How to find consistent and reliable sources for merchandise

One of the reasons people ask me about cutting out middlemen is because they want to find continuous and reliable merchandise sources.

Oh this is funny.

I mean, it's not funny and I'm not trying to mock anybody but anybody who has dealt in the off price market long enough knows there is absolutely no such thing as continuous and reliable sources of merchandise from a particular brand. You get what you can get when you can get it. That's the nature of the business. Anyone who ever asks me about this I tell them if they need continuous and reliable steady supply of anything, they need to be in regular retail buying at full wholesale and selling at full retail because that's really the only way to get it.

A jobber might get a killer deal on a brand and buy 30,000 pieces of some to die for merchandise. And then the company has nothing to sell them for months, nothing good for months, even a year or longer. Designers are not in the business of manufacturing merchandise to sell to jobbers, therefore jobbers exist solely to absorb the inefficiencies in the business (excess product manufactured, irregulars, cancelled orders, returned merchandise, etc.). This makes it entirely a market of opportunity. When they get the opportunity they buy the merchandise, when you get the opportunity you buy the merchandise. And there is no crystal ball to predict when the next opportunity can present itself.

Now some companies may have ongoing arrangements with a jobber because they consistently have excess stock available. But in all reality, their ultimate goal is to manufacture and sell more efficiently to minimize this occurrence. So, for the most part, the availability of specific brands of specific merchandise tends to be sporadic, or opportunistic as I like to call it.

So if you're looking to get style X from brand X and get X number of pieces each and every month, you'd be so much better off as a regular retailer than trying to hack it in the off price market. To really make it in this market, you need to be able to spot an opportunity and take advantage of it when it arises and have something to get you through the times when the opportunities are not as abundant.

Finding a distributor of a specific brand

From time to time I get questions from people asking about a distributor of a product. Most want to get as close to the source as possible and do not want to deal with middlemen. Now middlemen have their place, as in the guide I cover (in depth) the purpose middlemen serve for small and large buyers. But anyhoo, this question comes up so much, I need to answer it.

There are no "distributors" in the designer apparel industry.

Don't take the business model for another industry and try and apply it here.

If you have a full priced regular retail store, you either buy your merchandise directly from the company or from a sales rep that is paid a commission by the company. Not having a sales rep will not lower your cost of merchandise because the sales rep does not **add on** to the price, they are paid a commission by the company whose goods they are selling.

Please believe me when I say that. Ralph Lauren, Seven Jeans, whatever, they don't have distributors here in the United States. They really don't.

Now, there are exceptions to this. And generally that is when foreign brands enter into a country other than the one in which they are based. For example, a company that is smaller like Seven Jeans may have distributors in Europe, Asia and whatever. These are companies they contract with to handle the sales of their goods to retail stores in a specific territory. Or a smaller foreign brand might have a US distributor to handle the sales and import of their merchandise to service their American retail accounts.

Might.

Because a large company will often have their own foreign sales offices and handle this themselves.

Okay, are you with me so far?

When you buy discount/off price merchandise, you are not dealing with a distributor, you are dealing with a JOBBER. A jobber is in the business of trading excess stock. Now a jobber might have an agreement for exclusive distribution of a particular brand to the off price market, but they are not a distributor the way you are looking at it. So, from now on when people ask me how they can find a distributor of a product I will point them here to this article. You'll know, they will know, we're all on the same page.

Now that leads me to another thing...

Why Jobbers Can't Really Do the Ecommerce Thing

I cover this on the website, but I want to go into it in a little more detail.

Buying off price is a very sensitive thing. No company is really eager to announce that they are selling off price or who they sell to. Most companies don't want to tick off their retail accounts, and don't want to devalue their image. Once a brand becomes widely available at low prices, it loses it's appeal.

Anyhow, you probably will never see, maybe half, maybe more, of what a jobber sells. Because that jobber takes it from the manufacturer and places it directly with retail clients. Mainly large retail stores outside of the major markets (New York, LA, San Francisco, Atlanta, etc.). Most people call this "flipping" as in they "flipped" merchandise to a client. Which means it went straight through from the manufacturer to the retail off price store, or even a big store like Saks Off Fifth, Nordstrom Rack, and so on.

The reason companies can't do the "ecommerce thing" is that these companies would hit the freaking fan if they saw this jobber putting their brand name on the internet. It would be over. Their stores would find out, get mad, they would lose accounts, it would be a disaster.

This is why a lot of jobbers can't have websites.

Department store overstock kind of slips through this. There are too many brands, too many people involved and too little enforcement for anybody to keep track of department store overstock. Besides, large retailers like Saks, Bloomingdales and such have so much clout that most brands have no leverage with them.

Except the big ones.

Oh yeah, the companies that have enough money, the can stop their stuff from getting into store stock loads. They take it back. That's right, they take it back. Some sell it through their own outlet stores, some donate, some even sell it to off price chains, but they do it themselves so they have more control over where stuff ends up.

So lay off wanting these ecommerce enabled websites. MOST of the people who have them are either:

Crooks who are going to rip you off. Seriously. Big time scammers.

OR

People just like yourself that decided to have a website, but are not really jobbers. They buy from the same vendors and set up a website selling the merchandise. They are middlemen who buy from the middlemen.

Specialty Stores Are Good

Everyone, and I mean everyone, wants to buy closeouts from the big guys: Saks, Neiman, Barney's, and so on. But they don't have a lot of merchandise to liquidate and when they do, they have lots of people that want it. More importantly, they have the ability to dictate terms and sell a huge amount of merchandise on a take all basis.

And everybody contacts me asking how to buy from these stores. Most don't know what they are in for. They think a Saks closeout load is going to mirror a Saks store assortment. No, it's going to mirror a Saks clearance rack that has been picked through just a tad bit.

But that's beside the point.

There are tens of thousands of smaller specialty boutiques all over the place that buy the very same merchandise these big stores do. And they might need to get rid of some things too.

Some of you should be calling them up. I don't know why you don't. There is this one jobber that places classified ads in a very high profile trade publication that basically says they buy boutique store stock. They get a range of contemporary, bridge and designer brands. And they get nearly ALL of their stock through the relationships they develop with *small stores* that regularly sell them overstock.

It's fascinating.

While all of you are trying to hit up the big stores, you re overlooking the smaller boutiques that have stuff to sell. And by boutique, I don't mean Gucci or Prada owned stores, I mean independent boutiques.

You could do the same thing, place an ad, send your business card around (assuming you have a real business like I talked about before), network, get the word out.

Matter of fact, I know one woman that specializes in children's clothing that was getting a lot of her off price merchandise that way. Some retailers were so eager to get rid of the stuff that they even sold it to her ON CONSIGNMENT. They didn't have the room for it anymore, they needed the money.

You're missing out on so many opportunities when you don't think outside of the box.

Bridging the Gap

I have a new thing coming on the horizon. I'm going to step back and talk a but about what I do (I love to talk) and then move on to my idea.

Years ago I had a very good friend who was in the off price business. She's a brilliant entrepreneur. And we collaborated on a lot of ideas within the off price clothing industry. We got around to getting to know other retailers like us, people who sold on eBay, had websites, were middlemen, had stores and such. One of the things that first came up was these huge inefficiencies in the market.

As a whole, the wholesale business arena (whether it's off price or regular price) has not embraced the internet and probably will not for a very long time. There are tons of well respected experts telling small businesses and entrepreneurs that the internet is a wash. They look at macrobusinesses like Bloomingdales.com, Pets.com and all the other failed dot-coms (remember Boo.com?) and they think that it just doesn't work. But they don't know anything about the new era of microbusinesses and the innovators in the large companies that are making it work.

So nobody wants to "waste their time" with the internet. But the internet is incubating the next generation of entrepreneurs. The people who will have stores in the next few years, who will have large businesses, they are here right now, but no one can make the connection.

And I don't think many will. There are some jobbers that have embraced the net and have been able to make a smashing success of it. But you won't hear them speaking at the next trade conference, I mean, who's going to go in there telling everyone else to jump on their bandwagon?

So those who are in the know will stay in the know and everyone else will think that the internet is a waste of time.

And that's where me and my ideas come in. I'm working on something that can help bridge some of the gap for those of you who need merchandise and those of you reputable companies that have it to sell. It won't be perfect, but it will be something. I'm hoping to have it up over the next month or so. It won't be a marketplace, it won't be an ecommerce website, it won't be any of that. It won't be super duper technologically advanced cutting edge because that doesn't work either. It will be some blending of old school and new school, a happy medium.

But it requires a commitment on my part to make it work, a commitment to getting people to get involved. Look for it soon. Or a long time from now, depending on how complicated it ends up being to work out the logistics.

If you want to know when it launches, subscribe to the blog using that box in the upper right hand corner.

How Can I Find More Merchandise?

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to gain a thorhough understanding of the distribution process within the apparel industry. Understand designing, contract manufacturing, wholesale sales, retailing and all that good stuff. If you are in this for the long haul and want to be in this industry, you need to understand how something goes from an idea in someone's head to a finished product in the store to being in your hands.

Once you understand this, it is easier for you to figure out how to find merchandise at different places within the channel.

First and foremost, for every brand that you want, you really should know who makes that product and who retails it. You need to know what kind of volume you are looking at. In a general sense, companies with higher production runs have a better chance of having their merchandise end up on the off price market. And companies with very small production runs don't have as much off price to unload.

Remember off price is all about market inefficiency. It's about making more than you can sell at a certain price within a certain time frame. It's about a retailer not moving stock even with a markdown. It's about a lot of things. But whatever it's about, it's because the system is not perfect.

Therefore, understanding where something goes and how it is sold can help you figure out where you can get it.

Listen, some of you are still waiting for some of these hot brands like Juicy Couture and Seven Jeans and all that good stuff to end up in a Bloomingdales overstock load in good quantity. The day it does is the day that brand is starting to lose its luster. Reason? It sells like hotcakes and Bloomies can move it on one of many markdowns before it gets to the point of needing to be liquidated. I mean you've got customers, bargain hunters, employees. The little bit that ends up in a liquidation is little and may also be some really weird stuff that didn't sell well at all.

You might have better luck hitting up a very nice specialty store (boutique) when they need to clear out end of season merchandise.

Truth be told, if I had to start all over again, knowing what I know now, I probably would go this route, to some extent. More about that next time.

Question & Answer

Question

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Hi,

I wanted to show something to you on Ebay- I found it interesting. I found an Ebay seller and she is selling "Brand X samples"- tags removed, etc. She has some really cute things. I bought some from her and they are quite nice, tagless no inside size or fabric content tags, no signs tags were ever sewn in. They have the Brand X style, but are definitely not an Brand X level of quality (but that's ok with me because I really like them) She says they are samples, but when Ichecked back through her feedback (curious me, wanted to see her other items) I saw that she had multiples of most styles in various sizes. I'm just curious as to what you think she's doing- because she is making a killing on some of these auctions. She's located in California. I know its not ethical to say something is Brand X when it isn't, of course- she is definitely getting away with that. I have never seen items like hers on Ebay or in any catalog or store, for that matter. Anyway, sorry to ramble- just thought you might find what she is doing of some interest.

Answer

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Samples are usually all one size or one group of sizes. For example, usually all of a rep's samples will be a size 6 or maybe 4,6 and 8. I've seen a sample where there was supposed to be a screenprinted design on the tee shirt, but they didn't have time to get it screenprinted so a printout of the design is taped to the front of the shirt. No kidding. I don't recall seeing a sample without a label, but then again, I don't recall looking. It might not be uncommon because samples can be defaced in some way to prevent them from being sold. Tag missing or cut, marked as a sample, etc..

Since samples tend to be the smaller sizes, if the seller has a full size run, like 2 through 12, then I would doubt they are samples. Most sales reps don't have a dozen samples of the same piece, so if they have too many (of each style), then they probably are not samples.

Now, getting back to the point, I am pretty sure that it is absolutely illegal (and you read my bit on using the word illegal where it does not apply) to SELL garments with no label. I am pretty sure that the FTC guidelines prohibit that. They must at least have the fabric care/content tag and a RN number and country of origin. I am pretty sure that's the law. A sample probably is not required to have this info because it is not for sale. Having said that, I don't think a company would sell merchandise with no fabric care/content label, so I am wondering who removed the labels. It's highly likely that the eBay seller did.

The reason she would remove the label is to prevent you from searching by the RN (Registration Number). The FTC law for the US is that a label must either have the legal name of the company on it or the RN number (redundant, I know). The FTC keeps a RN database and you can type in the RN and get the contact info for a company. Now if someone is selling some no name brand and calling it Brand X, then they would remove that fabric care/content label (often called a joker label) because they donâ?™t want you to find out who the real manufacturer is, if itâ?™s not Brand X.

It is not unusual for someone to pull a trick like that. For instance, in looking at her auction (I only looked at one), I see no mention that the brand is Brand X IN THE ACTUAL AUCTION, only in the title. When called on it, she could say that she is keyword spamming and not selling counterfeit merchandise because she did not specifically state that it was Brand X. Typically when a seller has a desirable brand, even if that label is only delineated or cut, they will try to show the label to get higher bids.

Getting To The Source

A lot of people ask me about buying directly from the source because they don't want to pay the markup to a jobber. Unless you have substantial buying power and have the ability to move merchandise even when it sucks, most of the time, you are better off buying from a jobber.

One thing to realize-- it's hard to unseat an established relationships. Manufacturers come to like (or depend on) the jobber they are working with. It's hard to come and step in and get them to give that up just because you want some merchandise.

Remember it's a two way relationship, that jobber is providing the manufacturer with a way to move merchandise they are stuck with AND cash flow that helps improve their bottom line. So, many times, that jobber is actually helping a company out, getting them out of a crunch, dealing with a tremendous cancelled order that leaves the manufacturer in a bind and so on.

So, these jobbers have the money to take what they have when they have it. Many times, they won't decline to take a good deal.

When you're pockets aren't deep, you can't take everything a company may have to sell, so they will start calling other people next time and deal with someone that can.

Another thing most people don't realize is that a jobber absorbs bad merchandise. They pull those damaged items out and throw them away. If it's an entirely bad load, they flip it to someone who can handle it and you never see it. They may get a load of irregulars where every piece is damaged, but they take it to keep the relationship-- they want that pristine merchandise when it's available. Can YOU do that?

So these are things to think about when you want to cut out the middleman. Many times, that middleman provides a valuable service in exchange for their markup. You can't always be a price shopper. Getting a good price is important, but don't be penny wise and pound foolish.

Drop Shippers and All That Stuff (from June's Newsletter)

For most of you, you read this in the guide. But this question comes up so much, that I decided to run it again.

I don't think any company in this industry drop ships authentic, legitimate designer apparel and handbags. I mean, why would they? If you were selling them, would you drop ship them? You can sell one at a time at discounted prices. You can sell bulk at a "wholesale" price. But why would you sell one at a time slightly above wholesale price? Most people don't understand the nature of drop shipping and how it came to be. Drop shipping doesn't exist to serve money hungry wanna-be eBay sellers and internet merchants. Drop shipping exists as a fulfillment model for ecommerce businesses and businesses that need the flexibility in stock to be able to provide single-unit fulfillment. So it leans towards industries where this is likely to be the case.

Most of the drop shippers are manufacturers, authorized distributors or distributors that build the drop shipping model to serve a specific line of businesses. Designer apparel just isn't one of them because there are no distributors (in the US), just manufacturers/sales reps (selling at full wholesale) and jobbers (selling at below wholesale prices). Manufacturers/sales reps are in business to sell to retailers that stock merchandise and jobbers want to move a lot of stock quickly, not one at a time. There are some types of garments that can be drop-shipped (directly from the manufacturer), but most are branded and you might not be familiar with those brands (if you must know what it is, it's usually stuff like kinky-erotic lingerie, beachwear, clubwear and things like that).

Another thing people must realize about drop shipping is that it is highly saturated. If you would normally have a few competitors for a product that you stock, you are going to have ten times as many for a drop shipped product. And those competitors will range from crappy fly by night to professional, yet another reason many companies don't want to tarnish their name by drop shipping merchandise. Most designers are already highly selective about the internet merchants they sell to (if they sell to internet merchants at all).

Now people think I am wrong because they find a site that defies logic and drop ships designer bags. They are, most likely, counterfeit, or unauthorized production/unauthorized sales, what some people call "back door goods" because they literally snuck out the back door.

I talk to designer showrooms, sales reps and companies all the time. None of them have any interest whatsoever in drop shipping. Remember, these companies sell to retailers that put up the cash to stock their merchandise. You cannot make an argument as to why it would be lucrative to incur the higher costs of providing single unit fulfillment to people who do not want to invest in their own business and who will probably be out of business in a few months. Not to mention the fact that they can even take weeks to turnaround a regular order, they are not set up for shipping within a matter of 1-3 days.

That's not to say that I think drop shipping is bad. I believe it is a perfectly legitimate business model for specific categories of merchandise. If you are smart, you know why this will and will not work in certain industries. If you are not bright, you can't see why someone won't drop ship because you want to make money that way.

Bottom line- if this is the industry you want to be in, be prepared to stock merchandise.

I also want to add something because I was talking to a colleague about this. She mentioned that there are several eBay sellers that sell handbags and they all ship from Italy but the sellers are not in Italy, so possibly there is an Italian company that drop ships. That's possible. BUT, what is more likely is this: there are very smart eBay sellers out there that know how to take advantage of price differences. They scour websites and find a low priced item and sell it eBay. When they get a winning bidder, they then buy the merchandise from the website and have it shipped directly to the bidder. This is more likely than an international drop shippper.

Years ago, when Sony Mavica digital cameras were really hot, many sellers found them on sale at certain websites where they could buy them for $100-$300 less than the average eBay closing bid. And this is exactly what they did. Things like this happen all the time where people bid higher than the going price. If you really want to find out, invest the money to buy the bag (or other item) and see where it comes from. That will tell you whether it's drop shipped or not.

Most drop shippers use a method that's called "Blind Drop Shipping" where all markings on the invoice/packing slip and shipping label indicate that it comes from your seller/retailer OR has no indication of the company it comes from. If the bag comes like this, then you can be sure that there is a drop shipper. If not, then you have just found the source of the merchandise. It's easier to track a domestic company than an international company because when a US based company ships something to you via UPS, FedEx, Airborne or whatever, you can call their customer service center and ask for the shipper's information. What they will give you is the shipper's name and address as registered on their account. For example, I have a UPS account and on my shipping label, I can put whatever I want. I can put Acme Incorporated, 515 Main Street, Nowehere CA and whatever telephone number I want. But, when you call UPS, they will give you my actual address and telephone number that is registered with that account. Another way of locating a source if you actually find something that is drop shipped.

If you truly believe that someone is drop shipping authentic merchandise, then the price to pay to have an item sent to you is worth the knowledge and the potential profit you can make from that information.

Buying Directly From Manufacturers/Companies (from June's newsletter)

I get my fair share of emails from people asking me how to get in touch with Company XYZ to buy their merchandise. You can find out just about anything you want to know using a decent search engine. If you are looking for Diesel, go to Diesel.com. If you didn't know that Diesel.com is their domain name, then just to to google.com and type in Diesel jeans and get the domain name. Look for the company contact information and call them.

Companies are not in business to sell to just anybody. Any brand that is worth having will have some type of criteria for establishing a retail account. All you people that want to sell out of the trunk of your car, not have a legitimate business set up, tax ID number or seller's permit, business license or whatever, this is where you come up short.

For the most part, companies want you to have a retail store. If you do not have a retail store, you must have a decent website (and even then, some won't sell to you). Some will check you out to make sure that your merchandising (whether in a store or on a website) is up to par with their brand image. There are some companies that kind of don't really care who they sell to, but they are typically not the ones you are looking for. Will they sell to you if you are going to sell their merchandise on eBay? No. Not unless you are sneaky and don't tell them. And then when they find out, they may revoke your account. Only if they truly don't care, but I haven't seen a designer clothing company yet that doesn't care.

The tricky thing is that an APPAREL company does not exist to sell to retailers that are going to undercut normal retail pricing. In other industries (i.e. electronics) price competition is common. But not in clothing. Designers don't like this, companies don't like this. So they stick with retailers that are going to uphold pricing integrity. The objective of a retailer is to get the most for their money, not the least, so a lot of you trying to be the cheapest have it backwards.

The reason this comes up is because some of you contact me because you wanted to go direct and buy whatever brand you were interested in. But the brand is so hot, they aren't taking new accounts right now, or they have a long waitlist. Well, the problem is, even when they start taking accounts, they aren't going to sell to the flea market sellers, the eBay sellers, the trunk of my car sellers. They will work with established retailers.

But you see people selling on eBay that are obviously getting it directly from such and such designer brand company. And here it goes: I'll bet you a the company does not know they are selling the designer merchandise eBay. Again, with other industries, it's not an issue, but with designer apparel, it's a BIG issue. Sometimes companies can get away with clearing out old styles on eBay, or some companies, in very niche markets, just don't ask where you are selling their merchandise. But all in all, most designers don't want current season merchandise being sold on eBay.

The truth about buying department store closeouts

I thought long and hard before writing this. I'm an honest person. I'm also a fair person. I run an honest business. There are a lot of people who are brokering closeout apparel. While only a few are blatantly dishonest, most just quite frankly don't know their merchandise and don't know what they are doing. This is a very, very long article, but hopefully you will learn a lot from this.

First of all, everything I speak of will pertain to the apparel industry exclusively because this is all we deal in.

Closeouts basically fall into two categories: salvage and job-outs. Salvage merchandise consists of customer returns, floor damages and samples. With a salvage load there is usually a percentage of merchandise that is damaged, irreparable or just not cost-effective to repair. This can range from 10-50% sometimes higher. What's left may be saleable, depending on what you can sell. Some people can invest the time or money into repairing ripped seams or missing buttons, some cannot.

Job out merchandise is pretty much merchandise that was marked down and did not sell. When it's time to stock the floors with new merchandise, the old merchandise is "pulled" from the shelves or racks. Job out merchandise is often called closeout, floor overstock, or shelf pulls. The amount of damage in a job out is minimal, but make no mistake, there will be damages, typically ranging from 5-10%.

It takes a considerable amount of money to purchase trailers of merchandise. This can range from $26,000 for a mixed Federated load (Macy's, Burdines, Bloomingdales, Rich's, etc.) to well over $100,000 for a high end department store like Saks Fifth Avenue. Because of this, the actual number of companies that buy and own trailers of merchandise are few and most of the people you will deal with are brokers.

Most of the brokers you will deal with broker anything. They will sell electronics, housewares, clothes, toys, anything that can be resold for a profit. As a result, they have very little knowledge of any specific category. They would not know the difference between Hilfiger and Hermes.

If you are a clothing retailer and you specialize in clothing, it is best to deal with a supplier who specializes in clothing as knowledge of brands is extremely important.

And also, most of the brokers have never, ever, ever seen the merchandise they broker.

As you can see, this can create a lot of problems. Let's go over a few scenarios. These scenarios are 100% real.

Buyer #1

Buyer #1 purchased 200 pieces of mixed men's apparel from Macy's department store from a closeout dealer for $5 a unit. This company owned their merchandise. Buyer was told that the lot would contain no more than 5% accessories and included Polo, Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Nautica, Fubu and others. When the merchandise arrived, there were approximately 20 pair of socks, 15 neckties, and 15 other miscellaneous accessories. Out of the remaining 150 pieces, only 40 were desirable designer brands. The remainder was Charter Club, Alfani and miscellaneous surfboarder and skateboarder-style brands. Buyer barely broke even on the lot.

Buyer #2

Buyer #2 purchased 100 pieces of women's mixed Federated apparel from a closeout dealer and was assured a good load. Buyer paid $7 a unit. When the merchandise arrived, there were 40 pair of bras and panties in the load. Buyer lost money on this deal.

Buyer #3

Buyer #3 was referred to a company by a good friend. The company sent a manifest of a trailer of "Bloomingdales" store stock at $3.50 a unit. Buyer was told that the trailer contained men's, women's, children's and some accessories and domestics. Buyer asked me if this was a good deal. I informed him that there was not a chance he would get Bloomingdales at $3.50 and that their trailers were not sold as mixed lots, they were sold as one category only (for example, women's ready to wear) and that if he asked a few more questions, I was sure he would find out that this was no a Bloomingdales only load, but rather a mixed federated load. Buyer asked more questions and found out that it was, in fact, a mixed Federated load. Buyer didn't buy the trailer.

Buyer #4

Buyer #4 purchased merchandise from a "broker" that was a little to slick with their presentation. This broker literally took ads from other websites, pre-sold the merchandise, used the proceeds to buy the merchandise and shipped it out. Problem was this broker was not that savvy and spent thousands of dollars on unsaleable garbage and counterfeit merchandise. Buyer #4 may have to sue to recover his money.

These are real people and these are real problems.

Let's go over some of the problems:

Some brokers/ jobbers are not honest about damages
While it is true that no person can guarantee a certain minimum or absence of damage, most should have an idea of how damaged their loads are, based on experience. If someone cannot give you a decent estimated percentage of damage, move on.

Most brokers have limited knowledge of brands
For the most part, the brands you see named in ads represent a small percentage of what's in that load. I know one buyer who purchased 250 pieces of Macy's and was expecting a reasonable percentage of designer brands (like Ralph Lauren/ Polo, Tommy Hilfiger, Elie Tahara, Theory, BCBG and others) and received 90% Charter Club. Now here, I am going to be 100% honest with you. If you want to know what a load will look like, walk into the store and look at what they have on the racks. Now, consider that what sells really well in the stores doesn't get closed out and go from there. Macy's sells Hilfiger, Nautica, Polo, DKNY, Calvin Klein and others. But they also sell Charter Club, Alfani, Sag Harbor, Norton McNaughton, Carole Little, Jennifer Moore and others. Around 30-40% of a Macy's load will have "desirable designer brands"—if it hasn't been cherry picked (or creamed as some call it). Bloomingdales merchandise is much, much better as they don't carry as many marginal brands. The higher up you go, the better the store, the better the brands.

Most jobbers mix in accessories and lingerie to keep their costs low
When you buy a mixed trailer from Federated, for the most part you get the whole kit and caboodle, accessories, hosiery, clothes, etc. Most people don't want the accessories, but the jobber has to get rid of them. So, sometimes, when you are paying $5 a unit, you are getting cheapie accessories, bras and panties because these things cost basically nothing and the jobber has to get rid of them. By adding in this inexpensive merchandise and still charging you a flat price whether it's clothes or accessories, they make a better profit. Most people think their biggest concern is that the jobber cherry picks, no your biggest concern is paying for apparel and getting accessories and lingerie mixed in.

Some brokers slightly misrepresent the stores
Some brokers sell a mixed Federated load as Bloomingdales, and even worse, some sell a Saks Inc load as Saks Fifth Avenue. Not long ago, Saks Inc. was working with Tradeout (which is now Retail Exchange) to offer their salvage merchandise for sale via the internet. Saks Incorporated owns many department stores, regional stores like Younkers and Profitts. These stores are very similar to Macy's in their selection. Saks Fifth Avenue is a divsion of Saks and is operated separately. Saks Inc is based in Birmingham and Saks Fifth Avenue is based in New York.

When Saks Inc started selling off their salvage, they sold it dirt cheap. Somewhere around $2 a unit or less. Well lots of brokers were selling this as Saks Fifth Avenue at $4 a unit (and up) and even claiming that it included Armani and Versace. Well if it did, you probably had one Armani glove! Now you get a buyer coming along, who wants top brands for next to nothing, who thinks they hit the jackpot, spends thousands on this merchandise only to receive box after box of disappointments.

Saks Fifth Avenue does not sell off a lot of merchandise. A few times a year they sell their closeouts and salvage. Saks Fifth Avenue is a very high-end store; their average retail price is around $250-300. Most jobbers won't touch it because it costs too much—they deal in inexpensive merchandise they can sell quickly. As a result, there are very, very few jobbers buying Saks Fifth Avenue (Bergdorf, Neiman Marcus, fill in the blank) merchandise. And let me be honest with you—even though Saks Fifth Avenue sells Chanel, Gucci, Prada and Armani, you won't get much of it in their closeout loads because they can mark it down in the store and sell it like crazy or sell it in their Off-Fifth stores or at employee sales.

You may have better luck with their salvage merchandise, but you won't get a lot of it. If you want to know what you will get, you will get a lot of DKNY, CK, Ellen Tracy, Eileen Fisher, Dana Buchman, Laundry, ABS, and a few other brands, and a LOT of their private label brands which includes Real Clothes, Folio and others. The better stores are better. Neiman can be heavy in damages (just walk into a Last Call and imagine getting what didn't sell there) and so forth.

Some brokers don't care about authenticity
If you are buying store closeouts, this is less of a concern. But there are a lot of brokers selling stocklots of designer apparel. Some at fire-sale prices. One of the biggest problems is that these brokers don't know and don't care if you receive counterfeit merchandise. This is particularly the case with high end Italian designer apparel and urban brands. I get email after email from people who are considering a deal and I just can't believe how blatantly fake some of this stuff is. Some people assume that if it's well made, it can't be fake. Whatever. Some people assume that just having a tag or an authenticity card (Certificate of Authenticity) is enough. Like you can't make those as well. Buyer beware.

So what does this mean to you?
Buyer beware. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. We get email after email from people wanting top tier brands for pennies on the dollar. They are ripe to get scammed. Let's be real. If you were a jobber, and by some miracle, you were able to buy Chanel suits for $10, how much would you sell it for? Would you sell them for the $20 that a lot of these prospective buyers think they are going to pay? No, you would want top dollar, and so does everyone else.

If at all possible, try to go to the nearest warehouse of a closeout dealer and see the merchandise before you buy.

If what you are saying is true, then how do people get all the good stuff?
Some people are very well connected and have an "in" with a store or a jobber. Some people import directly from overseas. And to be honest, many people look like dinky little sellers on the surface, but in fact are huge corporations with tremendous buying power. Money talks, if you go to Saks and have a quarter of a million dollars to spend, then you can see how you will have an easier time than someone who is only looking to spend a few thousand.

And let's keep it real. $5,000 may be a lot to many people, but to these large national retailers, it's nothing. You have to spend major money to really get your foot in the door. And in many instances, you have to be prepared to take everything on that trailer.

Where to buy the most frequently requested brands

So, you want to know where to get these designer brands at below wholesale pricing, well read on:


First, let me start off by saying that I don't sell any merchandise at all. I sell a designer apparel information guide that tells you where to get this merchandise at below wholesale prices. I get a lot of questions about which brands are or are not available so I've compiled this listing of many (not all) of the brands and their availability as I know it.

Most Frequently Requested Denim Brands
Juicy Couture Velour, Terry and Jeans	Not currently available, but jobber #28 may get them soon
Seven Jeans, Seven for All Mankind Jeans	Jobber #26 gets them occassionally, but can only sell them to retail stores
Joie Jeans and apparel	Jobber #26 gets them occassionally, but can only sell them to retail stores
Iceberg Jeans and apparel	Jobber #26 gets them occassionally, but can only sell them to retail stores
Earl Jeans and apparel	Jobber #26 gets them occassionally, but can only sell them to retail stores, Jobber #6 gets them also
Blue Cult Jeans	Jobber #28 gets them occassionally, but can only sell them to retail stores
Lix Jeans	Jobber #28 gets them occassionally, but can only sell them to retail stores
Diesel Jeans	Jobbers #6 and #13 get them
Lucky Jeans	Jobber #6 gets them all the time
Most Frequently Requested Department Store Closeouts
Saks Fifth Avenue store stock (returns and damages)	Jobber #19 sells their merchandise, but ONLY the returns/damages
Neiman Marcus catalog returns	Jobber #23 gets their catalog returns
Henri Bendel store stock	Jobber #28 has it, and possibly will have it continuously
Bergdorf Goodman store stock	Jobber #04 gets it (new and returns)
Most Frequently Requested Urban Brands
Ecko	Jobber #13 carries a lot of it, other jobbers in the guide do too
Fubu	Jobber #13 carries a lot of it, other jobbers in the guide do too
Sean John	Jobber #13 carries a lot of it, other jobbers in the guide do too
Enyce	Jobber #13 carries a lot of it, other jobbers in the guide do too
Phat Farm	Jobber #13 carries a lot of it, other jobbers in the guide do too
Most Frequently Requested Mainstream Brands
Tommy Hilfiger, Polo, DKNY, etc.	Plenty of jobbers get this merchandise
Ralph Lauren Purple and Black Labels	Jobber #28 has it now and may get it again
Most Frequently Requested Italian Brands
Roberto Cavalli	Jobber #19 gets it, but minimums are high
Fendi apparel	Jobber #19 gets it, but minimums are high, jobber #03 gets it with lower minimums
Fendi, Gucci, Chanel and Prada Handbags	Jobber #27 and Jobber #30
Prada, Miu Miu, Dior, Gucci, Chanel, Marc Jacobs and other high end apparel	Jobber #27 gets it consistently, but not all brands are available all the time
Versace, Dolce & Gabbana apparel	Jobber #19 gets it, but minimums are high, Jobber #05 and Jobber #03 get it with lower minimums
Armani and high end Ralph Lauren for men	Jobber #16 gets it consistently

This is not an all-inclusive list of all the brands that are carried by jobbers listed in the guide, but this is a compilation of frequently requested brands. If you want to know which jobbers carry these brands, then you have to buy the guide.