“Hello Rob, Thank you for selling me The Liquidator’s Guide. I’m finding it very informative and a steal We’ve been selling returned toys from Genco for 6 months now and have accumulated quite a large pile of unsold merchandise.
Could you recommend the best channel to get rid of these pieces? So far the ideas from Dana Hill to have an event sale might work but will people buy leftover and broken toys? Our warehouse is in downtown Indianapolis and we do have a good amount of foot traffic but I’m not certain. Thank you! David”
David, thanks for the email! Toys, huh? Awesome, sounds like you’ve found a good niche. You bring up a very good point…what do we do with unsold merchandise? It seems as though every resell channel, i.e. eBay, Amazon, Craigslist, etc. has its limitations in terms of experiencing a complete “sell through” of all merchandise we source within the liquidation industry. So what do we do with left-over stock?
I would definitely think about holding an Event Sale in your local neighborhood. An Event Sale is a one or two day heavily advertised retail liquidation sale where the reseller creates a bit of a customer frenzy by offering merchandise at deep discount for a set (usually short) period of time. Maybe a small window of opportunity of say 3-4 hours on any given date. This “time crunch” usually sparks a great sense of urgency, thereby masses of people purchase quickly. It’s a bit sneaky, but all of those who have every experienced a sales such as this, report the event to be thrilling and cannot wait until the next event is scheduled.
To answer your question…will people buy leftover and broken toys? I say absolutely! There are a lot of toys that may exhibit damages and missing pieces, but there are also many children who would be thrilled to get compromised toys they may not otherwise be able to obtain new. I’m not suggesting the act of reselling trash, but rather those toys that still have “playable” value. Does this make sense?
The Event Sale is really a tactic for you to recoup otherwise lost revenue, right? So, with this thinking, be sure to price excess toys very reasonably. The thought being move ’em out to create revenue for further profitable inventory purchases. Make sense?
Set a date to hold an Event Sale. Go for it! Advertise on Craigslist and be sure to create a sense of urgency in your advertising, such as “Department Store Liquidation of Name Brand Toys…you’ve got three hours to shop- and then we close our doors for good!”
Explain in your advertisement why pricing will be so incredibly low: We have a large quantity of toys that are less than perfect. Some are missing a few pieces / some may be damaged in some way. Yadah, yadah, yadah – be honest and people will show up to see what the opportunity is all about. Maybe create a small flyer that can be handed out on the day of your sale to explain about the toys and various conditions. Compromised toys still have value!
Lastly, I would be cautious about toys that are in some way broken in a way that might be hazardous to children. I wouldn’t take a chance trying to sell dangerous toys.
