Liquidation sales are sales that retailers use to move merchandise before clothing their doors for good. They are usually run by professional liquidators whose job is to liquidate the contents of entire stores.

You need to know that in most cases the liquidator first buys the merchandise from the store and then sells it from the store location. Liquidators will pay roughly 5 cents on the dollar for the retailers products, and then make their money by selling at highly discounted prices.

This is important to know because it means that the liquidator can make money even if he or she sells the merchandise for 6 cents on the dollar. Be prepared to offer him a really low price since he himself has bought the merchandise for even less.

And since the liquidator has at most a couple of weeks to sell all the merchandise he will be under pressure to move it. Once the lease is up the retailer needs to vacate the premises, which means that the liquidator must sell out before then.

Spend your first day at the store making notes of the items available for sale. Next, research those items on eBay and see how much you can sell them for.

If you sell at a flea market or out of a retail store, you would follow the same steps.

Go back to the store and offer the liquidator a bulk amount for all of the items that you want. Show the liquidator that you have done your research, this will show him that you are serious and that your prices are based on research.

The reason you want to offer a bulk price is because the liquidator will be more willing to make a deal when he sees that you are interested in buying in quantities.

Remember that the liquidator is interested in selling as much as possible before he needs to vacate the premises.

Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay sellers, retailers, and flea market vendors.