Yeah, you have heard this before: Are you ready to make some real money in a real business? What do most think of when they hear this…Scam, right?

Here is what made me successful, dropshipping or Brokering liquidation merchandise. Call it what you want, but brokering pallets and truckloads allowed me to quit my job. My business became so big we had to move our operation from our home to an actual office. Months later we had to expand further to a warehouse. It kept growing and growing. I had clients all over the US and worldwide calling my company to buy merchandise I did not own. I dropshipped everything.

 We moved to a warehouse because I started buying truckloads and selling from my own inventory. Why not? I certainly had the cash! What to broker or dropship? This is a piece of cake, well it is for me now because I know who to buy from. I know what warehousing companies are legitimate. Merchandise I do not bring into our warehouse…I broker from Several department store including Kmart, Sears, Best Buy, Macys, Target, Costco and others.

Brokering liquidation merchandise is simply a matter of finding pallets and truckloads and then finding buyers. Where do you find the direct sources for department store pallets and truckloads? I have them detailed in my guide, Liquidation Secrets. How about advertising? How do you find customers to re-wholesale this merchandise to? This is also very easy. There a few wesbites and directories that you must advertise on. I spell it out in my guide, Liquidation Secrets, in fact if you are interested in becoming a liquidation merchandise Broker I can explain:

• What merchandise to Broker & from whom?
• Brokering Versus Dropshipping
• How I started Brokering
• Getting Started as a Broker
• Broker Licensing
• Internet Faxing Service
• Why you will need voice messaging and an auto attendant
• Critical: Email List Building Software
• Invoicing Software
• The Broker’s Bank Account
• Payment methods
• Setting Up a Website as a Broker
• Brokering Business Day One
• Looking for merchandise to sell
• Looking for buyers to purchase your offers
• Pricing pallets and truckloads
• The Brokered transaction step by step
• Tips for the successful Broker

I also bought three pallets of catalog returns from the nationwide Blair catalog. While not trendy apparel it is very inexpensive and has a great resale value. My cost per unit, including freight was a paltry .80 per unit. I can resell this stuff at $3 each or two for $5.00 all day long.

The last pallet I bought was overstock shoes as they make a great addition to any apparel liquidation sale. This pallet contains 123 pair of mixed styles and sizes. All shoes were purchased direct from the liquidation from The Shoe Pavilion. This was chain store that had a local outlet in our hometown. I bought the shoes for $2.25 per pair, which is a great price for mid-range quality shoes.

I do have about 300 pieces of apparel clothing shelf pulls from Federated, which always causes a stir at our sales due to the top name brands. We resell this clothing at $10 per unit. People jump at the opportunity to buy clothing with the original price tags attached showing retails ranging from a low of $25 up to $130 per item!

All of the pallets I ordered should be in this Thursday in time to sort on Friday and kick our doors open on Saturday for an eight hour liquidation extravaganza! If you have not held a liquidation sale you should. We will usually bring in $3,000 - $5,000 in an eight hour day of non-stop sales. If you want further information about holding a liquidation sale, please browse through our blog. I have posted several pages showing you how.

To be honest, I’m still not exactly sure of what I’d like to buy for my first purchase. I intend to auction the best products on the pallets on eBay and sell the rest at flea markets. There are plenty flea markets in the Bay Area. My plan is to have booths at each one of these places. I’m trying to minimize any risks at the beginning of my journey into this industry, and please trust that I’m not one of those people who have get-rich-quick motivations. I’m fully aware that it would take very hard works and dedication to succeed in this field, and I only intend to do so.

Hello, I am really glad you found our guide and this blog to be helpful. I will be honest and tell you that buying a reselling liquidation merchandise is a lot of work. It requires determination and a bit of creativity. Both my wife and I love the work as we find it a challenge; no two loads are similar.

I think the best advice for someone who is new is to (1) take your time and really put some thought into what it is you want to resell and (2) buy at the lowest price point possible. You mentioned you are in Concord, Ca?

I can tell you that Sears has a warehouse or hub in Woodland, Ca where they ship out truckloads of customer returns. This is where most of my loads come from. We buy a load called Hardware, which consists of several categories of customer returns including: Small Household items, tools, outdoor furniture, personal care items and a couple of large appliances per truckload. Every load we buy is different; some are damage laden, while others are what we call “diamonds”.

Because we buy multiple loads consecutively (12-24 pallets at a time), we are able absorb the heavier damaged items by “mixing and matching” pieces from load to load. Let me try to explain it this way: If you buy 12-24 pallets you might, for example, receive a total of 20 coffee pots. Not all will be in perfect working order; some will be missing pieces and or broken altogether. Because you have a total of 20, you can mix and match pieces to make as many complete units as possible. This is really where the work comes into play.

We take this category of Hardware and sell the larger stuff at retail liquidation sales and the smaller stuff on eBay. For example, in these loads we routinely get garage door remotes and electric shavers that sell really well on ebay, but not through our retail sales. Over time you will know how to sort each load making a pile for eBay and a separate pile for the flea market. Call me crazy, but this is the fun part!

Again, thanks for reading our blog and buying our guide! Should you have further questions please email. I would love to hear from you once you buy your first few pallets! Good luck!

Liquidation sales are not uncommon throughout the country as major catalog retailers, distributors and manufacturers will open their doors to the public with the intent to downsize stock levels and create immediate cash flow.

During our liquidation event sales it is not uncommon to have lines out our door well before our advertised opening hour. We really build up excitement through advertising early and using specific marketing promotions to drive customers to our location.

We held an apparel liquidation event one Saturday a few years ago where we sold every article of clothing at $5. What a frenzy this caused and to make matters even more interesting we placed a flier insert in our local newspaper asking that only those whose last names begin with a-k attend this 8 hour sale! We had no intention of actually checking Id’s, but this ploy sparked the attention of everyone looking for a good deal.

That one line promotion gave everyone that read our add a feeling of urgency and limited manpower to service the entire public in one eight hour period. It worked and it worked well. Our cash register almost overheated that day!

Another marketing technique we use is simply offer a raffle during our sales where everyone interested fills out a contact sheet offering a name and address. Everyone loves the chance to win something and the contacts we collect are notified by postcard of our next liquidation event!

You can use the Liquidation Sales Event model for any type of liquidation merchandise including shelf pulled items, customer returns and overstock.

Brick and mortar retailers hold event sales often by placing large “view blocking” posters in their windows a few day before a sales event. The window blocking poster often will advertise a critical message like, “Stock Clearing Liquidation Sale Tuesday the 12th!”.
Because onlookers cannot see into the store curious customers get the feeling that the store is preparing for a massive sale….and they plan to attend!

Get creative with your marketing. Do you typically wholesale merchandise or retail online only?

Think about holding an event sale and watch your cash flow go through the roof!

Search for overstock and closeout inventory by calling distributors and manufacturers direct. All wholesale distributors who place merchandise in stores like Walmart, Kmart, Target, Kohls, Walgreens etc will have merchandise to liquidate.

When you go out shopping keep a close eye out for products that might suit your individual business. When you find a product that you might want to sell take a closer look at the box or packaging. Your looking for any information that might allow you to contact the manufacturer or distributor direct.

All retail products will have a barcode along with the company’s name. Most of the time you can find the words, “distributed by….” or “manufactured by….”.

I always carry a small pocket sized notepad and pen with me when I am going to any type of store. Once I find the product I like, I write down any and all information that I find. Back home, I will google the company’s name and sometimes the UPC code. You would be surprised at how many wholesale distributors and manufacturers’ have websites-BINGO!

From this contact information and web search I then call the company direct asking about any closeout, shelf pull and overstock deals they may have. I have found hundreds of closeout deals using this method.

Think about it for a moment, wholesale distributors often place merchandise in stores on some sort of consignment agreement. Large retail stores are billed on specific time cycle and then the unsold merchandise is often taken back by the wholesaler or distributor. What do they do with this merchandise? They liquidate it to resellers like you and me.

I remember one such deal I found a few years ago. I was shopping with my wife at our local grocery store when I stumbled upon a clothing rack full of apparel. Yes, apparel at a grocery store! I knew that this apparel was being distributed by an independent company so I wrote down the apparel brand and flipped the hangtag over and wrote down the companies name: Roundy Apparel.

When I went home I Googled Roundy Apparel and low and behold stumbled upon their website www.roundy.net. I called the company up the next day and you would have thought I was the answer to their prayers because I was told they have an abundance of unsold clothing to liquidate. A week later I received a free sample shipment of the apparel and made my first order buying 1000 mixed pieces of this “store pulled” merchandise. I think if my memory serves me I paid seventy cents per item!

You can use this technique over and over to find closeout deals for your business. It works.

We are well into the first two weeks of our new blog design and most of the “bugs” have been resolved. Our new platform has increased our daily page views and readers are reporting ease of navigation. Thank you for your patience through this time and thank you for all the feedback we have received about the changes that have been implemented. We truly are a community when you take the time to comment and offer suggestions.

I may be biased, but I personally feel our blog about liquidation merchandise is second to none.

There are several factors which will influence a buyer to bid on your ebay auctions. Before you even begin to source merchandise to sell on eBay, you must first become proficient in eBay marketing. If you have spent anytime researching a part or full time income selling on eBay you already know that inventory is just one part of the equation.

If you want to take your eBay business to the next level I encourage you to follow the expert advice of Skip McGrath. Skip is a well known eBay Powerseller (since 1999) who has authored seven books relating to eBay success. In his Complete eBay Marketing System, Skip coaches new and experienced eBay sellers showing various ways to build a profitable eBay business. “Working part-time you can earn extra income for yourself or your family,” McGrath goes on to say “Work full-time and you can build your business into a complete web-based enterprise with an above-average annual income.”

Sourcing Overstocks and Shelf Pull for your auctions

We have all searched through ebay and noticed that some ebay sellers seem to have an incredible inventory of new retail merchandise including BIG Name Brands. Where are the successful ebay sellers getting this merchandise to resell? Most, if not all, ebay powersellers are buying closeout merchandise including overstocks and shelf pulls. Selling on ebay is a competitive sport, if you want to be successful you must be able to buy merchandise far below traditional wholesale pricing. You can accomplish this buy looking for inventory deemed to be categorized as “Closeout Merchandise”.

Welcome to our new design! I am still getting used to the new features including the Recent Posts and Popular Posts feature (over to your right). I would also like everyone to know that our network of sites, FatCat Media, has grown to now include: www.Liquidation-Secrets.com, which is another community dedicated to Liquidation Merchandise and www.HandBag-Deal.com. When you get a chance check both websites out!

I wanted to update all of our frequent and new visitors about the above changes and let you know that over the next 14 days we will be testing new features and may change a few things around. Thank you for your dedication to our website and your patience while we are growing!

• Ensure each supplier is authentic with a legally registered business
• They confirm that the listed contact person represents the registered company
• A Global Sources Rep visits the company 3 or more times to ensure they are export-ready, and have real offices and products
• They check that the company information is valid and accurate
• They reject any suppliers that do not meet the standards of our community
• Global Sources works closely with intellectual property rights holders to remove any infringing products listed

Global Sources holds 20 category specific trade shows each year in Dubai, Shanghai, Mumbai and Hong Kong. Watch a few of the trade show videos

Global Sources publishes trade catalogs based upon several different categories of merchandise. Subscriptions are fee based, but you can get a complimentary copy here.

If you are thinking about importing apparel, electronics, jewelry and other lines of merchandise you should review further details about Global Sources.

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!