You will often come across retailers who sell brand name goods at deeply discounted prices, especially in the Internet world—and you may wonder how they’re able to undercut the major retailers. In general, major retailers have the edge when it comes to obtaining the best wholesale prices, so for traditional purchases, you really can’t beat major retailers on price. Except for one way, and it’s dealing in remanufactured products.
When those big retailers take returns, they send those products back to the manufacturer. Sometimes, the goods may have only a minor cosmetic flaw, or may require replacement of a part. Sometimes, the product is completely intact, and just the packaging has been broken. The manufacturer then takes those products and “remanufactures” them. In other words, they replace the parts that need to be replaced, clean it up, put it in a new box, and resell it. Now when the manufacturer does this, they can’t sell it as new, and so the major retailers won’t get those remanufactured products. They don’t want ‘em. Instead, they’ll go to smaller retailers who specialize in remanufactured goods. The product will be clearly marked as remanufactured, but bargain-hunters won’t see that as a negative. Remanufactured goods are really as good as new and come direct from the factory, but can be sold for a lot less than the straight-off-the-assembly-line products.
A very common example is remanufactured printer toner cartridges. These differ from refilled cartridges, which simply take an old cartridge, drill a hole in it, and refill it with ink. The remanufactured cartridge is actually completely disassembled, cleaned, and any worn parts are replaced—and they’re a bargain. The printers themselves are often also available in remanufactured form as well, along with remanufactured gaming consoles and other computer components. Appliances, car parts, cell phones, and vacuum cleaners are other likely candidates.
Finding remanufactured goods to buy for resale may take a little digging, but there is plenty out there. The best way to start is just by identifying a potential product, and checking out the manufacturer directly. In many cases, the manufacturer will have an outlet or a web site that you can access, through which they sell remanufactured goods. These outlets aren’t always open to the public, so make sure you have your resale number.
Let’s take Dell as an example. Their Dell Outlet online store is open to the public, and they have three categories of remanufactured goods for sale: Certified Refurbished, Previously Ordered New, and Scratch and Dent.
These outlets really only scratch the surface, and even though they are open to the public, you can still sometimes find deals good enough to buy for resale. If you’re serious about selling remanufactured goods though, dig a little deeper and make contact with the company directly to ask about larger purchases, so you can get the best deal.
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