About
Built for the pallet that didn't get used.
SurplusYard is an Australian marketplace for surplus building materials and trade supplies — the leftovers of finished jobs, sold direct by the people who over-ordered.
The problem it's for
Nobody orders the exact amount. At the end of a job there's most of a pallet of pavers, six sheets of Gyprock and two boxes of a discontinued tile.
That material is worth real money to whoever is doing the same job next month, and nothing at all in the corner of a garage. It gets skipped because finding that person — your tile, your batch, close enough to come and get it — is harder than a trip to the tip.
What the site actually does
One job: match a specific product to the person looking for that specific product.
Search by the thing, not the category
Not “tiles” — your tile. Name the shop, range, SKU or batch number, or paste the retailer's link. Up to 3 promoted listings sit above the results, each labelled and each a genuine match.
Closest first
A pallet 700km away isn't a result. Give us a suburb and nearest-first is the default order. Search for a specific product and relevance leads instead, with distance shown on each result.
Nobody types a spec sheet
Photograph the box. Brand, size, colour, SKU and batch code get read off it — you check the description rather than write it.
How it makes money
Nothing on the listing and nothing on the sale. Two optional extras a seller can buy, both labelled where they appear.
Listing an item
Free. No limit, no subscription.
Buying anything
Free. Buyers never pay us.
Selling something
Free. No commission and no percentage — sell a $2,000 pallet of pavers and you keep the $2,000.
Taking a listing down
Free, at any time, sold or not.
Highlighting a listing
$4 for 14 days, if you want it. The listing looks different where it already sits. It doesn't move.
Promoting a listing
$10 a month, if you want it. The listing is shown first among the results it already matches, marked Promoted. Stop it any time.
So we do sell position, and it's better read here than discovered later. It's fenced: a promoted listing wears the word Promoted, never more than 3 to a page, each one has to match your filters like everything else, and none is ever described as a closer match than it is. Choose the order yourself — cheapest, nearest, newest — and nothing paid moves.
Nothing else is for sale. No advertising, no sponsored categories, and nobody pays to be the shop we quote a new price against — which is the only reason “$180 new at the shop” is worth reading. If that changes, it gets written here first. How the paid options work.
What it deliberately isn't
Worth knowing before you use it, because it changes how you should behave.
We are not a party to the sale. We don't own the goods, inspect them, hold your money or arrange delivery. Buyer and seller deal directly — so inspect it before you pay, and don't send a deposit to someone you haven't spoken to.
There is no escrow and no payment protection. Pretending otherwise would be worse than saying so.
The rules we hold ourselves to
Enforced in the software, not promised in a policy — you can check each one on any listing.
- 1
A saving is measured against a real price, or it's labelled
A discount is only shown against a new price read from the retailer's own page or supplied by the seller. Where it's an estimate it says so, wears a different badge, and never borrows a shop's name.
- 2
Contact details are the seller's to give
A phone number stays hidden until a signed-in buyer asks, and closes again once the item is sold. Using it for anything but that item breaches the terms.
- 3
Paid position is labelled, capped, and stays out of your sort
Promoted listings say Promoted, never more than 3 to a page, and nothing paid moves once you choose an order. Everything else is match quality and distance.
- 4
No claim we can't back
If we can't show you where a number came from, it doesn't go on the page.
Who runs it
surplusyard
25 Stockade Way
jjessop@gmail.com
Questions, complaints and anything that needs a person are on the contact page.
Got something spare?
It's worth money to someone finishing the job you just finished. Free to post, free when it sells.