Awesome Weber deals on Craigslist


 
Jeff Holmes

Jeff Holmes

TVWBB Super Fan
Ok, I see scratch and dent gasses and kettles on Clist on a regular basis. And, sometimes new in the box and the typically have multiples. How are those guys getting them? Are they working a deal with the store manager at Lowe/HD to take them all. They must be getting them for absolute rock bottom prices because their prices, generally, very good. When I was looking for a gasser, I kept running in to guys that had multiple light damage grills. I want in on the action!
 
I would think that Weber would provide replacement parts if these scratch and dent grills were legit. Then they could be sold again.
 
Exactly, so wonder where this supply comes from. Maybe the retailer foesnt want to fool with it, sells at a substantial discount then leaves it up to the buyer.

I'm more curious than anything.
 
I see the same seller selling WSM on Ebay all the time and they are always dented or scratched somewhere. I too wonder how he gets that supply.
 
I work in this field.
As far as the Ebay sellers, they are buying merchandise returns from a company that liquidates them for a major retailer. The bigger players are buying products by the truckload (53' tractor trailer container) or multiple truckloads at at time. They are buying the products well below wholesale, sorting, checking, testing, and combining like items to get as much saleable merchandise as they can from each truck. This requires quite a bit of labor and is always a gamble. There is no guarantee that the items will not be broken, used, missing or destroyed. They have no recourse if they are. If it wasn't damaged when the customer returned it, then it will probably get damaged on the long long journey from the return room at the retailer, to the liquidator, and then to the seller. The folks who package this stuff at any step along the way have NO concern for the products as they are not responsible for any damage.
Try and imagine every item that gets brought back to, mailed back to, damaged at, or stolen from (but not the packaging) a big-box store. Now multiply that by how many locations that retailer has. We are talking literally tons and tons of stuff that has to go. The retailer has no use for it, it's in their way.
As far as the one-time Craigslist folks, they were in the right place at the right time and scored on a clearance deal (where the retailer is selling some Weber items far below cost to make room for something else more current or seasonal) and they are buying all they could get, keeping one for themselves and selling the rest for a profit.
 
Deals on Craigslist for webers that I consider "awesome" usually last under 4 hours in this city, I assume there's lots of people like me looking every day.

Greg, thanks for the informative post.
 
Makes sense. I have looked at buying trailer loads of returns like that too. I guess I made the assumption that the clist dealer selling them. Now that I think about it, it's probably a different person each time or they are dreading in liquidation field.

Thanks!
 
The small time players could also be buying by the pallet. The problem with that is, you pay more and you don't have the option of combining parts of identical items to make one saleable item.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top