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The Liquidation Glossary: Insider Terms Decoded
Every trade has its shorthand, and liquidation is no exception. This liquidation terms glossary decodes the vocabulary you’ll see on listings, manifests and forums, so you can buy with confidence instead of guessing.
Sourcing & condition terms
- Customer returns — merchandise returned by shoppers. Untested and sold as-is; condition ranges from unused to opened.
- Overstock — new, unsold inventory the retailer needs to clear. New condition.
- Shelf-pull — new items removed from the shelf (discontinued, seasonal reset, or packaging wear). New but may show shelf wear.
- Salvage — damaged or heavily distressed goods, sold cheapest, often for parts or scrap value.
- NWT / NWOT — “New With Tags” / “New Without Tags,” common in apparel lots.
Lot & logistics terms
- Manifest — the line-item list of a lot’s contents and estimated retail. See manifested vs unmanifested.
- LPN — License Plate Number, the barcode a warehouse assigns to a returned unit for tracking.
- Gaylord — a large bulk box (about a pallet footprint) used to ship loose, unpalletized returns.
- Casepack — items in their original sealed retail cases, usually new and uniform.
- LTL — Less-Than-Truckload freight, how single pallets ship. See Shipping.
- BOL — Bill of Lading, the freight receipt you sign at delivery. Inspect before signing.
Value terms
- Estimated retail / MSRP — the sticker value of the goods, not what you’ll net. Use it only to compare lots, never as a profit promise.
- Cost per unit — pallet price divided by unit count; your true buy cost per item.
- Recovery rate — the percentage of estimated retail you actually realize after selling. Realistically 30–80%.
Know a term we didn’t cover? It’ll turn up on a manifest eventually — and now you’ll have the map. Ready to put it to use? Browse current lots.
Frequently asked questions
What does ‘sold as-is’ actually mean?
It means the goods are sold in their current condition with no warranty beyond our stated Returns policy. For customer-return lots, items are untested — some work, some don’t.
What’s the difference between overstock and shelf-pull?
Both are new. Overstock never made it to the shelf; shelf-pull was on the shelf and removed. Practically, both are unused new-condition goods.