Buying liquidation or wholesale can be very profitable if you know how to bid correctly. I am going to explain the thought process involved and the “how to” so you can bid correctly and lower your risk while maximizing your potential gain.

The bidding on liquidation product is very different than online auctions. The first step is to get a list of product to bid on from liquidation or close out sources. You bid on liquidation items by placing what is called a “Blind Bid” from this product list. This simply means that you bid the price you are willing to pay for a set list of product.

No other bidders can see your bid or vice versa. You are notified via email if you won the items you bid on, usually within 48 hours. It is very important that you do your research thoroughly prior to placing any bid!

Payment

The two accepted methods of payment from the liquidation sources are Cashier’s Checks or Wire Transfer directly to their bank.

Buying Liquidation

Once you obtain the contact information and are placed on the Approved Buyer list from
a liquidation company, you will receive an email stating, “Lots for Bid” or “Manifest Bid List”.

These bid lists come with basic listing information, such as quantity and a very general description of the product. Depending on the company, the Bid Lists are broken up into three separate categories: “Sent Good”, “Sent Bad” and “Untested”. All the companies terms and conditions clearly state “As Is, Where Is, With No Guarantees Or Claims, Etc to Working Condition”!

“Sent Good” This product group will have a higher percentage of functional product. The negative aspect is that there will be more bidders and this drives the price higher. I personally have had occasions in which I won the bid on a “Sent Good” lot, and actually received less functional product than a lot I purchased that was labeled “Sent Bad”.

“Sent Bad” In my experience, these lots have been the most profitable. There is more risk involved. Suppliers often include discontinued items in this category, items no longer in production. Some of these items are brand new! There is a large demand for “out of production” parts on the auction sites such as Ebay, Yahoo, etc. A lot of this product may have been tested by a technician or returned by a customer.

“Sent Untested” There is a good potential for this product as well. It is more of a gamble, but I have found that the product sent in untested lots were items usually used internally in a company. One big advantage is that your competitors will not bid as aggressively!

You will notice that there is a lot number assigned to each group of product. When you place your bid it is never for a single line item, but for all of the products listed under the Lot number. As you can see, it lists only very general information.

Shipping

When buying large quantities, or a “Lot” of product, you will find shipping is quite different from other auctions as well. Due to the weight and size of a larger purchase, it will not be sent via normal common carriers such as UPS, FED EX, and USPS.

You will arrange the shipment via a trucking line. Important! Shipping is very competitive, be sure to get at least three bids prior to shipping. Moving two to three pallets across the country can cost around $350. Delivery on average is five-seven days maximum. This is also affected by the distance, and the shipper you choose.

Some Important Tips

When I first started buying Liquidation, I would use the Google Search Engine to check prices on the products listed in the Manifest. In those cases I was barely able to break even on the pallets I successfully bid on, because the information on Google can be compared to a “Wish List”.

eBay is the tool for finding what the product will sell for right now! It gives you real time market information on the lowest price buyers will pay for an item. This is invaluable!

It is always better to lose a bid at your maximum price than to set your bid too high. I have had many instances where I had not won a Bid for weeks, but then the Bid I did win almost doubled my investment.

My tested formula is very simple. I research each item on the Manifest quickly on eBay, searching only Completed Auctions. The data on auctions that are still running is of no value in determining the low market price for an item.

I then take the lowest completed winning bid on the eBay item. I then do the same procedure for all the items on the list and put my maximum price on that item at 45% of the lowest eBay sold price for any lot labeled “Good”. I use 20% of the lowest eBay value on any lot labeled “Bad”, and 25% of the lowest value of any lot labeled “Untested”.

Add up all of the prices for the items, and then place one bid for each lot. In a “worst case scenario” you break even on your investment – “best case” scenario, you double or triple your investment.

There may be cases where you are unable to find any sales data on eBay. You should then search the web. When you locate the item, put your maximum value to be 10% of the price listed on the web. When you bid correctly, there is the potential to double your bid on every lot.

Some people give goods purchased from wholesale liquidations the cold shoulder because they believe they are low quality goods. They prefer to have their stores filled with first class commodities. Yes it is true that the first class goods may have some benefits, but the price paid isn’t always worth paying. Often times you can obtain the same items that are presented in local stores at discounted prices.

Have you ever thought about what you could be missing by concentrating on products that are being unloaded in huge quantities by liquidators? Unused goods are very expensive to buy and thus to ensure your business is well stocked you often times have to spend a good amount of money. You might feel you are not wasting any money buying at retail or dealer prices, however you could benefit much more by finding that great item at amazing discount pricing.

There are many wholesale and closeout stores excited to offer you great deals on quality items. By jumping in to the liquidations industry you could see a sharp increase in sales and an increase in profit, because you are still buying high quality items, but the big difference is that you are buying them at steep discounts. Wholesale closeouts are very cheap and thus with a small amount of money you can buy substantial stock that if re-sold properly could help propel your business forward.

By purchasing liquidation products at rock bottom prices you can sell them cheaply and ensure that you make a profit. This profit is important in cushioning your business where your other products you are offering are not performing. In many cases, especially with the prevailing economic crisis the margins from the sale of goods can be very thin. The closeouts you find will help cover this margin and ensure that your business still remains profitable.

Hence, you are able to pull through these difficult times. It cannot be overstated that for any type of company that deals with tangible goods the most crucial thing is to get a reliable source of high quality inventory at a low price. This is what will make your business succeed or fail. Business to Business (B2B) ventures are helping you to improve productivity and also helping to make sure your business gets timely information on where to obtain inventory at a lower total cost. Obtaining low cost goods isn’t the only focus, you should also concentrate on getting quality goods with affordable shipping costs. This enables businesses to make timely and well informed decisions on where to buy wholesale goods from.

The US economy has a reverse supply chain where a substantial amount of goods from the corporate world have to be recycled or liquidated. These goods are either overstock or just excess inventory which includes goods that have been returned. It is estimated that these goods are worth a whopping over US $60 billion this year. That’s large by all means. This is as a result of innovation; whereby goods that are produced are dropped to a lower level when superior or newer goods are manufactured. These goods are therefore available for trading in the B2B market place. Wholesale liquidations are often times intermingled in to this supply chain. Defective items and other goods that can be salvaged for parts are available also for sale at wholesale prices.

Executive Dating

So you wanted to learn how to start a wholesale distributorship business? Well firstly, you should know that the wholesale distributorship industry has become a famous trend in the world of business, now this you know. Today, total U.S. wholesale distributor sales are approximately $3.2 trillion. Since 1987, wholesale distributors’ share of U.S. private industry gross domestic product or GDP has remained steady at 7 percent, with segments ranging from grocery and food-service distributors to wholesale clothing, furniture and home furnishings wholesalers.

Now, some have said that putting up another wholesale distributorship business is a waste of time because of the huge number of competitors all around us. But whenever I hear this talk of discouragement, I always just think of a phrase I learned when I was still in preschool, “There’s always room for Jello”. So whenever they say that there isn’t much room for another wholesale distributorship business, that there’s just too many, I just think of that phrase and add a little twist in it.

The Life as the Wholesale Distributor

Now all of us know perfectly that manufacturers are responsible in “manufacturing” the products which the retailer sells them to the end user. So where does the wholesale distributor fit in this process? Well let’s take for example a t-shirt, which the manufacturer manufactured then packed, then sold to clothing retail stores, which in turn sells it to customers or to the consumers. But between the processes where the t-shirt is being delivered to the retailers, is where you, the distributor, come in, to move the product from manufacturer to market.

Different distributors work differently from one another. Some distributors work much like the retailers, selling their goods directly to the consumers or the end users. Others are known as merchant wholesale distributors; they buy products from the manufacturer or other source, then move them from their warehouses to companies that either want to resell the products to end users or use them in their own operations.

Wholesale trade includes establishments that sell products to retailers, merchants, contractors and/or industrial, institutional and commercial users. Now there are three types of operations that can perform a Wholesale trade which are the wholesale distributor (that’s you); manufacturers’ sales branches and offices; and agents, brokers and commission agents.

As a wholesale distributor, you will be in charge of running an independently owned and operated firm that buys and sells products of which you have taken ownership. Mainly, these operations are run from one or more warehouses where inventory goods are received and later shipped to customers.

Confusing? Well to put simply, as the owner of a wholesale distributorship, you will be buying goods to sell at a profit, much like any retailer would do. The only difference between the a wholesale distributor from a retailer is that you’ll be working in a business-to-business realm by selling to retail companies and other wholesale firms like your own, and not to the buying public or the end user.

Steps in Starting a Wholesale Business

Now that you know what life you’ll be experiencing when getting into the world of wholesale distributorship, let’s talk now about the steps that you must take before starting your wholesale distributorship business.

Step 1: Choose the Industry that Really Suits You

The title of the first step says it all; you should choose an industry that really suits you. Let’s say you like clothes, then a wholesale clothing business is perfect for you, or if you are into wines then a wine wholesaler is the appropriate wholesale distributorship for you. It’s very important that the industry you chose is what you really like. It’s hard to make a shift of primary industry when you’re already in it.

Now if you can’t decide on what industry to choose from, here’s a small thought: Every year, U.S. retail cash registers and online merchants ring up about $3.6 trillion in sales. About a quarter of that comes from general merchandise, apparel and furniture sales or GAF. To measure how large the scope of GAF, try to imagine every consumer item sold from foods to building tools, and then remove the cars, building materials and food. The rest, including computers, clothing, sports equipment and other items, fall into the GAF total.

Such goods come directly from manufacturers or through wholesalers and brokers. Then they are sold in department, high-volume and specialty stores, all of which will make up your client base once you open the doors of your wholesale distribution firm. So having a talent for choosing the hottest trends in clothes and starting a wholesale clothing business isn’t bad at all.

But there are still some problems that you’ll face once you open that door, one of which is consolidation. For wholesale distributorship starters such as you, consolidation is rampant in this industry. Some sectors are contracting more quickly than others. To combat the consolidation trend, many independent distributors are turning to the specialty market. Many entrepreneurs are finding success by picking up the golden crumbs that are left on the table by the national companies, this you must take into mind. As distribution has evolved from a local to a regional to a national business, the national companies can’t, or sometimes don’t wanted to, cost-effectively service certain types of customers. Often, small customers get left behind or are just not profitable enough for the large distributors to serve. So this is where you should be targeting to stay clear out of site of those big wholesale distributors.

Learn how to manage and maintain a wholesale clothing business with what Seven Wholesale can provide with their collection of highly maintained and updated collection of clothing lines.

Step 2: Choose Your Suppliers Very Wisely

Suppliers are very important in your line of business. One of the initial steps that wholesalers take before venturing through this line of business is defining a customer base or the vendors and locating reliable sources of product or the supplier. We’ll talk about the customers later on.

The process of the product getting to the consumers a chain which is a set of resources and processes that begins with the sourcing of raw material and extends through the delivery of items to the final consumer. You position in this supply chain will involve matching up the manufacturer and customer by obtaining quality products at a reasonable price and then selling them to the companies that need them.

In selecting the right supplier for your wholesale distributorship business, you will have to get in touch with manufacturers who will be willing to appoint you as a wholesaler for their products. Many companies will have sales targets for you to meet – so think carefully before deciding on any one.

But in some cases, you will have to get in touch with the company’s distributors if they are not willing to supply directly to you. In this case, there will be a division in profit margins, so you will have to factor in these calculations before you can proceed in dealing with them.

Now if you supplier is the manufacturer itself, then its necessary for you to check out the policies of different manufacturers, including how they plan to handle any goods returned back to them due to defects or for any other reason. You will also need to check their after-sales service policies. It is best to steer clear of any manufacturers that you cannot get a clear answer from, or end up with a lot of inventory that you just can’t sell.

Check out what Seven Wholesale and its collection of wholesale clothing can provide you with your urban and fashion clothing needs.

Step 3: Find an Appropriate Location for your Shop and Warehouse

In setting up your warehouse or your shop, your needs will depend greatly on what type of product you chose to specialize on. If you chose a wholesale clothing business, you could run it in your own home and store your stocks on you own basement. But lack of space would eventually hamper your success. If you’re running a distribution company from home, then you’re much more of a broker than a distributor because a broker simply facilitates the transfer of products, whereas a distributor takes title and legal ownership of the products.

Wholesale distribution companies, like a wholesale clothing business, frequently starts in areas where land is not too expensive and where buying or renting warehouse space is affordable, but close enough where the action is. Let’s take for example your starting a wholesale clothing business, its better if your shop or your warehouse is located in a place where a mall or many clothing shops are in close proximity. This makes it a lot easier for them to get your stocks and for you to deliver you stocks.

Step 4: Identify Your Potential Customers

Now as I told you earlier on, about defining a customer base or the vendors and locating reliable sources of product or the supplier, here we’ll talk about your potential customers. Because every company relies on a pool of customers to sell its products and/or services to, the next logical step in the startup process involves defining exactly who will be included in that pool.

As a wholesale distributor, your choice of customers includes:

· Retail Businesses

o This includes establishments like grocery stores, clothing store, independent retail stores, large department stores and power retailers

· Retail distributors

o This includes the distributors who sell to those retailers that you may find impenetrable on your own.

o Retail distributors can be a big help. For example, if you can’t “get in” at a power retailer like Wal-Mart, you may be able to sell to one of its distributors.

· Exporters

o These are companies that collect United States-manufactured goods and ship them overseas.

· Other Wholesale Distributors

o It’s always best to buy from the source, but that isn’t always possible, due to exclusive contracts and issues like one-time needs. For this reason, wholesale distributors often find themselves selling to other distributors.

o An example of these is you buying your stock to other wholesale distributor such as the Seven Wholesale.

Step 5: Make use of Technologies Available Today

You should purchase a simple inventory control software package, which will help you keep track of your products, even if they are in more than one warehouse. This will help you in giving proper quotes and delivery schedules to your customers, thus helping you to earn more money by rotating your products in an efficient manner.

Most distributors rely on specialized software packages that tackle such functions as inventory control, shipping and receiving, accounting, client management, and bar-coding. And while not every distributor has adopted the high-tech way of doing business, those who have are reaping the rewards of their investments.

Technology has helped increase productivity while cutting down on the amount of time spent on repetitive activities, such as entering addresses used to create mailing labels for catalogs and individual orders. It’s imperative that any new distributor realize from day one that technology will make their lives much, much easier. So it is very important that when you enter a new day and age, you should always check for tools that can help you ease out on problems that you could encounter in your wholesale distributorship business.

If you would like to try your hands on a wholesale clothing business and wants a suitable and stable supplier that can supply you with everything you need.

Many people have the wrong idea about salvaged cars. They are viewed as being junk. While salvaged cars don’t have the best reputation, understanding how they got that way may turn your thoughts around.

Cars that have been given a salvage titles are those that the insurance company claims would cost more to repair than the car is worth. However, it’s mainly based on the estimated value of the vehicle so for example if you own an older truck that was in mint condition before that deer jumped in front of you and caved in your front end, the insurance company may figure the truck is not worth it to repair. Having been in this situation myself I can assure you it was definitely worth it to me to repair my truck!

So, what can happen is often times the car will be issued a salvage title instead of a regular one. This type of title is meant to protect buyers so that they know the vehicles history and are aware of any potential problems. If this happens it can be well worth it to keep the car even if it gets a “totaled” report. Many times the car can be rebuilt depending on the original damage.

Many people love to fix up cars as a hobby or business. If you’re looking to get into rebuilding cars, salvage cars are an excellent way to get started. You can often repair the car or take the parts to build a new car.

If you don’t own a salvage car then another option is to buy one at auction. Salvage auctions are a fun place to buy because they give you access to great cars at often very cheap prices. These auctions provide a function that helps the buyer, seller, and even the environment! If you’ve never considered buying a salvage car to rebuild or even use as parts then you’re missing out on a great thing. You can buy a wrecked but repairable car or truck, usually saving thousands over a non-salvaged car at an online auction. There are many great vehicles out there just waiting for you to fix them. Whether you use the vehicle for its’ parts or to repair it and make it drivable again, a salvage car can be a great investment.

No matter if you’re buying for yourself or to resell the car, there’s a huge potential to save a lot of money and make money too. Keep in mind, there are some vehicles that are no longer worth anything, but there are others that are worth their weight in gold. If you rebuild the car to exact specifications then you can expect the car to pass the inspection with flying colors.

There are many individuals who specialize in rebuilding salvaged cars as a hobby or to resell the vehicle to make money. Before buying a salvage title vehicle, whether it be a car or truck, either to keep for yourself or to sell it, it’s vital that you check with your local DMV to find out what the requirements are for putting a salvage auto back on the road. Every state has different laws so it’s important to know what your state requires before making an investment.

Buying a car from a salvage auction is a great way to save money and even make money if that’s what you’d like to do. You’ll also be doing a great thing by reusing resources that are already there. Many people lose out because they are scared to invest in a car with a salvaged title. Their loss is your gain as you come out with a restored vehicle that will last you many years at a great price.

I personally own a salvage title car and it’s been running great for the near 7 years I’ve owned it. I saved about $5,000 compared to other cars of the same make, year and model. Another added benefit is my yearly DMV registration fees are about one quarter the cost of a non-salvage vehicle!

Looking for a list of the most reliable and dependable online wholesale clothing shops on the net? Then here is my top 10 list of picks when it comes to online wholesale clothing shops that really delivers the best service among all other!

They offer quality wholesale clothing and accessories at extremely economical prices with superior customer service. As one of the top online wholesale clothing shops, they enjoy a diverse customer base because they are one of the few wholesale clothing suppliers that do not require a membership to make purchases.

Now, serious shoppers can get even more savings on their wholesale clothing and merchandise by becoming VIP members. For only $49/year, our VIP members will receive 15% off on their first order and 5% off on all other additional orders for an entire year. Additionally, VIP members will receive premium customer service from senior account reps and can negotiate larger quantity orders when necessary. All of these benefits can also be combined with any other current promotions or discounts such as our free shipping deals as well.

ClothingIsland.com

ClothingIsland.com has been in the business for 20 years, providing the best services that customers would ever wish to have. This site offers different kinds of wholesale clothing from women, men, and kid’s clothing, to special deals such as closeout deals, scrubs, and church suits.

With 20 years of experience in the wholesale clothing industry, ClothingIsland.com guarantee’s the highest quality standards of wholesale clothing lines with the lowest of prices available. Best of all, ClothingIsland.com can offer free shipping on all of their collection.

RedTagClothing.com

If you’re looking for the very best source of wholesale clothing for women and juniors on the World Wide Web, this is the right place.

Red Tag Clothing is a premiere B2B or business-to-business dealer offering the hottest styles on the market at some of the best wholesale prices anywhere. They carry hard-to-find wholesale plus size clothing in the trendy designs that your buyers are shopping for, as well as an impressive selection of junior wholesale clothing lines in all styles.

To ensure top notch services, Red Tag Clothing have added a quality control team that goes over all of the items they stock to ensure that each wholesale clothing piece will please your customers.

SevenWholesale.com

SevenWholesale.com specializes in providing urban wholesale clothing lines for men, women, and children. Their collection of brands includes the most popular in the urban community such as Sean John, Rocawear, Apple bottoms, Gino Green Global, Makaveli, Coogi, Snoop Dogg, Miskeen, Phat Farm, Enyce, Mudd, L.E.I., Ecko, G-Unit, and many more.

WholesaleClothingApparel.com

In here, you’ll find the best prices on wholesale clothing and accessories around. Whether you have a small shop downtown or a large operation at the mall, they have the wholesale fashion clothing options that will attract customers to your retail store!

WholesaleClothingApparel.com offers first quality men’s and women’s fashions, children’s fashions, the latest jeans and accessories along with discounts for as low as 50-70% below wholesale. This is done by working directly with manufacturers and importers to get the best apparel clothing deals, and pass the savings on to their customers.

WholesaleClothing4U.com

Wholesaleclothing4u.com is one of Chinese leading wholesale clothing distributors dedicated to wholesale of women’s clothing. Their collection includes tops, halter tops, to strap tops, from skirts to dresses, and from jackets to t-shirts.

Not only do they offer the latest trends of women’s clothing in China, but also some of the cutest and the most fashionable clothing lines from Japan and Korea.

Wholesale-Clothing.com

If you’re looking for online wholesale clothing shop for kid’s clothing, then Wholesale-Clothing.com is the right place for you. Their range of kid’s wholesale clothing line includes babywear, kids’ casual wear, swimwear, sleepwear, costumes and dresses. They also provide special children’s Manchester and accessories including socks, underwear, bags and bibs.

Being in the business for 20 years, you can assure that their clothing and accessories are made to the highest standards of quality and durability and all available at discount wholesale prices.

IslandWholesaler.com

Providing 100% quality and authenticity on their wholesale clothing, reliability and trust in offering the best services, and with combined experience in both retail and wholesale of over 30 years, IslandWholesaler.com can only give you the highest quality of service found on the net.

OrangeZoneInc.com

Established in 1996, their goal is to offer fashion wholesale clothing lines at 50%-70% below wholesale prices. They carry a wide variety of New, First Quality Wholesale Womens Clothing, Wholesale Men Clothing and Wholesale Plus Size Clothing from the Nation’s Largest Manufacturers and Suppliers.

OrangeZoneInc.com guarantees first quality and grade A authentic merchandise, so you’re assured of same product found in your mid and high end apparel companies and department store retailers except for their incredibly low prices.

TBIApparel.com

TBI Apparel is a wholesale clothing line of off-price fashion and casual clothing in the juniors’ and young men’s category. Their focus is offering their customers great cutting edge apparel at a fraction of the regular wholesale price. Their merchandise mix is unmatched in its array of styles, prices and labels. Their commitment to their customers’ needs and their success is second to none.