My experience buying a truckload of refrigerators from B-STOCK with financials
I purchased a truckload of Like-New (Costco) refrigerators (and one microwave) from B-Stock for $18,133 delivered after hearing over other success stories on Koerner Office and other podcasts about flipping from B-Stock to Marketplace. I kind of was just testing out the model to see how if it's something I would want to try and build a business around. I'm sharing my experience and a breakdown of what I received and my results and conclusion from the process.
The truckload of refrigerators was 28 units + 1 microwave.
The total retail was almost $57K and the lot consisted of mostly Samsung and LG.
Judging from the photos most of the refrigerators appeared to still be sealed in the original cardboard or Styrofoam (basically looked brand new). Although I paid a premium, the condition mattered mostly because I didn't want to get into scratch and dent or salvage units for a number of reasons.
After some research I concluded that best case I could get 60% of the original (new) retail price which would leave me with about $16K in profit, and I should be able to sell everything within 60 days. Worst case I would only get 40% of retail which would still be about $4K in profit.
Receiving the refrigerators wasn't terrible, just time consuming. Each refrigerator was palletized and I have a forklift, so getting them off the truck was time consuming but not hard. I've seen other loads on B-Stock that are floor-loaded, which I wanted to avoid entirely because I would imagine there could be damage to the units in transit and unloading them sounds like a nightmare.
Once I received the refrigerators I spent about 3 days unwrapping , inspecting, and testing them.
-17 units appeared to be in Brand New condition - not used in any way and no dings, etc.
-7 units were in Like New with small dents, dings, etc
-1 unit was a smart hub refrigerator with a broken front glass panel
-1 unit appeared used but was in excellent condition
-1 unit had a loose handle that I was able to fix with a $.20 screw
-1 unit had a sensor that beeped like the door was always open
-The 1 microwave was Brand New never opened in the original box
I spent the next few days getting everything listed on FB Marketplace and built the listings using Costco pricing as my reference as follows:
-30% off for Brand New
-40% off scratch and dent
-60% off the damaged and defective
The listings got a lot of clicks and activity, and I received a ton of messages, which was re-assuring. About half of the refrigerators I was asking over $1K for, and quickly noticed those getting the least activity. The cheaper ones in the lot were very fast moving and all sold first. The more expensive ones I found that I ended up discounting more down to the 50% off or so range.
After about 8 weeks, I sold every last refrigerator (even the damaged/defective ones).
My total revenue was $23,700 for a profit of $5,567. I only accepted cash so didn't have any fees or any other expenses.
Overall, here are the positives:
- testing and inspection is easy
- huge market for refrigerators since every household has one
- high ticket, low volume - less items mean handling material and dealing with less people
and the Negatives
- people show up in all kinds of vehicles - be ready to learn how to load refrigerators onto pickup trucks, vans, box trucks, etc.
- handling the refrigerators is not easy because of the size and weight, and they are on pallets and some have Styrofoam underneath them, which is hard to remove. Handling materials like an appliance dolly or at least a regular dolly are definitely required
In conclusion I would buy another lot of the refrigerators in the Like New Condition grade from Costco B-Stock if I really was desperate for sourcing items to resell. I like the fact that I can sell through the entire truckload in a relatively short amount of time, but will have to more conservative next time with the Marketplace value of the retail price.