Package returns can mean huge savings for you

FITCHBURG, Mass — With prices sky-high, it pays to shop around and look for deals. Boston 25 News uncovered big savings at stores and websites selling returns and extra inventory from big box stores and Amazon.

On the day we visited East Coast Sales and Liquidation in Fitchburg, we saw new Xbox games for ½ off, a new baby crib and convertible bed for $160, and lap tops for a fraction of the retail price. Owner Tyler Yalian says the products he sells are brand-names, from big box stores like Target and Home Depot, but he’s able to sell them for deep discounts because they’re items like returns, that the other stores didn’t want to re-shelve.

“You will see some things at 75-90% off. Most of our clothing is $5 a piece.

All the toys and home goods you see from Target are 50% off,” Yalian said. “It gives us an opportunity to give people a deal on things they want.”

Another big seller in the Northeast is M@C Discount. The company offers an online auction platform, selling 25,000 products every day. Those products come from “Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, you name it,’ says M@C Discount co-founder, Kellen Campbell. The company buys returned and overstock items and consumers bid on those products. “Everything we sell starts at a dollar. There is no reserve price. It’s free to bid so almost all of this stuff sells,” says Campbell.

And you can find just about anything on the company’s online auction site.

With Americans returning 16.5% of retail items purchased in 2022, according to the National Retail Federation, there are plenty of products ending up for resale.

A spokesperson for Amazon says they try to resell returned items if they meet their high standards. Amazon also states over the past three years, it has donated 100 million returned items to charities worldwide. Otherwise, the products are sold to wholesalers or they end up being sold as used through AmazonWarehouse.com.

Yalian says, especially this year with inflation so high, he’s glad he can help provide deals when budgets are tight.

“If you can pay $10 for something that costs $20.... that $10 can put food on the table or that extra ten bucks can go in somebody’s gas tank,” Yalian said. “It gives them the opportunity to get it at 50% off... and we make a little money, we’re happy at the end of the day because it allows us to bring new products in.”

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