Sourcing Affordable Lighting at Goodwill and Liquidators?

Sourcing Affordable Lighting at Goodwill and Liquidators?

Great lighting is key to the aesthetic of a property and can be a big expense when doing a renovation. I replaced 9-11 fixtures in each of the last three properties I renovated and liquidators were my main source of inventory! I found these liquidators on Facebook Marketplace and eBay and saved more than 80%.

Liquidators buy a truckload or a pallet of distressed or returned inventory from large retailers such as Wayfair, Home Depot, Amazon or Lowe’s, as examples, and resell the merchandise on Facebook, Amazon, eBay or even at a storefront, at lower prices. In one instance, I found six fixtures at Goodwill for $6.99 each!

SAVINGS

I got this Home Depot distributed product, through a liquidator, for free. The product was returned to a liquidator without the original box and was not re-sellable. I bought several fixtures, so this one was thrown in for free. It was originally $144.

Believe it or not, I bought several fixtures at Goodwill for $6.99 each. On a fluke, there was a shelf of fixtures and I grabbed 6 of them. I looked on Amazon to find the original sale price. Here are a few of the fixtures as examples.

DESIGN

The selections are limited in terms of finish and quantity when sourced through a liquidator. It takes some creativity to make the fixtures work together.

  • Finish – Light fixtures will have some sort of metal component in black, bronze, brushed nickel, stainless or gold (ish). Although, I am not dead set on all the finishes being exactly the same throughout my units, I tend to anchor on one or two as the finish is the element that coordinates the fixtures throughout the unit, even if the fixtures themselves do not match. For example, the two fixtures in the kitchen were similar, but were not the same- although, the brushed nickel carried between the two fixtures and the cabinet hardware and faucet.

These vanity fixtures below were spray painted matte black to match the door and cabinet handles and doors for congestive design elements.

SELECTION

The selection is obviously limited through a liquidator. In the instance below, I needed two of the same fixture. Only one was available through I Goodwill, while the other I sourced through eBay, still cheaper than the original cost.

The free orb fixture was originally gold. There was only one and so, no finish choices available. I sprayed painted the fixture matte black. It turned out beautiful!

I hope these great deals encourage your creativity and save your reno budget!

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