Use a business-to-business auction for bigger transactions
Need one item? Try eBay. Want to sell one or two older models of your products? Try eBay. Need to buy 50 paper shredders or sell 37 digital cameras returned by customers? Try Liquidation.com, and get professional asset recovery support, including escrow service for large purchases.
CEO Bill Angrick was an investment banker when he launched Liquidation.com in 1999. A burst bubble and 2,000 business portal bankruptcies later, Liquidation.com remains.
Because his bank helped start eBay and take it public, Angrick knew eBay well, including its weak points. “Fifty percent of all eBay listings close with no bid. And getting attention among the other 60 million listings is tough,” he says.
Businesses large and small need more reliability than that, so Angrick focuses on the service aspect of asset liquidation and doesn’t consider his company an auction site in the traditional sense.
“We have more than 200,000 buyers, purchasing professionals, registered with us,” he says. Although some individuals may buy from Liquidation.com, the overwhelming majority of traffic is business-to-business.
Small companies make up about 63% of Liquidation.com’s business, respectively. Many small retailers buy and then resell products from Liquidation.com or from its GoWholesale.com site.
Have you noticed small storefronts handling eBay auction listings and selling for individuals? Angrick’s been doing that for years, to the point in which many of his 270 employees worldwide are on site at customer warehouses. The Department of Defense, both in the U.S. and the similar branch of the U.K. government, rely on GovLiquidation.com – a subdivision of Liquidation.com – to recover millions of dollars per year for unneeded goods.
Often Liquidation.com takes title to the merchandise (it has warehouses in northern N.J. and Dallas), warranties it and ships it so there’s no buck-passing of purchase or delivery problems. Products that can’t be sold are sometimes recycled or parts salvaged for separate sales.
Since Liquidation.com often deals in pallets of products, buyers have two days to reconcile pallet contents with the shipping manifest, such as counting a shipment of 900 sunglasses ready for sale in your retail outlet. Shipping charges vary widely by type of product, and buyers must agree to a firm shipping price before purchase.
A middle ground between eBay and Liquidation.com – especially for personal and laptop computers and components, as well as home items – is Ubid.com, which I’ve used several times. Ubid also takes title to many products and provides delivery and a warranty.
If you want to try to sell products on eBay, Angrick says sell only new or refurbished items. Sell one at a time, because large lots don’t do well. Consider eBay a marketing channel that helps you find some new customers and drive traffic to your own Web site for a more in-depth presentation.
And when you outgrow eBay, Liquidation.com awaits.
FYI: People in Houston, Seattle, Chicago, and New York City should check out the free Network World Small and Midsize Business Technology Tour in those cities in May and June. Introduce yourself at a seminar and I’ll give you a free gift.
