Catalogue returns??

[dextadriver]

Just seen an online advert from USA where a pallet of drills , saws . etc which are returns can be bought very cheap… anyone ever tempted to buy one of these pallets??

 

[Onoff]

Bought a pallet of Ann Summers returns once, the smell!

 

[cheb]

They look to be a possibility of a reasonable return on investment and time but I'd be wanting to know more about the brands of tools involved and the company that first sold them. There's the probability of lots on cheap tat with no way of getting spares for them.

 

[James1979]

Back in the 00’s a customers wife did it with ASOS clothes. bought bales of them and some could go straight for sale, most had minor repairs needed and a few were sent for rags.

She did very well at it.

Brother did the same and had similar results in the 90’s with leather jackets from exchange and mart. So it’s doable.

Only thing I’d say about power tools is the specs might be different to the UK ones. Grinding disc centres are different for example.

Try it and see I suppose. You can be fairly sure you’re not getting a good cross section of returns though. The best stuff probably never makes it into those adverts.

You’d need to expect a good percentage are beyond repair. But they may provide spares for future pallets if you go down that road. Or sell them as Spare or Repair, no returns.

 

[James1979]

Maybe re sell the lot as spares or repairs? Little profit but high volume type model.

Also if you’re selling that way then there’s nothing to haunt you with returns or warranty etc

 

[Mikes]

We had a local auction that regularly had pallet cages full of returned power tools. Was never tempted as lots of the same model usually indicates a common fault so might then have to buy a load of the same parts. Always remember seeing a pallet of those new-fangled hedge trimmers with the rotating circular blades (can't remember the make). I'd previously considered buying one as they looked a good idea but seeing all the rejects certainly put me off.

 

[tom2207]

We had a local auction that regularly had pallet cages full of returned power tools. Was never tempted as lots of the same model usually indicates a common fault so might then have to buy a load of the same parts. Always remember seeing a pallet of those new-fangled hedge trimmers with the rotating circular blades (can't remember the make). I'd previously considered buying one as they looked a good idea but seeing all the rejects certainly put me off.

one of the local small engine guys here has a contract with a box shifter , he does the warranty on strimmers blowers and saws ..it goes like this
something like 18 quid max repair per machine
some have put straight petrol in two strokes ,,,, bin
pull cords snapped ,,,, repair
wont start ,,, tweak the mix ,, repair
wont cut ... blades on backwards ,, repair
well you get the idea , they are either very very quick fix , or in the bin.
allowing that the life expectancy of some of the cheap garden tools is about two hours , you cant expect much , even the crankcases are plastic , most cheapies have only one actual crank bearing , the other end runs in the plastic housing ,,,
as long as they do ten mins at a time ,,, four times a year or so ,,, an hour will get them out side of a warranty claim , two hours will get two years , if it starts at all the second year ,,, win win , third year buy another
so what would you actually do with a pallet full of strimmers even if half of them worked.

 

[Chippie]

Just seen an online advert from USA where a pallet of drills , saws . etc which are returns can be bought very cheap… anyone ever tempted to buy one of these pallets??

What about the difference in supply voltage? 110 v over there....unless you gonna run them from a transformer?

 

[tom2207]

What about the difference in supply voltage? 110 v over there....unless you gonna run them from a transformer?

site work

 

[ajlelectronics]

As far as I can see it is an out and out scam. Check the domain registrations, always recent. So called positive comments are all generated by people with very strange names and any querying comment is deleted before the whole advert vanishes in a few weeks. Then a new variant pops up and the cycle starts again.

 

[tom2207]

Bought a pallet of Ann Summers returns once, the smell!

were you charged extra for the smell

 

[awemawson]

Some years back my eldest used to buy pallets of Argos returns and did reasonably well out of it. I still have a DAB radio he gave me but it doesn't work here - no signal !

 

[winchman]

I now see several sellers at the Car boot sales, I do feel sorry for them as they are hooked in and buy a load of plastic tat that Amazon etc can't shift our poor quality returns
Personally if it was a genuine uk seller and it was a decent brand it can be worth it like the strimmer man above, I suspect its just a load of Tat they can't shift
The other thing to consider is import duty.
Good sellers of this stuff do exist but its very hard to get a foot in the door and can be costly, I have known people buy 500 of one item, they can sell them but it can be slow.
Local bloke sells used power tools he has loads of broken stuff he was sold as supposedly working, but he looks to be doing ok from it.

 

[James1979]

If it’s stuff that’s decent but beyond repair you could break and sell spares?

I tried it years back with small engines I had knocking about but generally the same things break so you get left with all the things that don’t fail.

 

[Robotstar5]

Bought a pallet of Ann Summers returns once, the smell!

That doubles the value to the right customers

 

[Onoff]

I bought a 36V Einhell brush cutter from eBay, listed as a return, unused from memory. "Just needs batteries" was the inference. Utter BS! The motor is I think cooked as around it was jammed with compacted grass and things were otherwise grass stained.

Think I paid £40 for it. A new motor is over £100.

That wasn't a good buy

 

[Morrisman]

Just seen an online advert from USA where a pallet of drills , saws . etc which are returns can be bought very cheap… anyone ever tempted to buy one of these pallets??

I've seen a few on Facebook, $70 for a whole pallet of Makita tools etc. Sounds like a scam to me, as all the brilliant feedback and comments came from vague asian identities with little or no content to their own page.

 

[James1979]

I think it’s worth a punt on one pallet if you are happy it’s a legitimate seller etc.

There’s a good chance your pallet isn’t direct returns, it’ll be from someone like toms mate and they’ve failed the £18 test.

I say this because you are bottom of the food chain. The catalogue company will have a disposal contract with a company. They segregate it out then have companies that buy multiples of pallets, they’ll have high value buyers that pay a premium for all Milwaukee or ‘Grade xx’, possibly a couple more layers, then there’s us. At each level all the best stuff gets siphoned off.

Bit like shares and investments. All the good deals never make it to the man in the street. It’s all done by those in the know.

Would I buy a pallet? Probably. If I could lose what I paid and any profit was a bonus it would be worth an experiment

 

[tom2207]

Some years back my eldest used to buy pallets of Argos returns and did reasonably well out of it. I still have a DAB radio he gave me but it doesn't work here - no signal !

then its a DAB paperweight really ....

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I always regard these types of listing as suspect, esp the ones on the likes of FB based in the USA. What can you do if they're scams, you're here...they're there [or even really located elsewhere in the world] and they have your money. You're hardly likely to get the FBI go door-knocking.....