Purchase Discounted Products with Blemishes

You can purchase seconds and blemished, refurbished, or discontinued items directly from the manufacturer. This is a great way to get deep discounts on products that are perfectly functional and otherwise would not make it to retail stores because of minor imperfections. Here are some easy steps to help you in your purchasing.

Know exactly what you are looking for.

Get as many details about the product as you can. If you are looking to buy a particular washer, know the make, model, ID number and color.

Compare prices and know what the product costs at a retail or discount online store. It makes no sense to buy a blemished or discontinued product directly from the factory if you can get the same product down the street in perfect condition for the same price.

It's best if you know the terms that companies use to describe defective or blemished products. (The next section contains a list of words that companies often use to describe seconds, defective merchandise and cosmetic blemishes.)

Know what kind of defects you are willing to tolerate.

Visit factory outlets. Many larger manufacturers have affiliated outlets where they send all their discontinued or imperfect items. Often the problems with these items are invisible to the consumer except in the discounted price tags.

Contact the factory directly. Many companies are not large enough to have an affiliated warehouse. In these cases, the best way to find a great deal is to contact the factory directly.

Have all your detailed information on hand when you call or visit the outlet store or the factory itself.

Common Terms

Find merchandise with "cosmetic blems;" these generally don't affect the quality, specifications or functionality of the merchandise.

Look for the cosmetic blem - crooked seams, mismatched colors, small stains or anything that makes the appearance slightly less than perfect.

Look for a defect that will usually affect the product's performance in a "structural blem."

Determine how aggressively you plan to use the product. Because many products are designed to a standard that significantly exceeds normal use, you may get away with a structural blem.

Try "seconds" - products with irregularities or minor cosmetic or structural flaws. Labels are usually marked in some way so that consumers can identify flaws, such as "odd-sized."

Get a bargain with "overstocks." These products are almost always first-quality items. Often manufacturers will overproduce and then need to dramatically reduce prices in order to deplete excess inventory.

Be a little behind-the-times - but richer - with "closeouts." These are products that are usually first-quality items, but no longer included in the manufacturer's product line.

We have purchased a couple of different washing machines, a refrigerator, and a stove at a really great price by looking at their "markdown" section in the store. They all had something very minor that was nothing. I think the washers both had a very small dent in the bottom corner located on the back part of the washer towards the floor. They were going to be up against the wall anyways and noone was ever going to know it was there. It was something that would not affect the way the washer would work. Our refrigerator was missing a very small plastic piece that holds the shelf up in the freezer. It is the end that has the automatic ice maker and since I knew I would not be placing anything heavy on that end of the shelf, we went ahead and purchased it and saved a couple hundred dollars. When we have purchased items on markdown like this, we have always ended up getting a more expensive brand, better item than we normally could have afforded and it brought the cost of the item down to what we could afford.

We have purchased items like this at Lowes, H. H. Gregg, and a local appliance store. We've also found a place that sells items from Habitat for Humanity. Brand new doors, light fixtures, mismatched colors of paint, doors, sinks, many other items at very cheap prices.