Overstock loads liquidation vault with jewels

In a flash-back move echoing the founding days of Overstock, the company has purchased the entire inventory of online jewelry company Bidz.com, out of foreclosure.

"We don't want to lose sight of where we come from," said Overstock President Stormy Simon. "When we have opportunities to bring our customers extraordinary deals like this, we make it happen."

Several Brink's armored trucks transported the high-end jewelry which was estimated at more than $89 million from California to Overstock's Utah distribution center in preparation for sale on the website. The inventory acquisition is the centerpiece of Overstock's new Jewelry Liquidation Vault, an on-site showcase of high-end jewelry pieces at liquidation prices.

"We have trusted relationships with jewelry merchants and designers from around the world," said Seth Marks, Overstock's SVP, merchandising and strategic sourcing. "These partners will also be able to use the Jewelry Liquidation Vault to exclusively showcase one-of-a-kind jewelry deals on our site."

In the old days of online shopping site and liquidation pioneer, CEO and founder Patrick M. Byrne often showed up at failing e-commerce companies and made cashier-check offers to buy their entire inventories, on sight. In the aftermath of the dot-com bubble, Overstock liquidated 18 failed dot-coms using this technique. "It is how we acquired our initial momentum," said Byrne.

Byrne added that in a move aimed to uncover more large-scale online liquidation opportunities, Overstock has created a dedicated team to pursue deals such as the Bidz.com acquisition.

"We encourage all parties looking to monetize inventory quickly to reach out to us, as we pride ourselves on our agility and ability to react to these opportunities while paying top recovery dollar," said Marks. "Due to the flexibility of our deal structures, there is no deal too big for us to handle now."

"To any other parties out there in possession of inventories on which they need to recover top dollar while liquidating quickly, I say, 'call collect'" added Byrne.