[crazygringo]

That's not true -- you were informed wrong, sorry.

Tons of items on Amazon list "Amazon Warehouse" as a cheaper buying option, which are literally the returned items they're reselling, with a listed condition determined from inspection. This includes items that were returned at Kohl's.

Amazon destroys some returns, but that happens after the inspection process, if they determine the specific item was damaged enough that it's not profitable to resell.

[rob74]

Yup... it's just that inspecting the item also has a cost, which may lead to the item not being profitable to resell anymore, in which case it is destroyed without inspection. Or it's the individual employees who choose to play it safe and prefer to destroy an item rather than risk customer complaints if it get resold in less-than-mint condition.

[crazygringo]

Inspection is quite cheap. In cases where it's not worth returning+inspecting, Amazon generally tells you to just keep the item as well as the refund. That's generally the case with items under $10. If you abuse this, your account will ultimately be banned. If Amazon's bothering to accept the return in the first place, it's because it's worth inspecting.

Also, individual employees don't get to "play it safe" in either direction. There are expected rates for grading returned items. An employee will be penalized or lose their job for wrongly marking resellable items as non-resellable (destroy), just as much as the opposite.

[jtbayly]

There are vast numbers of returns from Amazon and all sorts of other companies that are not sold by them again, (whether as new or via their “Amazon Warehouses” discounted price) nor destroyed. These items are sold in bulk by the pallet and semi-load to other companies who can do then triage the products and decide what to do with them. Sometimes they end up back on Amazon, for sale by a third party. One local company auctions items online on their own site for pickup only. Others go onto eBay, etc.