How much is this worth?

Back in the 60's my Dad's college had a prank contest.  And like in most colleges in that era, a VW Bug was the victim of one of the pranks.  A group disassembled the bug, and reassembled it on the 12th floor of one of the buildings.  Hilarious, right?

OK, now to the point.  If you were the owner of that bug and were trying to sell it, how much would you think it is worth now that it is on the 12th floor?  Well, Kelly Blue Book may list it as $4000 if it is in good shape, but the truth of the matter is that you may end up having to pay somebody to take it off your hands for you.

So it is with Liquidating an office.  Many of our customers get sticker shock when they are told how much their furniture is worth.  What they forget is, like our metaphorical Bug, there is a lot of labor in getting the furniture out.  On top of that, buildings typically require a pretty stiff Certificate of Insurance (COI) to move anything out (not cheap).  Then you add in the fact that they won't typically let you move things out during business hours, so you are probably going to have to pay somebody overtime to remove the furniture.

If a liquidator is purchasing your items, they will need to cover all the above labor costs, plus the expense of the vehicle they use to haul the furniture back to their facility, plus the warehousing costs (which in a city like DC is NOT cheap), plus the labor costs of removing the furniture from the truck, plus a salespersons salary to sell the item.

So, we get a lot of phone calls, "Hi, I'd like to donate our furniture to you."  Unfortunately, I grimace every time I get that call, because I know what they are asking is, "will you come pick up our furniture for free?"

So then, here is a guide.  If the items you are liquidating are a popular line from a popular company, AND are a common item that will fit anywhere, AND are in mint condition, AND you have a lot of matching items, you should HOPE to get 10% of what you originally paid for them.

Ouch!  I know.