchandise including car seats, strollers, cribs etc is tough because most of the giant retailers do not liquidate this merchandise in a category specific offering. In order to get baby furniture and accessories from Sears you must purchase a load called sports, toys and infants, which will also contain exercise equipment.

Walmart’s customer returned loads are the same way. You must purchase other categories of merchandise with each purchase. For example, an average load of Walmart merchandise might contain two pallets of outdoor furniture, one pallet of small refrigerators, two pallets of toolboxes and three pallets of general mixed merchandise. There is no way to separate out by a specific drilled down category-

Children’s furniture is a tough niche to follow in the world of liquidation merchandise. I would also suspect that a great deal of car seats and children’s safety equipment gets returned back to the vendor rather than making out to the “land of liquidations” because of liability issues as well.

Lets think about it for a moment; mom A returns what she calls a defective high chair or car seat and then the product makes it to the secondary resell market? This is a lawsuit waiting to happen between the end user and any deep pocket including the original retailer and the manufacturer.

Recalls are a big part of why children’s safety equipment is returned to any large retail store. If you are a reseller of used car seats, high chairs and other similar items I would probably recommend that you stay informed about consumer recalls.

Here are a few sources for recalled infant items:

CarSeat.org - was established in 1980 and offers a full recall list for infant restraint systems

Graco - Manufacturer offering recall information about car seats and other baby equipment

Evenflow – Manufacturer offering a comprehensive list of recalled products

It would be a great idea to carry a list with you of specific brands and models that have been recalled that way when you are “out and about” thrift store shopping for inventory you can quickly cross-reference recalled brands and specific models.

I would continue your pursuit of used baby equipment through second hand stores and would strongly encourage you to use the popular website Craigslist to post ads looking for this merchandise in gently used condition.

Based upon the state of our economy right now everyone is looking for a way to make some fast cash selling stuff just sitting around their home that is no longer needed.

I would venture to say that your phone will ring off the hook from people responding to your post on Craigslist. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.