Value in returns and overstock is lost at a specific moment, the moment items are aggregated into a lot. Published data on bulk liquidation shows recovery falling sharply with lot size and varying widely by category. The largest lots recover a small fraction of retail value. Once the lot exists, the negotiation is over how little it will fetch.
The reason is simple. A lot has no record. The buyer cannot see what is in it, so the buyer prices the risk, and the seller accepts the price because the alternative is handling every item. The lot is chosen for its silence rather than its value.
The decision that matters is made at the item, before aggregation. Identify it, grade it, and route it to the channel that recovers the most for that item, under the rules the brand or the retailer has set. Most items were never going to be worth handling one at a time by a person. They are worth handling one at a time by a platform, because the platform does not get tired and does not guess.
That is what disposition by rule means in practice. Not a better negotiation over the lot, but a lot that never forms.