A Comprehensive Guide to Repair/Combine Salvaged Products

Like any other business owner, you need to have a wide range of products that you can sell to your customers. As someone who buys and sells liquidation products, you must also come across lots and pallets full of items which are not working or which can be used for their parts. The benefit of buying such products is that they are very inexpensive and can either be repaired or combined to make a working item.

If you think that you have the resources to repair a product or combine spare parts to develop one functional item, do not hesitate to avail this option. The following lines will show you the benefits of repairing and combining the salvaged products that you have invested in and the steps you should follow for the final result.

Benefits of Repairing or Combining Salvaged Products

If you have only been focusing on refurbished or customer returns only, you have been missing out on a lot. Here are a few benefits of going through the process which you should be aware of.

Fewer Costs

One of the best reasons why you may want to consider repairing or combining wholesale liquidation products is because they cost very little and their repair does not (usually) require a lot of time. Even if you were able to find cheap products in perfectly working condition, they would never be as inexpensive as the spare parts or damaged pieces that you can repair on your own. However, if you want to make sure that you are saving costs, first decide if the investment is worth it. Weigh the pros and cons carefully before you decide to buy or repair the salvaged products. That way, you know that you are making the right choice.

High Appeal to Customers

Another advantage of repairing salvaged items is that they are a lot more appealing to customers as compared to non-functional products or spare parts. When you spend time in repairing or putting the pieces together, your customers will prefer buying completed products rather than incomplete items. For instance, if you are selling a full working CPU, the chances of your customers buying it will be a lot higher as compared to if you are selling a motherboard or other hardware separately. So if you think that the parts are in a good working condition and can be connected to make a whole product, go ahead and do so.

Hands-on Experience

Even though you will probably not be repairing or putting the pieces together on your own, just researching and buying the right kind of products will help you in getting hands-on experience about the items beneficial for your business. You will also learn more about the products as you and your team deal with more complicated projects. Remember – even though it may take you some time to complete the process smoothly, the end result will be extremely rewarding.

Higher Profits

Selling individual components or products that are not working properly will not be half as profitable as selling fully working products. If you carefully consider the merchandise or spare parts that you are putting together, you will be able to get a very good response from your customers. Therefore, when you invest your time and energy in repairing or developing these products together, you will be able to grow your liquidation business.

Open Space

You must have a warehouse for all the liquidation merchandise you bought and continue to buy. Therefore, it is important that you save as much space as possible. However, if you buy lots of spare parts, they will take up a lot more room individually as compared to when you combine them together and develop a product. Moreover, if you have products that are not in a working condition, they will have a smaller chance of being sold, which means that the space in your warehouse will be occupied for long. On the other hand, if you fix and repair these items, your customers will be eager to buy them from you.

Steps for Repairing and Salvaging Products

If you want to be sure that your customers actually do buy the merchandise that you are repairing and combining, you must follow some steps that have been tried and tested by liquidation business owners like you. These steps are very simple and easy to follow, so try to implement them whenever you go.

Step #1: Get an Idea

The first thing you must do is to get an idea about the products that are most in demand with your customers. Do not make the mistake of repairing any product which is not popular amongst your target audience. Yes, there are a lot of electronics which you can put together and create incredible products; but if your customers do not want them, you will only be wasting your time and money. An easy way to know whether or not your audience will like something is to ask them. Simply start a survey on your website and ask your visitors to choose the item which they would most like you to sell.

Step #2: Research

Next, once you know about the products preferred by your customers, start browsing the internet and look for the parts or products which you will need for the item. Research is key to every business, so do not slack here or else you will have to face the consequences later. Apart from the products and spare parts that you need, you must also look for reliable and professional vendors who can provide you with liquidated items. If you are able to find an experienced supplier, it will be beneficial for your future business as well because you can then go back to the dealer for more reliable products as well.

Step #3: Buy the Parts

Once you have done your research and know the products that you need to buy, you should go ahead and purchase the parts. Consider multiple factors, such as the price and shipping costs, when buying the parts as these will have an effect on the final profit that you make. Also keep in mind that just buying salvage products is not all you need to do because there is a whole process that you need to follow as well.

Step #4: Hire Reliable Employees

After you have purchased the parts, you must make sure of having reliable, experienced and professional employees. These are the people who will be testing, fixing and combining the salvage products you have to offer, so make sure they have the experience and skill to do so. If you hire someone who is not experienced, they will spend a lot of time on it, which will be a loss for you regardless of whether or not they can do your work.

Furthermore, and unskilled employee can cause more harm that just wasted time, if they further damage a salvage item through inexperience in trying to repair it. You should also provide your employees with the best environment where they can work comfortably.  In most cases a larger work area is required to properly tear down and part harvest items from consumer electronics. Specialized tools, anti-static workstations, and proper lighting are tremendous factors to make a job infinitely easier.

Step #5: Understand the Costs

Next, before you start to repair any products, you should learn about the costs involved in going through the process. Once again, if the cost of repair or combining the salvage products is more than the price which you hope to sell it for, you should not go for it. So sit down with your company’s books and carefully consider everything that will be involved in the repairs. If you are sure that you can bear the costs, you can move ahead to the next step.

Step #6: Invest in Tools

To repair the salvage products you are investing in, you must have the right tools for the job. Even if you have experienced employees working on the repairs, they will not be able to effectively do their job without the proper tools. Now buying the tools will also be an investment, so you must include this when going through the costs of repairs. Also, before you end up buying tools which you do not need, either consult your employees or the internet to make sure that what you are purchasing will be used.

Step #7: Decide on Warranty

Almost everything that comes with a warranty has a higher chance of being sold. So even if you are making the end product on your own and using liquidated parts, consider offering a warranty with it. You do not necessarily need to provide a 6-month or 1-year warranty; your customers may be easily satisfied with three to four month-warranties. So while deciding this very crucial factor, you should consider the things which the warranty will cover. Just keep in mind that there will be many customers who bring back the product just because. In this case, you need to draft and be clear about the terms and conditions of the warranty.

Step #8: Do Not Rush into Things

Yes, time is of the essence for any business, but you should not rush into these processes. Give your employees a deadline to complete their tasks and then leave them alone until the time for delivery is near. Asking your employees to update you after every few days will only make them nervous and stressed out; so make sure that you let them do their work and believe that they will be able to complete the task on time.

Step #9: Expect Mishaps

No matter how perfect your employees, you will face trouble in the first few instances when the repairs are being done or when salvaged individual components are put together. Therefore, just like you need to give the processes their own time, you should also expect to make mistakes and not get sidelined by them. People who opt for this method often end up purchasing the wrong hardware for their products. If this happens, do not worry because you will be able to either sell the spare part on its own or use it in another product.

Step #10: Build/Repair Your Product

Finally, once everything is done and over, you must start to build or repair the product at hand. Depending on what you want to develop or fix, this phase or step will take anywhere from a week to several months. If you plan to build multiple products with the individual components which you have bought, make sure that multiple people are working on the project as just one person will not be able to take care of the entire process.  

Another interesting point to make here is that with many of the same salvage items in your warehouse, it is often wise to consider the costs involved to repair your own products with salvage parts to make fully functional items –vs- part harvesting the items into individual components for sale. Surprisingly in most cases selling the items as individual components often yields more profit than complete functioning units. Think of the analogy of a car junkyard. They will typically purchase a car for less than $500 and sell the individual parts to yield a total return often 10 times the initial purchase price.

The law of averages can often bring these numbers down, that is, with rarer units not in high demand not selling –vs- high demand popular items flying off the shelf. But its rare that you see a junkyard fixing up their vehicles and selling them as complete.

Step #11: Utilize Social Media for Your Marketing Efforts

Finally, if you want your products to be seen and purchased by your target audience, you have to show them off on your website as well as via the social media. Do not just put them up on your website; have a social media page as well to market the products you have developed. Social media websites such as Facebook will not only market your products, but they will establish your brand name, especially if you have people following you. If you need to touch up on your social media marketing technique, contact a specialist or learn from any online tutorial.

Parting Words

Even though repairing and combining salvaged products can be quite rewarding and lucrative for your business, make sure that you get the parts in the right quantity and in good quality. As long as you follow each of the steps that have been discussed throughout this article, you will be able to develop, build and repair products which your customers will buy and pay a good price for. Apart from all of these steps, you should also know that the marketing and advertising part of your business is immensely important so you should not forget to implement it as well.

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