As a buyer for closeouts & excess inventory, the most common question I’m asked is “how much do you pay for your inventory?”
Believe it or not, this is also one of my least favorite questions to answer. The reason is because the answer is complicated! Many closeout buyers are often thought of as “10 cent on the dollar” buyers – but MAC Wholesale is different. Yes, there have been times when we’ve offered 10 cents on the dollar, but the truth behind our offers at MAC Wholesale is that we don’t have a set formula for what we’re going to offer on your merchandise – every opportunity is different. How could it not be? Not every product is the same as its competition’s, and not every retail or wholesale price reflects a realistic pricing structure within the current retail marketplace.
In order to provide you with the most competitive offer than we can, we consider many factors. These factors include:
- Market Comps
What are the “real” retail prices of the inventory, as a consumer or buyer would see it advertised for currently? - What are the Quantities and Size Runs (if applicable)
Are the quantities small or large? Are the size runs broken (if applicable)? - Seasonality
What is the seasonality of the goods? How long will we need to warehouse the goods before we begin shipping them to our customers? - Estimated Sell-Through Time
How long do we estimate it will take us to sell through the inventory? - Shipment Size & Cost
What do we estimate our freight costs will be based upon the shipment size and FOB point (pickup location)? - Packaging
Is the merchandise in retail packaging? How good is the packaging? - Quality
What is the quality of the product, seeing it in person? - Reviews
Do the majority of existing online product reviews strengthen or weaken the product’s perceived value?
Taking all of these factors into consideration, MAC Wholesale will try to be as competitive as we can with our take-all offer on your inventory.