When the dot-com crash left warehouses full of unsold goods, Overstock.com was ready to buy them. Patrick Byrne founded the company in Salt Lake City in 1999. It sold excess inventory from other retailers and manufacturers at deep discounts. Overstock went public in May 2002 through a Dutch auction, an unusual way to sell shares. By then it was one of the better-known bargain sites on the web.

Liquidation by Website

Overstock bet that the internet was the ideal place to clear surplus stock. Liquidation had always been a messy business of brokers and outlet stores. A single website could reach millions of bargain hunters at once. Its quirky ads and low prices made it a household name. Over time the company shifted from closeouts toward new home furnishings, where it found steadier supply and better margins.

Buying Bed Bath & Beyond

Overstock priced its offering at $13 a share in May 2002 and listed on Nasdaq. Its outspoken founder made headlines, with campaigns against short sellers and an early push into blockchain projects. Byrne left in 2019. In 2023 the company bought the Bed Bath & Beyond brand and renamed itself Beyond, Inc. It still trades publicly, on the New York Stock Exchange as BYON.

Cover: Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer), Claude Monet. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for stacks of wheat (overstock).