Actually buying into liquidations is a very good way to make money on places like ebay. You can buy very good High quality items. Even customer returns has great value. I have bought and sold many truckloads of liquidated Stock.
The main risk you have when buying liquidations is who you are buying liquidations from. I have purchased from many liquidators and have found that all of them choose to cherry pick the good items off of the load and give you a high majority of damaged items.
Lets day you buy a pallet from a liquidator. It shows up and you see this huge gaylord loosely filled. This is a high sign that the liquidator already took all the good items off the pallet and left you with the scraps.
Yes you can find some good items in it but. Ask yourself this. What didn't you get?
You may get a bunker that has 5 or 6 dvd players in it. Most retail from $20-$79
So ask yourself this. Where are the Dvd players that cost $199-$249? Where are the higher dollar items worth over $150.00? Where is that $400 Recliner or Dresser that is worth $300.They are gone arent they. Its because your average liquidator takes what they can sell on the side then gives you what they do not want to mess with.
This is a common problem. My company deals with liquidated stock all the time. We are a Broker and we do not work as the liquidators do. We buy direct from the Retailer in Volume and We make our money by volume sales. Pushing large quantities of stock out the door fast and charging a small per pallet fee. We do not remove any items from a pallet.
Also the above statement about wire transfer is partially incorrect. Yes scammers use this method. But the majority of Liquidators use this same service. When people buy anything over $1,000 or if they buy truckloads from me they have to pay by bank transfer. Why? Because im not going to pay my credit card company 2% of a 10,000 purchase. And also I have to file paperwork on any transaction over $10,000 to the US government to adhere to laws built around the patriot act.
My advise is to order small. Review testimonials. And check up on the company before you buy.