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Anyone else do online auctions to source? Do you stay local and pick-up or do you buy from anywhere and have items shipped? I’ve only bought local from one company, but find I can typically get good deals without having to sit around a live auction all day since bidding starts at just a penny. I still enjoy the live auctions, but the online method usually means I can list while sourcing! I had to make up a preview/auction/pickup schedule for the next two weeks as the company I frequent has 6 interesting auctions coming up over the next two weekends.
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I sometimes will buy from an online auction. Usually it’s a place that’s about 90 miles from our home. Problem is that if I only win one item, I have to drive all that way just to get it. So it sometimes makes me pay more than I want because I want the trip to be worth it.
Having items shipped to us isn’t cost effective.
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On more than one occasion I’ve ended up only winning one or two low cost items at an online auction that would have resulted in an expensive road trip. In some instances, I just ended up paying the invoice and let the auction house keep the item. I figure my time is just as valuable.
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I just won my first online auction from an liquidation site. The lot is 64 return items of fashion accessories for a grand total just under $200. Which makes each item just under $3. Hope this will help pad inventory during the winter months. Thrifts are too expensive and hit and miss most of the time. I feel like I’m going to have to start to travel farther out 1 hour or more to get better items in bigger towns. However I homeschool my son and the weather is going to get wintry here soon. So we shall see how this experiment goes.
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I have been looking at the liquidation/pallet online auctions and would be interested in hearing how everything goes for you! I’d love to find out what you think about the quality of the inventory, what the shipping costs were like (or did you have something close for pick-up), and what auction site you used. I don’t have the time for adding a lot of new inventory right now as I have plenty of unlisted stuff, but I think it might be an option for later.
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Don’t get discouraged at thrift stores and their pricing. Use it to motivate you to BEAT them! When the goodwill near my house started jacking up prices, I started sourcing other types of items. When those items start going up, I find something else to source. Rinse & repeat. Eventually they’ll have turnover in the back where they price and they’ll start missing things.
Bottom line, I walk into the “Gucci” Goodwill and while others whine and complain about prices I walk out with a cart full of great inventory. I could have gotten discouraged and quit, but I just worked to improve my own skills.
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I ordered from Liquidation.com Here is the break down of the cost Total:130.00 USD Buyer’s Premium: 10.40 USD Shipping costs:47.05 USD Total Amount:187.45 USD for 64 items. We shall see how good the quality is once it gets here. The items are returned items.
I will still source my local thrifts for the winter season. I wanted to experiment with this because now I only have 2 goodwills and one mom and pop store. We used to have more mom and pop type thrifts but several of them have closed in the past year. I live in Appalachia in Western Maryland so most of the stuff in the goodwills is not high quality items mainly walmart and kohls items. And they have up prices on everything this past winter they even posted on the door a sign that prices will be going up. They also base their pricing on the goodwill’s district headquarters which is a city just outside of DC. I’m willing to travel but that is difficult in the winter months and limited too since my son whom I homeschool still needs to put in 180 days of school. So this is just going to be padding during the winter months.
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I’d also like to hear about what those 64 items are like.
We’ve mentioned buying used military lots and the quality was hit or miss.
We had several pallets of almost new items which was a goldmine.
But we’ve also had several pallets of stuff that almost useless. We’re still selling it off for low low prices!
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I got a lot of ties off liquidation.com once and they where all nice quality… 50% where only worth about $5-$10 but I did get some nice $35-$50 ties… Paid about $0.25 each. I sell about one a week and they help pad my inventory numbers and I can put 200 of them in one box in my storage.
That being said my brother got a lot of belts (new generic ones no label) from them that will take about 3 years to sell, I think he sells about 1 a month cause most people who bought them sell them for a couple of bucks, but my brother is trying to make a decent profit so he has his a $15 but they do sell just takes a while.
I’d like to look into buying from the two local auctions this way but I am usually busy when their auctions are going on. I’ve never had items shipped to me from auction sites before but I guess I’d like to know how it is buying items from places like auctionzip is.
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The local auction firm near me that does online auctions uses proxibid.com and do timed events. This method is nice because you can set a max bid and not have to actually participate in the auction if you can’t. I get an email if I am outbid on an item so I can see if I want to go more if I am still low. I’m looking at an auction on proxibid that will require me to ship the items. I’ll likely call the company prior to bidding to see what their process is for shipping. I would guess auctionzip.com would have similar processes, but I’ve never looked into the online auctions.
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This sucks. I’d be interested to hear what the auction house says.
I’ve bought online auctions and also gotten bas batches, but unfortunately I was out of luck. The auction house usually has a time when the public can preview the items. Because I chose to not see the items in person, then it was on me.
This was an auction ten hours away so previewing in person want an option. I no longer buy $1000 lots of military gear sight unseen.
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We shall see. I might be out of luck but maybe I can break even at least. Defiantly won’t be purchasing from there again. I made a super quick and shaky video. My phone cut off after 3 min. Buyers beware. Lesson learned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tVIVrjcO6w
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Do you think all that stuff is authentic? Those are some serious fancy brands.
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I can only comment from a collectibles point of view, but I source about 70% of my merchandise online–I do both live and timed auctions (less often.) I just picked up a big batch of stuff from my local auction house–but I do my bidding online (I usually preview though.) I always take shipping into consideration and look for auction houses that offer in house shipping as opposed to those who use someone like the UPS store which is more expensive, usually there is a “per box” handling fee of typically $5 so if I am buying from an auction across country I only bid on lightweight stuff–although recently I purchased what I thought was a small figurine of a dog that turn out to be big and heavy, I didn’t read the description closely enough, I bought a few other things but shipping was $50 (ouch–but totally my fault.) I will also buy from the 2 local Goodwills who put their stuff up on ebay and pick up from them–I have gotten a few really great things this way because not paying shipping gives me an advantage when I bid. I have literally won an auction online bidding in my PJs, gotten the item in a few days and sold it the same day it was delivered to my door–especially wonderful during cold weather (we might have snow tonight.)
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I’ll be picking up a lot of 1950’s military ephemera on Tuesday from the local online auction company. I set my max bid and won the item while I was at a party and without my phone/computer. I’m considering bidding on a distant one in January that has Pipes and Pipe stands, but I have to consider shipping in the process. Too many stands and I’m going to be paying freight! I might just focus on a few pipes that I can research first.
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Just an update on the liquidation.com auction. They have accepted my dispute and I will be fully refunded.
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