The johnpye.co.uk site offers stock from bust retailers and returns from John Lewis. But do you really get a profitable deal?John Lewis dumps its returns and halt-of-line stock there,often at rock-bottom prices. It’s where 3500 crates of brand new and ex-display mobile phones – all from the collapse of the Phones 4u chain – were sold off, with some handsets going for under £5. Cars seized by the DVLA and stolen goods recovered by the police – but where the owner can’t be traced – often halt up there. Yet the John Pye Auctions website remains relatively unknown: is it a secret eBay where canny buyers can pick up real bargains, and the fag-halt of retail,piled tall with junk?Seven years ago, when Guardian Money first featured John Pye, or it was a single warehouse in Nottingham,handling bankrupt and liquidation stock – and you had to turn up in person and tender. But the recession, and technology, and have been kind to the commerce. It is now Britain’s biggest firm of commercial auctioneers with 14 warehouses across the UK,including an 11-acre site in the West Midlands.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com