When you have a remnant sitting in your shop, it has 3 possible fates:
- Use it on another job
- Sell it to someone else who can use it
- Let it collect dust, until you finally pay for disposal
Option 1 is the best case, and the remnants you use yourself are the most valuable.
Option 2 is pretty good, but you have to find another fabricator who wants your remnant. The value of the remnant depends on how much it costs you to sell it.
Option 3 is really bad. Not only does it cost you space to store, it eventually costs you money to dispose. These remnants have negative value.
If you want to increase the value of your remnants, you need to sell the remnants that you would otherwise dispose.
That’s easier said than done! The fact is, remnants are bought, not sold. Just because you have a particular remnant, doesn’t mean someone close by has a job that needs it.
The key to selling your remnants is to make sure that anyone nearby who needs a remnant can easily find out if you have one available. If other fabricators in your area check with you every time they need a small vanity, but don’t want to purchase a full slab, you’re more likely to sell your remnants.
How do you sell a remnant, without it costing more than it’s worth?
There are three primary costs to sell your remnants.
Cost #1: Time
If you get a phone call every time someone else needs to check on a remnant, you’re quickly going to spend more time than it’s worth to sell them.
Cost #2: Transportation
The cost of transportation can quickly make a remnant purchase not make sense. So you only want to sell to fabricators near by.
Cost #3: Transaction costs
When that magical situation happens where there’s a fabricator nearby who needs a remnant you have, the last thing you want to do is give half the remaining value of the remnant to a middleman.
That’s why www.RemnantSwap.com is fast, local, and free!
If you’re tracking your remnants in an Excel spreadsheet, or using software like Moraware JobTracker, then it only takes a couple minutes every few weeks to keep your remnants updated on RemnantSwap. That’s far less time than fielding just a few phone calls from fabricators looking for remnants. When you search in RemnantSwap, it shows you the matching remnants closest to you. And since we’re not in the business of being middlemen, RemnantSwap is free.
Playing the odds
To have the best chance of matching up a remnant with a job, you need to have as many fabricators as possible checking their jobs against your remnants. That’s never going to happen if someone has to call you to find out what’s available.
By posting your remnants on RemnantSwap, all the fabricators around you can easily search for the colors they’re looking for without wasting their time or yours. They’re much more likely to try to find a remnant if the process is easy.
That’s why we make RemnantSwap so easy for buyers to search. Buyers don’t need to sign up. They just go to the website, type in the color, and it shows them the closest matching remnant.
How do I get started selling my remnants?
- Go to https://www.remnantswap.com/
- Sign up for a free account
- Copy & paste your list of remnants from Excel or Moraware JobTracker all at once. (You can add hundreds of remnants in seconds!)
- Tell other fabricators near you that they can find your remnants on RemnantSwap
