If you love to buy wholesale clothing, specifically Liquidations, you will likely come across some pieces that say "PRESALE" or "PRE SELL".  Today we are going to discuss what this means.

The photo below shows a Reebok PRESALE clothing tag (see the red arrow pointing at the word PRE SELL"?):   

Below is another Reebok item that is also PRESELL:

PRE SELL tags can also be a large piece of paper, typically Cardstock that look similar to this:

PRE SELL items can also be called "SAMPLES".  Here's a tag from a N0RDSTR0M "Sample":

Here's a different style:

SO, WHAT ARE PRESELL ITEMS?

Pre Sale is exactly what it sounds like, "Pre" means "Before" and obviously you know what Sale / Sell means.  So, a Pre Sell item is an item before it is sold.  This means that specific item was made before it officially went on sale.  

Pre Sale items / Samples have a ton of purposes.  Typically the company the Pre Sell is sent to is going to be ordering 10,000+ pieces of it, so there is a lot of work that goes into approving each item and getting it ready for mass production then sale.  

So, a pre sale item:

Is sent to a company for inspection.  For example, a Pre Sell Lands End brand cardigan sweater is sent from the factory to Lands End so it can be thoroughly examined by Lands End.  When it arrives Lands End has the chance to examine the material, examine the stitching, measure the sleeves, ensure the interior manufacturer tags are printed correctly, etc.   Sometimes the company requests changes to be made to the item, so the process essentially starts over.  

Once approved the Pre Sell item can be used for photographing.  The photos can be used for the companies website, print advertisements, catalogs, store displays and more.  

Once the item is fully produced then it's 100% ready for Sale, and that is when a consumer can purchase it from Lands End (or whatever store).

WHY PRE SALE ITEMS ARE COOL:

There's some really awesome things about buying Pre Sale merch

- Sometimes you can get things that were changed before production, so you end up with a legitimate "One of a Kind" item. 

- Pre Sell items usually were never in a store because they were only used for ordering purposes, so there's very, very slim odds of it having any form of damage.  Although some pre sale items can get dust just from being touched by the people evaluating them.  Sometimes they can be worn for "Presentation", which means a human model put it on for the catalog or website listings.  However it is still very, very unlikely that she / he will get makeup on it however it does happen from time to time.  

- Big stores (Lands End, Reebok, etc) usually consider Pre Sale items to be Liquidations.  This means:

- Usually you can not get Pre Sale merch until after it has been fully produced and has been sold in stores, however you can occasionally get merchandise right when it is being released.  So you are likely the only person to get the brand new Reebok hoodie the day it went on sale in stores, however you got yours at a liquidation price. 

- Depending on the company, a PRE SALE item can be used to collect orders prior to the item officially being released.  

WHAT'S WRONG WITH PRE SELL ITEMS?

Nothing. The only difference is usually that the paper store tag says PRE SELL (or Sample, or whatever).  You should treat Pre Sell items like common liquidations, unless you discover a real gem in your lot! 

WHAT DO I DO IF IT'S 1-OF-A-KIND?

List it as such!  Upsell it to your buyers by letting them know the piece you are selling them was essentially the prototype, because thats pretty dang awesome!