There’s a rumor that has been circulating online since YouTube became mainstream (2009-ish?), and that rumor is that if your wholesale merchandise ships on a wood pallet you can make money selling it… which seriously sounds AMAZING, but here’s the truth:

A wood pallet measures approximately 4 feet x 4 feet and can weigh as much as 80 pounds = Big and Heavy

If you have a truck or an SUV you can fit it in your vehicle but it is highly unlikely it will fit in a car unless you have a special car that allows the back seats to fold flat and allows you to access the flat-back-seats through the trunk.

99.9999999999% of the “advice” you see online comes from people who have NEVER sold pallets, so the “advice” is utterly worthless. Here’s FACTS, directly from a wholesale company who has dealt with wood pallets for over 16 years:

FACT: It is EXCEPTIONALLY DIFFICULT TO FIND A LOCAL PLACE WHO WILL PAY FOR PALLETS. There may be one within a 3 hour radius of your house. You will have to do some online digging.

FACT: Pay is super, super low. $1 - $4 average. (Want more exact numbers? Here you go: In 2020: No. 2 recycled 48x40-inch pallets have been in the $4.25-$5.50 range, while No. 1 recycled pallets have been in the $5.80-$7.40 range. Heat-treated (HT) pallets can be $1 more for each. …. Does this sound like scientific gibberish? Yes, that’s why I said “The $1 - $4 range”, kapish?)

FACT: Not all pallets have value! Nobody wants a busted up pallet. Nobody. Additionally, there are styles of pallets that nobody will buy.

FACT: You are not going to “Make Money” unless you have a lot of pallets and a way to move them in mass. We have guys that come and take ours. They load up their trucks and trailers:

These guys take 30 - 50 pallets at a time because that is the only way they can make it WORTH their time.

FACT: If you have 1 or 2 pallets, you’re going to spend more money on gas and time to sell them than what you get paid for them… which actually makes it a LOSS, not a “Money making opportunity”.

FACT: Some recycling centers will take them, but they do not pay for them.

FACT: Some people will buy them to make furniture and other things:

But, unless you have a super clean, super nice or really cool-looking pallet, you’re better off giving it away for free to get rid of it than attempting to sell it.  Most of the people who are looking for pallets to make furniture are more interested in FREE pallets. 

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