[HN Gopher] Is Target selling its excess inventory on eBay and P...
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Is Target selling its excess inventory on eBay and Poshmark?
Author : pavel_lishin
Score : 46 points
Date : 2024-05-30 21:12 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.modernretail.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.modernretail.co)
| daveguy wrote:
| > A Target spokesperson confirmed to Modern Retail that the
| company that runs the Bullseye Deals account does buy salvage
| merchandise from Target and sells it.
| antiterra wrote:
| You can buy Target return/overstock pallets at auction, and a
| deals account likely just resells that. Target doesn't have to
| deal with it on an item level at that point.
| dawnerd wrote:
| Target does have some really restrictive rules on those
| pallets however that Bullseye deals doesn't seem to follow so
| they have either some form of an agreement in place where
| they don't have to or they're just a spinoff totally-not-
| target corp.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| What are those rules?
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Heck, calling it "Bullseye Deals" is a big giveaway by itself.
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| Per Betteridge's law, no.
| umeshunni wrote:
| A rare exception here:
|
| > A Target spokesperson confirmed to Modern Retail that the
| company that runs the Bullseye Deals account does buy salvage
| merchandise from Target and sells it.
|
| > Target doesn't control this Bullseye Deals inventory, but it
| is aware that its reverse logistics partner is doing this.
| antiterra wrote:
| So, it's still no. They sell to a third-party company and
| forget about it.
| LeifCarrotson wrote:
| What's the difference between selling exclusively to a
| third party (against whom they don't enforce their
| trademark) who buys exclusively from them, and actually
| answering the headline with "yes"?
|
| I understand there's a legal distinction, but there's so
| little practical difference that you'd be hard pressed to
| explain the distinction to a layperson.
|
| Unless maybe you got hurt by a defective item and tried to
| sue Target for damages. I assume this scheme is intended to
| insulate Target from that possibility, their lawyers would
| argue that you'd have to sue Bullseye Deals, LLC which has
| negligible assets, not their multi-billion-dollar
| corporation..
| cqqxo4zV46cp wrote:
| I could explain that to a layperson in one sentence. I
| think you're giving yourself a little too much credit for
| understanding this. How are _you_ not a layperson here?
| Techie transferable expertise fallacy.
| quickthrowman wrote:
| How is this an exception? It's an independent company buying
| merchandise from Target. Target has no ownership stake.
| adolph wrote:
| I hadn't thought out the reasoning behind Betteridge before,
| the highlighted portion below rounds out the law's method of
| action.
|
| "Betteridge's law of headlines is an adage that states: 'Any
| headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the
| word no.' It is named after Ian Betteridge, a British
| technology journalist . . . . It is based on the assumption
| that _if the publishers were confident that the answer was yes,
| they would have presented it as an assertion; by presenting it
| as a question, they are not accountable_ for whether it is
| correct or not. "
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines
| mgaunard wrote:
| No, but people who buy from Target do.
| nightfly wrote:
| Goodwill too
| crazygringo wrote:
| Tons of big-box and department stores do this. It's not just
| Target.
|
| Where do you think all those "open box" items on eBay come from,
| from sellers with 50,000 reviews? When a single seller has 18
| Logitech mice of the exact same model, and won't show you photos
| of the one you'll receive, but guarantee that it's functional and
| has no major cosmetic damage?
|
| They buy pallets of returned and excess merchandise for cheap, go
| to all the work of making listings and setting prices and
| shipping it all, and (hopefully) turn a profit at the end of the
| day.
|
| There are a lot of product categories -- including things like
| computer peripherals and accessories, or department store suits
| -- that are known to be extremely overpriced when bought at
| retail. While on eBay they can go from reasonably priced to
| downright cheap.
| dawnerd wrote:
| I've suspected this too. Technically not target but just a
| spinoff company they can use for tax reasons, of course.
| jimt1234 wrote:
| After my little sister had her first child and realized how
| expensive baby stuff is, she started a lucrative side-hustle and
| ran with it for years. Basically, she bought baby stuff from a
| warehouse that got their inventory from returns at large
| retailers like Target and Walmart. She focused almost entirely on
| baby strollers, but also backyard swing sets for kids, and got it
| all for pennies-on-the-dollar. She became friendly with the
| customer service repos at the stroller manufacturers and could
| usually get replacement parts for free (it's a warranty
| replacement if the service rep says it is). She knew all the
| stroller model numbers and their associated various part numbers.
| She got really good at repairing the strollers in her garage, and
| then flipping them on Craigslist. Her garage looked like a baby
| stroller showroom. She made decent money doing it, but the best
| part is her "customers" (other new mothers, most of them poor)
| were always so happy and appreciative because of the deal they
| were getting. Everyone was happy.
|
| The real secret sauce to her side-hustle was the relationship she
| had with the lady who managed the warehouse where she bought the
| baby stuff. The warehouses usually have auctions on large lots or
| pallets of stuff; you bid on whatever's on the pallet, you've got
| no choice. The lady used to let my sister come to the warehouse
| periodically (usually just before a big auction) and cherrypick
| what she wanted, which was always the baby strollers and swing
| sets. The side-hustle wouldn't have worked without that. (My
| sister (and her husband) used to flip houses, too, and I think
| she sold the warehouse lady a house.)
| phyzome wrote:
| << you bid on whatever's on the pallet, you've got no choice.
| The lady used to let my sister come to the warehouse
| periodically (usually just before a big auction) and cherrypick
| what she wanted, >>
|
| Ah yes, the free market.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| Why do you say that? Command economies arent exactly known
| for being free from personal dealing either
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