Christmas is coming again at Rylan Herndier’s house. On New Year’s Eve, he picked up a load of goodies from Ollive’s Auction that he bid on this week.
“I like the excitement of an auction. It seems everyone gets into it. Some people get carried away with the bidding,” Herndier said with a laugh.
He’ll likely win points for scoring two knitting machines — one for his wife and the other for a friend that he said retailed for four times what he spent on them.
The pandemic left some retailers struggling with return rates around 20 to 30 per cent of items sold.
That’s where long-time auctioneer Wayne Ollive comes in. For the past two years the Calgary man has been holding auctions selling thousands of returned products – some not even opened.
“You cannot imagine what we get. It’s unbelievable what people are buying online,” Ollive said.
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“We never know what’s coming. It’s an absolute surprise every Tuesday when we open up the boxes.”
Ollive works with a national liquidation company that sources the returns from retailers.
He said, on average, products are about 70 to 80 per cent off depending on who is bidding against you.
“It’s pretty interesting. There’s some really good deals, but some people drive you up a little more than you want to pay, but so far everything I’ve gotten I’m extremely happy with,” Herndier said.
Like regular online shopping, online auction bidding can be done from the comfort of your home. The auction goes on for several days. Pick-up is from a southwest Calgary warehouse currently packed with everything from air fryers and paddleboards to steam cleaners and electronics.
With inflation taking a bite out of everyone’s budget, the chance to get something at the price you want to pay for it seems like a good deal, even with the risk that comes with buying something that isn’t from the retailer.
“A lot of customers buy items that they said they would never ever think about buying but they see it and they’re sitting at the kitchen table and they can shop right there and they will buy it when normally they would never ever buy it, but (they’re) very happy that they ran across it because they can use it,” Ollive said.
Ollive added they get around 1,000 items at each auction.
He said customers are welcome to come to the warehouse to check out the product in person but he said not many people do.
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