There are many benefits to sourcing locally as opposed to online or with wholesalers located some distance from you. Benefits include:
1. No shipping cost
2. No minimum purchase
3. Opportunity to inspect merchandise in person before buying
4. Buy what you want, when you want
5. Safer than online buying – face to face relationship with supplier
6. Networking opportunities
7. More personalized service – local suppliers can learn your business and contact you when new shipments arrive
You may be able to source eBay inventory using local salvage stores. Some salvage stores (not talking about auto salvage here) get their inventory from insurance claims. Let's say a business has a fire or a flood in their store or warehouse. Some of the merchandise will be completely ruined. Some of it won't. There are people out there who buy the "salvage" merchandise in large quantities and sell it. You don't want to be that person - because you may have to buy in large quantities and store the merchandise. You want to be the next person down the food chain that comes along.
Salvage stores or companies may be all around you, but you may not realize it. I have one near me and didn't even know what it was for about 5 years. These two guys buy merchandise from insurance claims. I have found all kinds of light bulk items there including baby items, health and beauty items, clothing, pet items, yard and garden, household, etc. Here is how to find salvage stores in your area.
Exhaust your personal network. Do you know someone in the insurance industry? Do you have a personal connection that can help you acquire these items? Do you know a truck driver who may deliver to one of these locations? Do you know anyone at the corporate level in retail?
Look in the phone book and Yellow Pages under salvage, surplus, wholesale, liquidations, and closeouts. You will be surprised to find these sellers right under your nose. You just haven’t looked for them before.
Pay attention to TV ads, newspaper ads, billboards, radio ads, etc. You may come across advertisements.
Search Google using combinations of these buzz words along with the name of your city, town, county or surrounding areas:
Closeout
Liquidation
Salvage
Salvage store
Salvage dealer
Wholesale / wholesaler
Military Surplus
Army Surplus
Navy Surplus
Surplus Center
Government surplus
Seek and ye shall find!
For more ideas like this about where to find inventory to sell, check out the eBay business system.
1 comment:
Yeah Suzanne, was hoping you would cover this one!! We have a local business that buys close-outs, abandoned freight, you name they can buy it. In fact not only does some of our diversified eBay Inventory come from this business, but my brand new LG Front Loader with Steam Wash came from there for only $700 cash!! Can you say whatadeal!
It is a fun place to browse and see what you can find to resell.
Those $1 items are usually a guaranteed money maker. Right now we have Sporting DVDs paid $1 selling for $8.
This one also buys USPS Book returns from ATL by the Semi-Truck load so you can find almost any newly published book for 75% off cover prices. However competition is tough at other buyers in ATL area buy from same USPS Whse auctions. We went once just to get a feel for how it all worked. Just did not have the $30K to pony up for the semi-truckload deal!!
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