About salvage car auctions?

OK weird question. Where do I start looking for salvage car auctions, I see al these sites online but it looks like they take your bid and then try an negotiate for the purchase of the car with that number. Not really a winner takes the car sort of thing.

Is there a site that is purely, make a bid pay for car sort of thing or are they all like this.

Do a search for government auctions. Also look up insurance salvage.

Here are a couple sites that I use: www.iaai.com www.govliquidation.com www.usa.gov/shopping/shopping.shtml www.gsaauctions.gov.

There are some other insurance auctions that specialize in free stuff too. Seems like a scam but its pretty much on the level. For instance one of the sites (which I don't have in my favorites here at work) was giving a way a free pop-up tent camper with canvas that had been destroyed by a hail storm. It was easier for them to just ditch it than advertise, research, etc. I grabbed it with salvage title and stripped it. I sold the fridge, porta potty, and some other things and turned the frame into a motorcycle/utility trailer.

Just goto tow/impound yards and flash some cash you should be paying 7 to 8 dollars a hundred for cars . Low ball them with cash and taker cars withoput titles but get a receipt . Titles are 200 or so dollars . Be nice and persistent with tow yard owners .

Karl La Follette wrote: Just goto tow/impound yards and flash some cash you should be paying 7 to 8 dollars a hundred for cars . Low ball them with cash and taker cars withoput titles but get a receipt . Titles are 200 or so dollars . Be nice and persistent with tow yard owners .

Even if you could get a title for a car with no documentation for $200...it is my experience that the ones left in tow yards aren't worth putting that money into.

Since the OP is looking for salvage, though...maybe that tact could work well for him/her.

On the other hand...you won't find a tow yard here selling to the public. I'm pretty sure that's considered highly illegal.

Clem

ClemSparks wrote:

Karl La Follette wrote: Just goto tow/impound yards and flash some cash you should be paying 7 to 8 dollars a hundred for cars . Low ball them with cash and taker cars withoput titles but get a receipt . Titles are 200 or so dollars . Be nice and persistent with tow yard owners .

Even if you *could* get a title for a car with no documentation for $200...it is my experience that the ones left in tow yards aren't worth putting that money into. Since the OP is looking for salvage, though...maybe that tact could work well for him/her. On the other hand...you won't find a tow yard here selling to the public. I'm pretty sure that's considered highly illegal. Clem

thy will sell a car to the public here. my recovered stolen car was on the lot 2 days after i got notice from the cops that it was there. and the secretary there said she overheard a conversation that the owner promised it to sell it to someone and would have finished it if i hadnt called when i did. some of these these are shady places and i'd bet half the damage to the car came from them towing and dumping it instead of the "actual" theives.

Just so you guys know, I am looking for a shell to build out for track use. So stolen recovery is cool with me.

It is just hard to know if you are bidding to win or bidding to have a chance at buying.

In my state, the public can't buy at insurance salvage auctions. It's a rather expensive process to become a bidder.

You can troll tow yards for cars but they will probably be reluctant to sell privately if they don't have a title. That can be a real liability issue if there's still a lien on it somewhere. And yes, even 200,000 mile totally beat Neons can still have liens.

I've bought a few cars from repair shops. Owners that bring in cars with issues, get the estimate and then don't want to put the money into them are often quite willing to part with their money pits.

We lien cars after 7 days in the yard we publish 2 weeks or so before auction which is a total of 45 days . Lien holders are notified and usually will not pick up cars so cha ching. One second after auction bam its mine , I can usually get clear title after that , of course its a hassle but we have come out with some killer deals . Just get the paperwork and work with the tow owner he is usually a great guy .

I paid ~$150 to be able to bid at an IAAI auction some years ago. It was pretty cool -- I ended up buying a car -- but bidders weren't able to drive the cars beforehand, so I ended up with a $1,500 car that I thought I could fix/flip for double that, except it ended up having a bad transmission, rendering the car essentially useless to me (I wasn't able to rebuild it myself, and it would've cost more to have it done than I could sell it for). I'm still slowly selling parts from that fiasco to recoup my money.

I guess what I'm trying to say is be prepared for the worst.

Have you looked at Copart?

http://www.copart.com

Be careful at any auction. My experience has been limited, but I went to one down in Louisville and I felt it was run by a bunch of crooks. Why do I say this? Well, I had to put down a ridiculous deposit before I could even walk into the place. I went there to just observe, didn't bid on anything. When I walked back out to claim my deposit, the guy says "Oh, I can't give this back to you, it looks like you bid on and won a car, I don't even remember what it was, and the guy tried to argue that I owed him money and the deposit was non-refundable, etc. I argued and got my money back and vowed never to waste that kind of time again.

Marty! wrote: Have you looked at Copart? http://www.copart.com

Copart is the one I have bookmarked. I guess I need to read the auction demands. I buy stuff at auction all over the world guess this is no different.

I buy quite a few cars from the local insurance dispersal, but its not really an auction. They make a list of cars available every Wednesday morning, and give out the results for the last weeks list. They set a minimum bid, like a silent auction. You decide how bad you want it and how much to pay, if you want it worse than everybody else, its yours. I try to stick to one line of cars- Neons, in my case. I have a short stack of parts for them, and I know whats likely to be broken and how much it costs to fix.

I have also bought at used car auctions. Almost without fail, there is a reason its been run through the auction, so you have to leave a whole lot of value on the table there to account for the unknown.

I like buying crashed stuff. It had to be running when it crashed, right? I particularly like getting a good flood car thats non-repairable, then searching out a couple of crashed ones the same color so I don't have to pay for paint- that and frame repair are the two big costs. My last was a black 02 Neon. I've repaired one sideswipe and one left front hit so far ,and only bought a bumper cover so far. I missed a right front hit by $75 this week, and another with suspension damage. Would have been sweet to fix 4 cars with one donor.

itsarebuild wrote:

ClemSparks wrote:

Karl La Follette wrote: Just goto tow/impound yards and flash some cash you should be paying 7 to 8 dollars a hundred for cars . Low ball them with cash and taker cars withoput titles but get a receipt . Titles are 200 or so dollars . Be nice and persistent with tow yard owners .

Even if you *could* get a title for a car with no documentation for $200...it is my experience that the ones left in tow yards aren't worth putting that money into. Since the OP is looking for salvage, though...maybe that tact could work well for him/her. On the other hand...you won't find a tow yard here selling to the public. I'm pretty sure that's considered highly illegal. Clem

thy will sell a car to the public here. my recovered stolen car was on the lot 2 days after i got notice from the cops that it was there. and the secretary there said she overheard a conversation that the owner promised it to sell it to someone and would have finished it if i hadnt called when i did. some of these these are shady places and i'd bet half the damage to the car came from them towing and dumping it instead of the "actual" theives.

Yeah...probably just different regulations in different states. I wish it worked that way here. I likes me some deal.

dnielvoks wrote: Yeah. There is a site, just visit: salvage auction

^ This could be trouble

Looks a little fishy to me.

Anti-submarine warcraft on GSA Auction currently. Man I need bags of money to play with!

We have a handful of auctions around here, but you need a dealer's license to take part. The rules are strict and it's an insiders game start to finish.

There are also several yards that contain donated cars. Massachusetts (involved charities) has a system in place where an individual can donate their car to charity and take a tax credit. These cars are then stored in a lot for a given length of time, open to the public, before being scrapped or ?

It would be well worth looking around on line to see if your state (or an organized charity) doesn't have a similar program. It's surprising what folks just want out of their yards, I have to admit that I donated my Chrysler New Yorker which ran perfectly but had other failings.

This Google link might get you started:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&cp=41&gs_id=6&xhr=t&q=San+Diego%2C+Ca++donate+your+car+to+charity&pf=p&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&oq=San+Diego,+Ca++donate+your+car+to+charity&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=e4965a50f8a57755&biw=1615&bih=1001

Pick a link, click it and shoot off an email to find out where their storage yard for the donated cars is located and what process is involved in buying or biding on the cars in the yard.

Luck,

TC

Canoe auction!

Hey this is cool! I have the IAAI site up and there is an auction going on near me right now. I am listening and watching the bidding over the webernets.

Towlot.com

Copart has some hefty fees so be aware of that going in, that aside, I've scored at least 6 cars from there for under a grand and everyone ran and was usable as bought. The cars I purchased were all city police impound cars being cleared through Copart and you didn't need to have a license to purchase.

My Imprezza challenge car came from there in '10 and I sold it when I got back home at a decent markup.

Tell me about these hefty fees at copart.

I have never bought anything from them.. Only played around at the local auctions..

Watching copart tick away on the other monitor right now with an auction to far away to make any sense to bid.. But there have been several really decent looking deals pass by..

So how steep are these fees?

There's a 30.00 gate fee, a internet bid fee based on the sale price, 35 up to 999, 50 up to 1999, and 75 above that. and then the buyer fees that start at 45 and go up to 565.

An example would be about 750 for a 500 dollar buy.

Plus you are limited on what you can bid on if you don't have a dealers license.