Liquidation buying guides

The honest version of buying liquidation pallets, written by the operator behind a nine-platform aggregator. Process and cost, backed by live data from the feed. Straight about the work and the numbers, never hype.

• How to buy liquidation palletsThe full process: pick a platform, read the manifest, compute landed cost, bid with discipline.
• Liquidation pallet costs explainedBid, buyer premium, freight, and hidden fees, with live median cost per unit by category.
• How to read a liquidation manifestThe fields that matter, why MSRP isn’t resale value, and how to work a manifest before you bid.
• Manifested vs unmanifested palletsWhat a manifest tells you, what a blind lot doesn’t, and how manifest practice differs across platforms.
• Where bin stores get their inventoryThe marketplaces behind the bins: pallets, gaylords, and truckloads, and how the sourcing math works.
• Where to sell liquidation itemsChannel by category: eBay and Mercari, Facebook Marketplace, bin stores for the remainder, re-lots for dead stock.
• How to start a bin storeThe startup components, the weekly restock cadence, and why the sourcing line is the real moat.
• How to spot liquidation pallet scamsThe fake-pallet-site pattern, the red flags, and how to verify a marketplace before you pay.
• Is pallet flipping worth it?What actually decides the outcome: sourcing discipline, category knowledge, freight, and the labor hours nobody counts.
• Do you need a license to buy liquidation pallets?Business license vs resale certificate, why marketplaces ask, and what each platform actually requires.
• How government surplus auctions workSoft closes, per-listing premiums, short payment windows, and buyer-removal pickup: GovDeals-style bidding vs retail liquidation.
• How Amazon liquidation auctions workThe official channel on B-Stock, where Amazon-sourced loads appear elsewhere, and the fees and manifests behind the bidding.
• Liquidation pallet shipping costsWhat drives LTL freight, why liquidation lots are hard to quote, and how to estimate shipping before you bid.
• Most liquidation marketplaces don’t sell palletsOur own measurement, 21 July 2026: median units per lot across the six marketplaces that run auctions, and the three that run none.