Reprinted with permission from Baltimore magazine, July 2006

In the market for an inexpensive coffee table? You could go for the assemble-yourself particle-board models at IKEA or C-Mart. Or you could stop by Overstock Outlet and choose from several identical, lightly used hardwood tables priced at $29 apiece.

If the furniture looks familiar, you may have seen it on your last business trip. Overstock Outlet sells liquidated hotel furniture to the public from a 15,000-square-foot warehouse on Sisson Street in Baltimore and online at ooutlet.com. When hotels like the Hyatt Regency Baltimore renovate, they call The Asset Store, parent company of Overstock Outlet and brainchild of Baltimore natives Dan Shuman and Brad Bondroff.

The partners & childhood friends right through business school at the University of Maryland--first got the idea for their venture in 2004. ³We have a friend in the construction business who told us they were paying $2 per seat for some guy to remove the old movie seats,² recalls Shuman. ³So we got on the Internet and found a bunch of theaters in the Midwest that wanted them. We sold about 1,000 seats for $20-30 a seat.²

The business soon grew to removing and selling hotel and office furniture, heavy machinery, and medical and restaurant equipment. Shuman and Bondroff caught the attention of Advertising.com co-founder John Ferber, The Asset Store¹s seed investor and current board member. Now The Asset Store has launched a shipping division with the purchase of 10 tractor-trailers, and plans to add several more by the end of the year.

From selling milkshake machines to a Friendly¹s in California to supplying FEMA with generators in the wake of the Gulf Coast disaster, the company has a wide reach. Closer to home, it works with charitable and government agencies like Baltimore Mental Health Systems and People Encouraging People, Inc., which get a 25 percent discount.

³They can come in and furnish an entire apartment for between $200 and $300,² says Shuman.