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Griff: Welcome back Chris.
Chris: Thanks Griff, great to be here. You know, we get a lot of questions at worldwidebrands.com from people about buying overstocks, liquidations, store returns and so forth to resell on eBay. Buying pallets of retail store returns, liquidations and so forth can be very profitable, but you have to be very careful in this product market, just like you do in any product market. You know that from all the past experiences that we’ve had. There are a few good people out there and a lot of questionable people out there. You need to find trustworthy suppliers. And Jacques Stamboli, CEO of Via Trading in Los Angeles, is here with me today. His company sells pallets of retail store returns and it is so refreshing to deal with Jacques because he is the most upfront and honest person I’ve ever found in this market and I trust him 100%. Jacques, thank you for being here today and let me start by asking if you could give us an overview, viatrading.com, works.
Jacques: Hey, hi Chris, good to be here today. What we basically do at Via Trading is we have an agreement set up with a variety of different department stores, drug stores, outlets, discount stores, and so on, to get rid of all their excess and unwanted merchandise and this can be overstocks, customer returns, slightly damaged items, items that were over-ordered. It could really be absolutely anything. And then what we do is literally pull it by the full truckload into our warehouse and resell it by the pallet to a lot of different customers, most typically eBay PowerSellers, but also people that have small stores, flea markets, swap meets, and so on.
Chris: You know, Jacques, everybody asks us what the differences are between those things. Can you tell us what the difference is between customer returns, damaged goods, surplus, and so forth?
Jacques: Sure. Overstock is basically what it is, it’s an overstock. It’s an item that has sat on the shelf usually for a few months, it’s been discounted, it did not sell, they discounted it again, put it to clearance, and it basically just did not move. A customer return on the other hand is different. It’s something that usually a customer has purchased and taken home and then for one reason or another brought back to the store. The reasons why they bring them back, obviously, can be plenty. It could have been damaged, it could have been the wrong color, it could have been the wrong size, it might have gotten dented during installation. I know from my experience we had a washing machine actually delivered just a few weeks ago and when they were installing it they just knocked it completely up against the wall and it was dented. I didn’t care, I just told them I’d keep it and get a discount, but a lot of other people would have said, no, no, take it back, I don’t want it, bring me a new one. So you do get a variety of different conditions when you deal with customer returns, from just slightly cosmetic scratch-and-dent to perfectly working to sometimes completely damaged also.
Chris: And the discounts on these products are huge, aren’t they?
Jacques: Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean you’re literally talking pennies on the dollar. But these are items that are sold as is, there’s no warranty, there’s no guarantee whatsoever with them, so you know, you have to buy them very cheap.
Chris: Right.
Jacques: And we do.
Chris: This doesn’t seem to have to do with eBay sales, but it does, and I’ll explain why in a minute. Can you please describe a pallet party for us?
Jacques: Sure. One way of describing this, do you remember when, I know my mother used to have the Tupperware parties. She’d have a bunch of friends and neighbors over and they would just sell Tupperware to each other. It was like a party.
Chris: Same here, yes.
Jacques: What people are doing nowadays is they’re buying the pallets, a pallet of mixed items. Say you are a college student, you would take a pallet back to your dorm and just sell it to all the different people that live there. And a pallet can have lots of different items, so a guy will want the toaster, a gal will want the comforter, somebody will want the microwave. And you basically just have what we call a pallet party and that’s like a very good way of making extra money on the side and obviously you can also use eBay as a channel.
Chris: And yes, exactly. That’s what I was thinking. Because say you’re buying pallets from Via Trading, for example, and you end up with some things that you don’t sell on eBay.
Jacques: Mm-Hmm.
Chris: After you’ve gone through two or three pallets you’ve got maybe some things built up that you haven’t sold on eBay and you don’t want to leave them in your garage, so then you throw a pallet party.
Jacques: Exactly. And that is one of the problems with eBay is that while it’s great and you can liquidate a lot of stuff on it there are some items that either will not fetch a very high price on eBay or they’re too expensive, too difficult, to bulky to ship, so you need like another channel.
Chris: Right, so a pallet party can be your relief valve for things that actually don’t sell on eBay so you really can get rid of almost everything that you end up with on a pallet.
Jacques: Absolutely.
Chris: Griff, I’m sure you have a couple questions for Jacques, so let me turn it back over to you.
Griff: Well thanks Chris, yes in fact I do. Jacques, welcome to eBay Radio.
Jacques: Thanks.
Griff: You were just mentioning about the fact that pallets can have different types of items on them. Is that how all the pallets come or are there some pallets that you can purchase by choice which are one single type of product?
Jacques: There’s really all sorts, to be honest. I mean, yeah, you can buy a pallet, say, of only trash cans if you want. You can buy a pallet of just, say, comforters. Usually, though, they’re more divided by category, say, just tools, and you’d get a whole variety of tools in it. Or, just toys and you’d get a whole variety of toys. It’s rare in this business to get a pallet, say, of just one particular kind of toy and get 500 pieces of exactly the same thing.
Griff: And when you order a pallet from your company, obviously you have it shipped to your location, correct?
Jacques: Yeah, sure, or you’re welcome to come by and pick it up yourself, which if you have a pickup or you’re close by and can just rent a U-Haul, it’s probably going to be a lot cheaper.
Griff: And where is your location?
Jacques: We’re in Los Angeles, 5 minutes from downtown L.A.
Griff: So for all us California folks, especially if you’re a seller in the L.A. area, you’re going to want to check Jacques Stamboli’s place out and that’s Via Training Inc. and you have a website.
Jacques: Yeah, www.viatrading.com.
Griff: I have another question too, if you don’t mind.
Jacques: Sure.
Griff: When a seller is buying pallets from liquidators in general, can they expect that all the products are going to be in saleable condition?
Jacques: It really depends on the category. I was explaining earlier the differences between the overstocks, customer returns, and so on. If you’re buying overstock, then chances are that a very, very high majority of items, I would say over 90-95% should still be in perfect condition. Any damage is probably just done in shipping or in transit. When you’re buying customer returns, and that’s why it’s important to know the difference when you buy, you know, always ask, am I buying overstocks, am I buying customer returns. If you’re buying customer returns, then chances are that you should expect to receive a certain percentage of items that are not in perfect order. And again the ratio will vary tremendously depending on the category of items.
Griff: Okay.
Jacques: Historically, if I had to guess, I’d probably say that around 70% and 30% not working is an average ratio.
Griff: It’s an acceptable risk.
Jacques: It is definitely an acceptable risk. One thing you need to bear in mind is that if you’ve saved up, say $500 over months and you want to get into this business, don’t buy customer returns, because if you buy 100 pallets over a year and you actually end up testing everything, then yeah, you will probably get 70% of your items working and 30% not working.
Griff: Jacques, sorry to interrupt, but we have to end here.
Jacques: Sure, no problem.
Griff: We are out of time. Thanks again, Jacques Stamboli, CEO of Via Trading, that’s www.viatrading.com. Thank you, Chris, for joining us.
Chris: Thank you Griff.
Griff: Worldwidebrands.com, you know where to find Chris. This segment has been brought to you by GetNabit.com. Coming up, learn how to access and translate all that valuable eBay data here on eBay Radio.
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