An online broker for material sales

The Internet has proven to be a great place for merchandisers to buy and sell their wares, and a number of websites offer listing services for surplus plastics materials. But now molders can connect to the World Plastics Trading Center (WPTC) to directly buy and sell millions of pounds of surplus virgin, off-spec, and odd-lot materials. The new website is owned by Plastics General Inc., a resin distributor and broker headquartered in Tempe, AZ. Carl Weir, owner of Plastics General, says this is the first site of its type - an interactive plastics trading floor - on the Internet.

Whether you need to buy materials or get rid of unneeded inventory, the WPTC provides a unique opportunity for molders to offer their surplus materials for sale confidentially, with someone independent to handle the actual transaction. Although Plastics General has its own website showing some 4 million lb of materials the company has in stock at its Tempe warehouse, Weir analyzed the situation and concluded that molders have lots of material sitting on their shelves that nobody knows about but that somebody can use.

Typically, says Weir, anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of a molder's physical inventory is obsolete or can't be used for current production, which ties up working capital. Many times, molders call him and want Plastics General to buy the material. However, because Weir must mark it up and resell it, he can't always give the molder the best price. When the buyer and seller deal directly, however, the seller can get closer to a fair market price. "This gives sellers the ability to maximize the value they can receive for their surplus or dead inventory by getting top dollar for it and increasing its value by 15 to 30 percent," says Weir. "On virgin materials, sometimes the value can be increased by as much as 50 percent."

However, the buyer and seller don't talk to each other personally, giving sellers anonymity. Plastics General brokers the material through the WPTC, taking a small fee (as low as 3 percent) based on volume on each transaction. Buyers can purchase the material on credit using business purchasing cards, Visa, or Mastercard, which means the seller doesn't have to worry about getting paid for the material. WPTC guarantees payment if the quality of materials is as presented in the offering.

Molders anywhere in North America have access to the WPTC, and can locate materials by region of the country, the entire United States, Canada, or Mexico. They can also place their materials in the Center's inventory for anyone to see at no charge. Discounts of up to 25 percent of the fee will be offered to buyers and sellers based on the number and size of their transactions in each calendar month.

Through a network of 25 distribution points nationwide, Plastics General handles all the transportation through contracts with major carriers, including picking up material from one molder's facility, verifying the weight at the distribution point if necessary, then delivering it to another molder. The buyer pays the transportation costs.

About 30 million lb of material were in the Center's trading floor inventory in September (it opened the first week of August), and the WPTC is shooting for 100 million lb by the end of the year.

Although Plastics General is going after wide-spec and surplus materials directly from resin producers, its primary target is molders with excess inventories. The stock on the trading floor of the World Plastics Trading Center is updated daily as transactions take place and new materials are added to the site continuously. WPTC plans to add a "lot sales" trading section in the future where sellers can list and buyers can purchase entire lots of material.

It costs nothing to look at the site or to make an offer on the materials. "The only time money changes hands is when a transaction occurs," Weir says. He adds that there are "some real deals out there."

For details, call Plastics General at (602) 839-0070 or (888) 678-4410 or go to plasticsgeneral.com.