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Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Hey guys!

I believe I'm starting to take steps in the right direction in obtaining quality merchandise at a good price to resell on ebay/amazon. I'm ready to start buying by the pallet!

I'm buying pallets domestically. I'm currently weighing the pros and cons of having the pallets shipped vs taking a road trip to the warehouse and picking up the pallets myself. Of course, I'll have to rent a Uhaul of some sort in order to do this.

For those of you that buy by the pallet, what is your arrangement for obtaining your product? Do you have it shipped or do you pick it up yourself? What are the pros/cons from your experiences?

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Ship out from the warehouse.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Picking it up yourself may seem like a plan the first couple of times but do you really want to do it every time. You need to automate/outsource as many of the non-profit generating processes in your business as make sense. Time lost picking up the product is time that could be used for you toward profit-generating activities. As a general rule if shipping the product to you is not a negligible expense towards your bottom line, the item does not generate enough profit to be worth your time.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Depends on the cost and time involved.

If possible I would collect simply to inspect the items before loading them.

I would have though shipping them may well be cheaper though

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Very valid points.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Professional move.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

I just purchases this so I can pick mine up easily.

I have several close to me and does not cost me much to pick items up.

It call comes down to cost and your time.

http://i1063.photobucket.com/albums/...1/trailer1.jpg

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

How much is the trailer Sandy?

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

That's a badass trailer. How much you pay?

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

This is not the exact trailer I got but is the same size, same everything.

It is going back this weekend to add more vents and a nice fan. Along with a few more lights. Lighting is important when you get one of these stacked and moving towards the end totes, boxes etc will cover up forward lights so I need more lighting.

These can be had for from 5k up to 8k.

Dont buy the first one you look at. Shop around.

Check the quality of the tires if you are going to load this up like I will.

We swapped out the tires before making the deal as the tires were not good enough for the DH taste.

If you want a smaller one then this you can buy used for under 3k easily.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Unless you are close to the warehouse, shipping will probably be cheaper. But if you do that, and it is being delivered to your house or to an office without a loading dock, be sure to tell them you need a lift gate. That is the thingy on the back of the truck that will mechanically move the pallet down to ground level. Drivers don't really like standing by while you manually unload the truck.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Agree. Depending on the item sometimes I can drive down to Miami and get a load cheaper then shipping it because of the weight.

It all comes down to cost of shipping/time/profits etc.

If it is a very fragile item I would rather pick it up if I can get to it without going overboard on cost and time.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Very true Sandy about the tire quality - was just speaking to a buddy of mine looking to move a trailer hitch

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

You will find with many of these they put a non name brand tire with low quality on them so you need to look carefully.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

There seem to be a lot of cheapo tires on the market these days. My friend bought what he thought was a bargain for 4 new tires for his truck (SUV type) and he had a blowout. If not for good driving skills and a little help from God, him and his daughter could have been killed. His daughter had nightmares for weeks. The tire (what was left of it) looked like it had been put into a shredder. The other 3 LOOKED great, but the mechanic said they were very low quality and likely illegally brought into the country since they did not meet safety standards.

Tires, brakes, etc. are really no place to look for savings. It is one thing if a reputable dealer has a 10% off sale, but forget about those bargain tires!

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Another tip if you are thinking of buying one of these.

Go with white color. Especially if you live in a warm weather state or use it a lot during the summer months.

I went with white for that reason and it also matches the new white Suburban I recently bought to pull it with.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

You don't have the snow, slush, salt and crap to deal with like we got up here with the winters :) I love white too but it looks bad quickly in the winter

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Since I am out on the west coast and I get lots of my items from the East Coast. It is amazing how much cheaper it can be to get a pallet than have each box shipped UPS or FedEx ground. For example a 30lb box from NY/NJ to CA is like $50 UPS Ground. If you can get 30 of those and stick them on a Pallet can get rates as low as $300-400. Save like $1200 in shipping costs alone.

I will say it is nice to work with someone who ships freight allot. Rates on the same shipments can be $400 at one company then one down the street wants $2k.

Also if you do lots of freight and have stuff delivered to your residence. Never allow the drivers to pull that we gotta charge you $80 or whatever for the lift-gate. I mean unless you ordered items that are hundreds of pounds. As long as you can break the pallet down that is such a sham.

Ever time I get a freight shipment seems like the drivers wants to try to stick me with a charge for the lift-gate. But then when I say na we can just break down the pallet and you can unload stuff to me. The driver is always in a hurry and don't want to work that hard so they almost always just say I won't say anything about this.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

When I owned and operated my own manufacturing business I actually had drivers push the pallets to the edge and tell us we have 10 minutes to unload it. Then went into the cab and sit on their butts waiting for us to unload it.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

LOL

I spent more then 3/4 of my life in a snow filled north state and always had white vehicles. Who cares what others think. You are using a trailer to make money and not to impressed people you do not even know.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Just had my first shipment of 13 pallets delivered last week. Driver drove a 54'. Couldn't pull in gate, so we had to unload by hand. Took 2 good hours. Driver did charge us by the minute we went overtime.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Use your dirty white vehicle to make money to buy a black Bentley lol

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

13 pallets at one time. You poor sole.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Just bought a new Suburban, so the Bentley might be next....

:)

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

I think we are all striving to get that Bently in the Garage. Sandy looks to be the front runner though to make it happen.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

No room, will have to build on.

DH has two of the spots taken with his Shelby and a Camaro.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Wow 13 pallets - that's a lot...hope overtime fee wasnt too killer.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

With that many items it should not be an issue at all.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

13 pallets now give me even more of a reason to step outside and see the real world when shipping ..... For a split bit....

Then back to the ebay dungeon -.-

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Can be overwhelming. We purchased one of our largest estates recently and it was very overwhelming.

Once inside the warehouse we left the sorting etc to our employee and took a break from it all for a couple of days after working like mad to get it all out of the house.

Take a break for a day and then go back at it.

Refreshed and ready to go!!

Good luck to you!

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

How do you manage/pay your employee? Just interested in seeing how you operate on your end.

Currently I have me for posting and sourcing of product. My sister does all the product refurbs and shipping.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

I owned a manufacturing company with 27 employees once so one employee is easy. Wait until you have 27 different personalities, skill levels, effort, caring all banging heads!!! I need this day off, that day off, this week I cannot work at night, I cannot work weekends etc. Can be a nightmare if you dont have total control....

I set a schedule around when I need her at the warehouse and around when I purchase items from auctions, estates etc.

She is awesome. Knows how to do things the way I want them done. I am picky!

She sorts, cleans, pictures, packs, wraps etc when I need her to do the work.

Schedule is around when I need her and when I have time so it is never the same week to week and she is fine with that.

I have a full time accountant/book keeper who takes care of her paycheck, taxes, UE etc.

I text her the hours she worked and she gets the check ready. I pick it up and hand it to my girl. Easy as 1-2-3.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

You just gave me a chill bringing back memories, I owned a banquet hall , restaurant and lounge and on weekends when we had weddings with the restaurant and lounge going , I had 50 employees , I don't miss that one bit

I make more money now and no headaches😄😃😃😃

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Some employees can be a night mare unless you are heart less and mean. They try to take advantage of every situation and pull on your strings.

Some forced me to make decisions I did not like but hey I had business to run and had to take care of my customers.

Had many great employees who stayed with me for years, then had those few who wanted to make their own hours, leave early, did not like the owner going on vacation etc. They named a show after me. Its called CHOPPED.

Headache employees were chopped after a second and third chance.

So glad I was offered stupid money for it and could relax and not have to work 24-7 in mind and body.

One still haunts me today as she was a family member who needed a job. I actually had to let her go after she destroyed a 25,000 order and cost me a very good customer. Family makes a joke out of it, Sandy fired Michelle!!!

Those days are over and dealing with ebay PROFESSIONAL BUYERS is actually easier then what you and I went through.

Biggest headache was a very unskilled, non thinker employee demanded 20.00 per hour when they were not even worth minimum wage. How do you tell someone you are only worth what your value is to my business and that is 6.75 per hour.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Sandy,your trailer looks very funny,we never seem that in china.We may need to think about to import one to china to shipping our packages

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Wonder why? These are used all over the USA.

Doesnt items get moved from one location to another often?

With all the manufacturing and wholesale buying going on how does one get items from the location to your store, warehouse etc?

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

I had worked for Sandy...she would of fired my butt a long time ago....id be too busy stealthing on the job! lol.

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

Naw, stealth cameras WORK....

:brushteeth:

Re: Buying by the pallet -- pick up or ship?
 

China has so many venues to product this though :)