Pearl River, N.Y., Corporate Trader Swaps Unwanted Goods for Profit.

By Joan Verdon, The Record, Hackensack, N.J. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

May 23--The headquarters of Active International in Pearl River, N.Y., hold plenty of clues that this is a company that makes lots of money. It occupies three floors of the tallest building in the Blue Hill corporate park along the Bergen County border. There are sleekly furnished conference rooms, hundreds of employees working away on computers, and a large brass bell that peals when multimillion-dollar deals are sealed.

It's a little harder to get clues about exactly what Active does to make money.

Those are tucked inside offices and propped up around the work cubicles.

Anita Garrison's office walls are draped with lingerie. She's in the midst of brokering a deal to unload 1 million bras and 550,000 panties to off-price stores. Walk into Willy Pistiner's workspace and you'll see packs of Everest Powerful Mint Gum, Zap tile cleaner, Tylenol, and Monster Cable.

And without too much prompting, Chief Operating Officer Fredrick …