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Returned Goods Recovery Reference

Trace net recovery from returned goods at five resale shares, including reconditioning, handling and disposal costs on their correct bases.

By PriceAndProfit Editorial Updated

Compare future recovery from 100 returned units across explicit recoverability scenarios. A recovered unit produces $30 of net resale proceeds and costs $4 to recondition. Every returned unit requires $2 of handling. Each unit that cannot be recovered costs $1 to dispose of. Original product costs, outbound shipment costs and customer refunds have already been handled outside this forward comparison.

Net recovery = recoverable units × ($30 − $4) − 100 × $2 − unrecovered units × $1
Hypothetical inputs and independently checked arithmetic
Recoverable shareExpected recovered unitsNet resale proceedsFuture recovery costsNet recovery
0% 0 $0 $300 −$300
25% 25 $750 $375 $375
50% 50 $1,500 $450 $1,050
60% 60 $1,800 $480 $1,320
100% 100 $3,000 $600 $2,400

Interpret the result

The cost column rises as more goods are recovered because reconditioning costs $4 while disposal costs $1. Higher recovery still improves the modeled result because the extra net resale proceeds exceed that difference. A negative result remains a real future cost. The reference does not determine whether disposal or resale is allowed for a particular product, or whether there is actual demand for the recovered stock.

Check before applying the example

Use net resale proceeds after the selling costs attributable to the second sale. Add storage or testing costs if they differ between alternatives. If handling has already occurred, remove it from both future alternatives and document the changed boundary. Expected shares are scenario inputs; inspect actual condition data before treating them as a forecast.

Use your own inputs

The calculator uses the same stated decision boundary.

Method reference: OpenStax: Relevant Information for Decisions. Checked October 22, 2026. Relevant future cost and counterfactual comparisons; all commercial assumptions are supplied by the user.

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