I received this question from a reader this week:
“Do you have any advice for people like me, who live in the middle of nowhere?? I live in a very small town in MN, we don’t have any stores like TJ Maxx or anything like that, not even a JC Penney! It’s too much to risk buying the big lots on the internet because of not knowing what you’re going to get and I can’t afford to lose $1000 or more dollars. Is there any advice you can give for those that do not live in a big city and it …read more

When I first started selling on eBay, my primary source for inventory was garage sales and thrift stores. But every business has to evlove in order to grow. Big Lots is a closeout store with products that have either been discontinued, removed from store shelves because of packaging changes, or phased out all together. Small stores like CVS and Walgreens only have limited shelf space. As new items are constantly hitting store shelves, other products must be removed to allow space for newly released products. The pulled items are often sold to Big Lots and sold at clearance prices. You …read more