Cleaning up and reselling junkyard parts?

In reply to NOHOME :

Don't be that dckhead.  Effectively stealing from others and then wastes your time with 'what you need' ads.

I had a deal with a yard that crushed cars for CTA, they would impound for x amount of months then he would get them with a certificate of destruction. If it was euro he would call me, I'd take it strip it and he would take the shell from my trailer to the crusher. I MADE OUT! He did too, but I moved out of the area and it ended. There is money to be made but you have to know the market and have space to store what doesn't sell immediately. When I moved I probably could have built ten rabbits with the parts I had palletized.

You have to know  your market. I'd pick one or two cars I'd be an expert on and focus solely on those.

I once bought a MINT front bumper off an early Mercedes sedan. I figured somebody somewhere would have to have it for more than the paltry amount of money I spent on it. I sat on it for several years until it finally sold. I did make money but it just wasn't worth the long term storage.

OTOH I did pull a cool vintage looking Becker radio out of the same/similar car because I thought it looked neat. Sold that on Ebay for well over $100 on a $15 investment. Apparently it also fit in vintage Porsches.

Now I only buy what I can use or absolutely, positively know is a high demand item. My life is so much better without a garage bay full of spare parts that I'll never use myself.

I would rather you didnt. It would be nice if when I need a part I can just go to the junkyard and buy it for a reasonable price. Not go there and find out that all the good stuff has been picked over by the jockeys, (or better yet, hid it like the dbag mentioned above) now I have to go find it on ebay and 3x its junk yard price because you rattle canned it black. 

A junkyard that sells for reasonable price is a really nice resource for car community in your area. Dont be the guy that screws that up for everybody.

I used to do that with Summit clearance parts.  They have brand new stuff returned in a damaged box and mark it down 50% and put it in the showroom.  As long as it was something obviously working and foolproof like a flywheel, valve cover, or headers, I might snag it.  If it was a gauge, an EFI controller, or something I couldn't really test, I'd pass.

If something was $200 new, on clearance for $100, I would buy it and throw it on Ebay for $175 and take $150.  Certainly it was never an income, more of a passtime or hobby.

You're thinking correctly.  Your market will be the people who are relatively handy, but they themselves wouldn't go to a junkyard.  They want the warm, cozy feeling of a clean, tested, used part that is cheaper than Auto Zone.  I wouldn't expect it to be a profit maker though.  Some fun playing in the junkyard and some beer money maybe.

In reply to nimblemotorsports :

My feelings exactly. I traveled an hour to buy a Miata instrument shroud from the guy and he had forgotten to go get it, then told me to just go to a certain junkyard and look in the trunk of a car that was parked a few spots away. Later found out he was well known in the Miata community for being an asshat.

In reply to infinitenexus :

Watch your selling costs. Buying for $50 and selling for $100 gets pretty dang tight once you take out eBay fees, packing materials, any slop on shipping... I sell a lot on eBay and you can make some good money here and there on car parts like this. But I try to at least triple my money, usually more. eBay takes 10%, PayPal takes 2.5% + $.25 or so, and if you charge for shipping (you should) eBay takes 10% of that and PayPal takes their cut of that, even though you make 0% on it. AND the eBay shipping calculator is often wrong and you end up paying some out of pocket for the shipping beyond just the 12.5% you're guaranteed to lose. That's not to say don't do it - it's a fun way to make a few bucks - just be sure you're actually making money at it, and enough to bother doing so.

gearheadmb said:

I would rather you didnt. It would be nice if when I need a part I can just go to the junkyard and buy it for a reasonable price. Not go there and find out that all the good stuff has been picked over by the jockeys, (or better yet, hid it like the dbag mentioned above) now I have to go find it on ebay and 3x its junk yard price because you rattle canned it black. 

A junkyard that sells for reasonable price is a really nice resource for car community in your area. Dont be the guy that screws that up for everybody.

You do know that the vast majority of the parts on cars in the yard go to the crusher, right? Then NOBODY gets the part, it's melted down into scrap. I agree hiding the parts is a dbag move, but buying the parts and selling them on eBay actually results in more parts sold from that yard and is more likely to result in the yard staying in business for longer. I think the vultures do the yard a service and do the opposite of screwing it up for everybody.

Here at the big Pick a Part in Wilmington RIP ,  so much stuff is damaged to get one small parts , 

Many of these guys are animals , ripping door panels off looking for ???? ( maybe drugs)  , breaking parts that others might use , 

And when it was in business the cars stayed 6 weeks and then were crushed , where the Pick A Parts  up in Fresno etc with cheap land kept them longer , 

Its fun to find stuff ,  but getting harder all the time....

In reply to dculberson (Forum Supporter) :

Here in CA, there is row52 to request a part and your price, and the more-time-than-money pickers can pull it and ship it to you.  that seems like a good approach, but frankly I don't think it has worked.

I tried it a few times and didn't work for me looking for mx-3 tail lights.