10 years ago, Face book liquidation groups were not a thing, only a select few liquidation businesses had a Facebook page. If you had a FB page driving traffic to your liquidation business had never been easier.
Then one day FB decided to change its algorithm, so page owners now had to spend advertising dollars to reach the people that liked there fan page. This spawned FB liquidation groups, so now every liquidation business has their own group. Some only have a group. Why, because it allows businesses to reach a higher number of there group followers every time they posted, without having to spend advertising dollars.
Then one day someone started a FB group that allowed liquidation businesses to pay to post loads or product for sale. Their claim was that they would vet businesses so buyers would have a safe place to buy liquidation. Awesome right, started out as a great thing. Then like every good thing, it came to an end when they decided to start censoring what the buyers saw buy allowing other sellers to buy out there competitions spot.
No bull shit, that happens people. Now there are multiple Private groups that will let you post liquidation for sale if your willing to pay. Prices range from $800 to $1800 a year but you are only seeing what they want you to see. Not necessarily what or who is best for the consumer. Needless to say that spawned people to create public liquidations groups for people to post stuff for sale for free. Liquidation tends to always be racing each other to the bottom.
Now we have a large number of liquidation groups on FB. If your new to liquidation what do you do? Well most people go and join all of the liquidation groups. Which is fine, but how do you know what is real? Everyone is a persons name. Some people have business info in there profile but tons do not. As a consumer how do you know who is legit and who’s not?
If you have been around for a while, is not as confusing as it is for new comers. My questions is what’s the point in a public FB liquidation group if its full of fake FB profiles trying to scam buyers. How are the group owners dealing with this? Some don’t care others are proactively banning them as they find them. Good job to those who are trying to do something. Unfortunately, most admins only find out after someone has been scammed.
Just so I said it, not all FB liquidation groups are garbage. There are people that take this role seriously, so do not be offended if your working hard to make your group a safe place, I am not referring to you. I am referring to the ones that think the job is to cumbersome to keep it up and keep it safe, so there group has scammers mixed in with the good ones. Pitiful. If your not willing to put in the work to keep a group safe, then you failed your community and you should not have one. If there to lazy to run a FB group, what does that say about there regular business. Just saying.
Moving on, with more and more sales moving to digital. Less personal contact is required. This is true for liquidation also. During the pandemic, pallet sellers were getting real creative to stay open. So online FB pallet sales and auctions came to be an acceptable thing. It wasn’t that long ago, most people wouldn’t consider buying a pallet online. They want to see and touch before they buy a pallet.
Decades of Bad BBB reviews on the easier to find pallet sites created that fear of buying online. I guess all the paid Pallet Unboxers on you tube have given the misconception that buying a pallet is mostly profitable. I call BS. Why buy a pallet online and ship it when there are so many small business pallet places within driving distance. With freight at all-time highs, your chances of the pallet being a winner is greatly reduced. If your new to liquidation I highly recommend going to see a couple before you buy. Don’t go blow your wad at once place either. Pallets can be deceiving if you shop with your eyes and not your brain.
Same goes for FB liquidation buying. In a sea of faces, you have no idea who is who. Shopping with your eyes can lead you to costly mistakes. Some of these public groups won’t let a businesses in, only people. Why? My guess is so they can create an environment where a truckload buyer can be subject to a double or triple broker fee. Just a guess but when you have people not business selling truckloads, it opens the door for anyone that can get access to a truckload list. Bam!!! You now have another 100 truckload a month seller.
I do not have an issue with brokers, I believe they have real value and there role can coexist with buying direct. Business is all about relationships. I cannot hate on brokers who have got there shit together and control product. Being direct can be an illusion. Going direct doesn’t matter if you cannot get what you want from the source. So we all just need to understand that is part of the game and its ok. Sometimes you have to play the game to get what you want Just don’t over pay. Do some research and shop people. Always get 3 prices and ask lots of questions.
Generally speaking I like private FB groups better. Most are linked to a business, that you can go see and talk to on the phone and its not a What’s App number. Which is usually a dead give away they are not in the US. This is a easy Scam Red Flag indicator. I will save buying abroad for another time.
In a private group you can people watch and read comments and see what peoples experience is. In a public group, you ask if anyone has done business with someone, I see all these sellers and scammers responding. How do you know if someone is a actual customer for the reference. If they don’t tell you, you don’t. In a private group, you have a better picture of who your dealing with. Authenticity always gets my vote.
In closing pay attention, do not get lazy in the buying process. Trust your gut, impulsivity very rarely leads to profitability.
Be smart Shop wisely. LM
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