How does Amazon FBA liquidation work?

You create a removal order in Seller Central and choose Liquidations as the method. Amazon offers the units to contracted wholesale liquidators and, once they sell, pays you the net proceeds after a referral fee and a per-unit processing fee. If no buyer is found, units return to your inventory.

How much money do you get from Amazon liquidation?

Usually a small fraction of the selling price. Liquidators buy in bulk at deep discounts, and fees reduce the net further. Amazon shows an estimated recovery value when you create the order, which is the best guide for your products. The main saving is stopping ongoing storage costs.

Is it better to liquidate or remove Amazon inventory?

It depends on the unit's value. Removal costs a fee per unit but lets you resell the stock yourself, which suits higher-value items. Liquidation suits low-value or bulky items where removal fees and freight would exceed what you could sell them for elsewhere.

Do storage fees stop when I liquidate?

Yes. Amazon's program terms say monthly storage fees and long-term storage fees stop accruing for eligible items from the date you submit the liquidation request. If Amazon cannot find a buyer within the facilitation period, the units return to your inventory and fees resume.

Can liquidated items end up back on Amazon?

Liquidated inventory is resold by the buyers, and sellers report seeing liquidated units reappear in discount channels and sometimes online marketplaces. If price control matters for your brand, consider removal and controlled resale instead, and monitor your listings for unauthorized sellers.

Amazon FBA Liquidations: How It Works and What You Get

What changed: Amazon sells your FBA stock to liquidators and pays you net proceeds
When: Updated October 2026
Who it affects: FBA sellers with excess, aged or returned inventory
What to do: Compare liquidation proceeds with removal and discount options per SKU

Key takeaways

Liquidation recovers a small share of retail but stops storage fees from the request date.
Fees are a referral fee on proceeds plus a size and weight based processing fee.
Try discounts first; liquidate low-value, aged or discontinued units.

Ways to clear slow FBA stock

	Discount	Liquidate	Remove	Dispose
Cash recovered	Highest	Low	Depends on resale	None
Effort	Medium	Low	High	Low
Stops storage fees	When sold	On request	On removal	On removal
Brand price risk	Low	Medium	Low	None

What is Amazon FBA liquidations?

FBA Liquidations is an Amazon service for clearing inventory that is not selling fast enough. Instead of shipping units back to yourself or paying Amazon to dispose of them, you submit a liquidation removal order and Amazon sells the units in bulk to wholesale liquidators. Amazon lists FBA Liquidations among its core FBA tools.

Amazon acts as a facilitator, not the buyer. It does not guarantee that units will sell or what price they will reach. If no buyer is found within the facilitation period, the units return to your inventory.

How the liquidation process works

The process runs from the same removal workflow you use to return or dispose of inventory.

Go to the FBA inventory page or removal order screen in Seller Central
Select the SKUs and quantities, fulfillable or unfulfillable
Choose Liquidations as the removal method
Review the estimated recovery value and fees, then confirm
Amazon offers the units to its contracted liquidators
Net proceeds are paid to your account after the sale

Create a liquidation

1Open removals
FBA inventory page
2Pick units
Fulfillable or unfulfillable
3Choose Liquidations
As removal method
4Check estimate
Recovery value and fees
5Get paid
Net proceeds after sale

How much do you get from FBA liquidations?

Not much, and that is by design. Liquidators buy in bulk at a deep discount to retail, then resell. Third-party analyses estimate gross liquidation value at a small single-digit to low double-digit percentage of the selling price, and after fees the net is lower still. Amazon shows an estimated recovery value when you create the order, so use that rather than general rules of thumb.

The real benefit is what liquidation stops: monthly storage fees and aged inventory surcharges. Amazon's program terms state that monthly and long-term storage fees stop accruing on units you submit for liquidation from the date you submit the request.

What fees apply to liquidations?

Liquidation fees have two parts: a referral fee on the liquidation proceeds and a per-unit processing fee based on the item's size and weight. When Amazon launched the program in Canada on November 5, 2025, it published a 15% referral fee plus processing fees from CA$0.25 to CA$1.90 for items up to 5 kg, plus CA$0.20 per kg above that. Check the current US fee table in Seller Central before relying on any figure.

Canada liquidation fees at launch

15%referral fee on proceeds

CA$0.25lowest processing fee per item

CA$1.90processing fee at up to 5 kg

CA$0.20per kg above 5 kg

Source: Amazon Seller Forums (Canada), Nov 2025

Liquidation versus removal, disposal and discounting

Liquidation is one of four ways to clear slow stock, and it is often not the best one. Discounting through a coupon, sale price or Outlet deal keeps the unit on Amazon and usually recovers more. Removal returns stock to you to sell elsewhere, at a per-unit removal fee. Disposal recovers nothing. Liquidation sits in between: little cash, little effort and an immediate stop to storage costs.

Our Amazon excess inventory guide walks through the order to try these options, and Amazon coupons and promotions covers the discount route.

When liquidation makes sense

Liquidation works best when the alternatives are worse.

Low-value items where removal fees exceed the unit's resale value
Aged stock heading into a higher surcharge band
Customer returns that are not worth relisting
Seasonal products after the season ends
Discontinued SKUs you no longer want to support
Space needed for faster-selling products under capacity limits

Liquidating customer returns and unfulfillable units

Liquidation also accepts unfulfillable units, such as customer returns graded as damaged, which otherwise sit in your account until you remove or dispose of them. EcomCrew reported in 2025 that liquidation became the default option for unfulfillable inventory. Check your automated removal settings in Seller Central so you know what happens to these units without a manual decision.

Risks brands should weigh

Liquidated stock does not disappear. It is resold, sometimes through discount channels, and some sellers report seeing their liquidated units reappear on marketplaces at low prices. For brands that protect pricing, that can undercut your own listings and authorized resellers. For branded, premium products, removal and controlled resale may protect the brand better than liquidation. Our Amazon brand protection service monitors unauthorized sellers.

Also check whether returned units should be claimed instead. A return that was refunded but never came back may qualify for reimbursement, which is worth more than liquidating; see our FBA reimbursement guide.

Preventing the need to liquidate

Every liquidation is a forecasting lesson. Track why units became excess: an overly large first order, a seasonal miss, a listing that stopped converting or ad spend that was cut. Fixing the cause is worth more than any recovery value.

PPC Spider's FBA inventory management service forecasts demand, flags aging stock early in SpiderOS and uses ads and promotions to sell through before liquidation is the only option. A free Amazon audit shows where your aged inventory sits today.

Sources

Amazon: Fulfillment by Amazon (sell.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon)
Amazon Seller Forums: 2026 Canada fee update and FBA Liquidations launch (sellercentral.amazon.ca/seller-forums/discussions/t/a9383e96-87ef-484e-bbe7-cc07584331bb)
EcomCrew: Amazon liquidations, how much can you get (ecomcrew.com/amazon-liquidations-how-much-can-you-get/)

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