Buying Stocklots by Weight: Kilo Pricing Versus Piece Pricing
Kilo pricing is the oldest way of selling surplus clothing and the easiest way to be fooled by it. A price per kilogram tells you what the goods cost by weight and nothing about what they cost per sellable piece, and the two can differ by a factor of three between a heavy hoodie lot and a light summer lot. The buyer who converts the kilo price into a real cost per piece before agreeing is the buyer who keeps a margin.
Part of the buyer journey: Understanding Stocklots: The Model From the Inside — stage 1 of 8, with the other guides for this stage.
Why the trade prices by weight at all
Clothing surplus started as a volume business where the goods were not sorted, not counted and not described, and weight was the only quantity that could be established quickly at a warehouse. A bale could be weighed in a minute, and the two parties could agree a price without opening it, which made the transaction fast and cheap for both sides.
That logic still holds for genuinely unsorted material such as mixed bales, returns and collected clothing. Nobody is going to count and describe a bale of unsorted goods for a small margin, so the weight price is honest for that product, and the buyer accepts the uncertainty in exchange for a very low price per kilogram.
The logic breaks down for sorted export goods. A counted and packed lot of one style has already been described, and quoting it by weight removes the description that makes it valuable. When you see a per kilogram price on a fully described export lot, ask why the seller prefers the weight to the piece.
Converting a kilo price into a real cost per piece
The conversion needs three numbers: the price per kilogram, the weight of one piece, and the sellable content of the lot. Weigh a sample garment, then multiply the weight by the price per kilogram to get the cost of that piece. A hoodie weighing six hundred grammes at two dollars per kilogram costs a dollar twenty, and a t shirt weighing one hundred and eighty grammes at the same rate costs thirty six cents.
The second step is the sellable content, which is where unsorted lots punish buyers. If five percent of a lot is damaged or unsellable, the real cost per sellable piece rises by about five percent. If a bale turns out to be forty percent single items and odd sizes that cannot be sold as a set, the arithmetic changes completely, and that is the number to estimate before the price is agreed.
The third step is the freight, which follows the weight as well. A heavier lot costs more per piece to move, so a heavy fabric at a low price per kilogram can still be worse value than a lighter fabric at a slightly higher weight price. The comparison that matters is landed cost per sellable piece, not cost per kilogram at the warehouse.
When the kilo price is genuinely the better deal
Kilo pricing is favourable when the average piece is heavy and the fabric is one you can sell. Heavy knitwear, denim, fleece, workwear and outerwear all carry weight in the buyer’s favour, because the seller is being paid by the kilogram while the buyer sells by the piece at a price that does not fall with weight.
It is favourable when the sellable content is high. A bale of clean overrun goods sorted by size may be priced per kilogram simply because it has always been sold that way, and a buyer who opens it and confirms the content has found a good deal expressed in an awkward unit.
It is unfavourable when the goods are light and the price is high. A bale of thin summer dresses at three dollars per kilogram is far more expensive per piece than it first appears, because the average garment may weigh under two hundred grammes. Light categories should be bought per piece, and a seller who insists on weight for a light category usually knows the arithmetic is in their favour.
The questions that turn a kilo price into a piece price
Ask for the average weight of a piece in the lot. A seller who has handled the goods can usually answer within a range, and the range is enough to convert. A seller who cannot answer at all is selling something they have not opened, which is itself a fact about the lot.
Ask for the piece count in a sample carton or bale, and the number of cartons or bales in the lot. Multiplying gives an approximate piece count for the whole lot, and with the average weight it produces both a real cost per piece and a check on the seller’s own numbers.
Ask what has been removed. Bales often have the premium pieces taken out before they are offered, which is why a bale can be heavier in weight than in value. A seller who is open about what was removed, and who prices the lot accordingly, is a seller worth continuing with.
Buying both ways at once
The practical approach for most buyers is to buy sorted export lots per piece and unsorted or mixed material per kilogram, and to keep the two channels separate in the records. Sorted goods are sold to shops, unsorted goods go to market traders or into a bin operation, and the two businesses need different arithmetic.
Where a supplier offers both, ask for a piece price on the sorted portion and a kilo price on the unsorted portion rather than one blended number. That single request usually improves the deal, because it lets the supplier sell the good goods at their value and move the rest without carrying it.
Review the conversion after every lot. The estimated weight per piece against the actual, and the estimated sellable content against the actual, produce a correction factor that makes the next estimate better. After three or four lots a buyer can price a kilo offer accurately in their head, which is a real commercial advantage in a market where decisions are made in minutes.
The traps worth naming
The first trap is a wet bale. Goods stored in a damp warehouse absorb water, and a bale weighed wet is heavier than the same bale weighed dry. Where the weight looks higher than the description suggests, ask when it was weighed and whether the goods are dry.
The second trap is an inflated gross weight that includes the packaging. A price per kilogram on a gross weight that includes heavy cartons or a pallet pays for the packaging, and the difference is not trivial on a light garment lot. Ask whether the price is on net or gross weight, in writing.
The third trap is a price per kilogram quoted for goods that were never intended to be sold by weight. Where the same lot is available per piece from another buyer at a lower real cost, the weight price was simply a way of presenting a worse number. Comparing the two presentations is the discipline that keeps a buyer honest with themselves.
Kilo pricing in the bale market
Origin bales are the classic weight product: goods collected in a country of origin, compressed into a bale of a stated weight and sold on the spot with no pretence of a description. What a buyer receives is a distribution of garments, and the value depends on the country, the season of collection and the sorting standard applied before baling.
Bale grades exist and they vary between suppliers, so a buyer should establish what the seller means before comparing prices. One seller grades by the share of wearable garments, another by the age of the collection and a third by the retail brands found inside. The grade name is a shorthand and the definition behind it is the product.
Buying a bale is a skill rather than a calculation, and it is learned by opening several and recording what came out. A buyer who keeps a simple record of the bale grade, the cost, the sellable share and the resale result builds a reliable picture within a few purchases, and that record is worth more than any seller description.
The sorting labour the weight price hides
Unsorted goods have to be sorted before they can be sold, and the sorting is labour. A bale of mixed clothing requires staff to open it, sort by category and condition, decide what can be sold and price it. On a small operation that work is the owner’s own time, which is why the cost is routinely omitted from the arithmetic.
The uplift from sorting is real. The same goods sold unsorted to a market trader earn less than the same goods sorted into categories, priced separately and offered to buyers who want one category. Sorting converts weight value into piece value, and the margin is the payment for the labour.
Sorting pays when the categories can be sold separately and the volume justifies a person doing the work. It does not pay when the goods are all one category, when the buyer has no channel for the categories found, or when the volume is so small that setting up the work costs more than the uplift. Those three conditions are worth checking before committing to a bale.
What stocklots are available right now?
Reading is step one. Send your requirement and we will check the factory network for current options.
Buyer questions, answered
Is it better to buy stocklots by weight or by piece?
Sorted export lots should be bought per piece, because the description is the value. Unsorted bales, returns and mixed material are normally bought by weight. The mistake is paying a weight price for goods that were counted and packed, or a piece price for goods nobody has opened.
How do I convert a price per kilogram into a cost per piece?
Weigh a sample garment and multiply by the price per kilogram. Then adjust for the sellable content of the lot, since damaged or unsellable pieces raise the real cost per sellable piece, and add the freight, which also follows the weight.
Which categories are good value by weight?
Heavy knitwear, denim, fleece, workwear and outerwear, where the average piece carries real weight and the fabric still sells at a price per piece. Light summer clothing is usually poor value by weight, because the seller is paid for kilos the buyer cannot recover in the sale price.
What should I ask before agreeing a kilo price?
The average weight of a piece, the piece count in a sample bale, the number of bales in the lot, whether the weight is net or gross, and what premium pieces have been removed. Those five answers convert a weight price into a decision.
Does a wet bale matter?
Yes. Damp goods absorb water and weigh more, so a bale stored badly is heavier than the same goods dry. Ask when the weight was taken, whether the goods are dry, and whether the price is on net weight excluding packaging.