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Guide · Selling
How to sell used IBC totes without leaving money on the pallet.
We write the cheques, so this guide is written slightly against our own interest — which is the point. Sellers who prepare properly get a better number, and we would rather buy well-presented loads at a fair price than badly presented ones at a low one. Here is exactly what moves the price.
Short answer
Price is driven by prior contents, bottle and cage condition, quantity in one place, and access. Two hours of sorting and one piece of prior-contents paperwork move the number more than anything else you can do.
- Biggest lever
- Prior contents
- Prep time
- ~2 hours
- Worth cleaning
- Usually no
- Worth sorting
- Always
Form 01 · Spec request
Get a purchase quote.
Count in the quantity field, prior contents in the message, postal code below. Select 'Sell my totes to you' and we will come back with a per-unit price.
Valuation
What a buyer is actually pricing.
Every buyer worth dealing with is running roughly this calculation in their head. Understanding it lets you influence it.
| Factor | Impact | What raises it | What kills it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prior contents | Very high | Documented food grade or clean industrial fluids | Unknown, hazardous or aggressive chemistry |
| Bottle condition | High | Clear, no odour, no crazing | Cracked, crazed, permanent odour |
| Quantity in one place | High | Full or partial truckload at one site | A handful across several remote sites |
| Cage condition | Medium | Straight bars, sound welds, intact galvanising | Bowed frame, failed welds, corrosion |
| Access | Medium | Forklift and dock on site, room to turn | Hand-ball loading, tight access, no equipment |
| Fittings present | Medium | Valve, outlet cap and fill lid all present | Missing lids — the most common deduction |
| Pallet type | Low to medium | Plastic or steel base | Split wood decking |
| UN plate | Low to medium | Legible and recent | Painted over or unreadable |
| Cosmetic staining | Low | — | Very little; it is not a functional defect |
Preparation
Two hours that change the number.
- 01
Sort by size
Separate 275s from 330s and from anything oversize. A sorted load can be graded before it arrives, which means a firmer price rather than a cautious one.
30 minutes - 02
Group by prior contents
Put the known-contents containers together and the unknowns separately. Mixing them drags the whole load down to the price of the worst unit.
30 minutes - 03
Find the paperwork
One label, one plate photograph, one old bill of lading. This is the single biggest lever you control, and it is usually sitting in a filing cabinet.
20 minutes - 04
Photograph and stage
Half a dozen photographs of the stacks and any plate you can read, then stage everything in one place with forklift access.
40 minutes
Do
What good sellers do
- Send a rough count rather than waiting until it is exact
- Declare regulated or hazardous residue up front — it is a routing decision, not a dealbreaker
- Say how flexible your dates are; flexibility is what gets small loads onto existing lanes
- Mention the forklift situation honestly before a driver arrives
- Ask for a purchase record — accounting usually needs it for asset disposal anyway
- Ask what happened to them afterwards; a real operator can tell you
Do not
What costs sellers money
- Waiting for a better price while containers sit outdoors filling with rainwater
- Pressure-washing the UN plate off
- Throwing lids and valves into a separate skip
- Letting the pile mix with genuine waste, which turns a saleable load into a disposal job
- Storing them upside down or unstacked so they collect water and debris
- Assuming a damaged bottle means the container is worthless — the cage is the valuable part
Questions
Selling, answered.
01How much are used IBC totes worth?
Enough that hauling them away as waste is always the wrong answer, and not enough to justify storing them for two years waiting for a better price. Value tracks prior contents, bottle and cage condition, quantity in one place and access. Documented food-grade stock sits at the top; unknown-contents containers sit at the bottom because they can only go to reclaim.
02Is it worth cleaning them before selling?
Rarely. Buyers with a wash line price on prior contents, not on how clean the container currently looks, and a home wash rarely changes the grade. Sorting and documenting, on the other hand, changes the price nearly every time.
03What if I only have a few?
Ask anyway. Small counts frequently ride an existing lane rather than needing a dedicated truck, and telling a buyer that your dates are flexible is what makes that possible.
04Should I sell to a broker or direct?
Direct to an operator with a wash line and a cage shop, if you can. A broker adds a margin and generally cannot pay for reuse potential because they are reselling into the same market you could have reached.
05What paperwork will I need?
Whatever establishes prior contents — labels, plate photographs, old bills of lading, an internal record. That single piece of evidence is usually the biggest lever on price you control.
Valuation model
How a buyer arrives at a number.
Every buyer worth dealing with runs roughly this calculation. Understanding it is how you influence it.
| Factor | Weight in the price | Best case | Worst case | Under your control? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prior contents documented | Very high | Named product, paperwork available | Unknown | Yes — a filing cabinet |
| Bottle condition | High | Clear, no odour, no crazing | Crazed or permanently deformed | Partly — storage |
| Quantity in one place | High | Full or partial truckload | A handful, remote site | Partly — consolidate |
| Load sorted | High | By size and prior contents | Mixed pallet | Yes — two hours |
| Cage condition | Medium | Straight, sound welds | Bowed or corroded through | Partly — handling |
| Access and equipment | Medium | Dock and forklift on site | Hand-ball, no equipment | Yes — tell us |
| Fittings present | Medium | Valve, outlet cap, fill lid | All missing | Yes — keep them |
| Pallet type | Low to medium | Plastic or steel | Split wood | No |
| UN plate | Low to medium | Legible and recent | Painted over | Yes — protect it |
| Cosmetic staining | Very low | — | — | Do not bother |
| What you sold | Where it goes | What it becomes | Why the price reflects it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Documented, sound container | Wash line | Reconditioned stock | Highest recovery value |
| Documented, failed bottle | Rebottling bench | Rebottled unit | The cage is most of the value |
| Bare cage | Rebottling bench | Rebottled unit | Worth well above scrap |
| Stainless vessel | Refurbishment | Working vessel | Working value, not scrap value |
| Undocumented container | Reclaim area | HDPE flake and ferrous bale | Only material value remains |
| Rain-filled unknown | Evacuation, then reclaim | Treatment plus material | Handling cost is deducted |
| Loose fittings | Sorting | Reused in reconditioning | Real value, often skipped |
Next step
Send a rough count and a photo.
That is genuinely enough to get a price. Everything in this guide is about making that price better, not about making it possible.