On throwing away perfectly good car parts

I have to move soon. Ugh. Among the things I don't want to move are perfectly good (some even brand-new) car parts. These are parts for cars I no longer own, and never will again. I could give them away locally, but nobody really wants them. I could offer them here for free + shipping, but the stuff I have, you could buy locally for less than the cost of shipping.

It makes me sad to throw away perfectly good stuff, but why move it?

This has factored into my parts buying and general vehicle ownership analysis in the last year.

It is made more annoying when forums for specific cars limit users from posting for sale threads without having X amount of posts. Miata.net and MiataTurbo are both like that, and I've got a set of clear signals I'd like to sell.

I went through this a few year's ago. I shudder when I think of the money I put in the dumpster/ scrap yard.

I've thrown away perfectly good cars before.

Put the stuff on eBay, start anything that isn't rare or hard to find at $1.99. At least the parts will have a chance to get used and not go straight to the trash.

List them on the $2015 section

Dumped a 25 year stash of MGB parts this fall.

Again, it's stuff that won't pay to ship.

Example: here I have a NAPA 3472 fuel filter. It fits IDI Diesel engines from Volvo/VW/Audi. You can walk into any NAPA and buy it for $15. Who is going to pay me to ship it and wait for it at that price? Nobody.

You should have seen the pain when we shut down the FM salvage department. We filled something like a half dozen metal recycling bins. None of us wanted any of the parts to go, but they had to. It was a sad time.

I would say to take it/have them taken to the recycling center. They can at least be melted down and made into something else.

I'll make my semiannual post on this topic - I have a full factory leather interior for a first-gen Neon sedan in my basement. One of about 500 made. It's a little worn but in perfectly serviceable condition. I haven't owned a Neon in almost 9 years. Free to good home. Nobody ever wants it.

Shoot,

My dad had 3 273 motors and matching 904 transmissions laying around the garage. He thought they were rare and valuable. (watched too many mopar restoration shows) In reality, they were not worth the gas to haul them to my place. No one is restoring Mopars with 273's in them anymore. Those are all of the cars that are getting 340/360 in them because they are only worth 10-15K fully restored. I kept the smaller CC factory heads, the forged crank, and tossed the rest. Got I think $80 scrap price on them.

the real answer is just a bigger garage

NOHOME wrote: Dumped a 25 year stash of MGB parts this fall.

Way back when there was an MG specialty company called 'Start Your Engines', they've since been bought out by Moss Motors. Anyway, they had to move the business and wound up cutting apart all kinds of MGA's, MGB's etc. then stuffing the remains in Dumpsters. The guys who did that were known as 'barbarians' from there on out.

Unfortunately, its part of the reason that owning something like a Miata or Civic or another common car is so much cheaper than something rare. What's the point of keeping around parts for my ZX2 when I know I could get them for dirt cheap from so many different places?

If the parts are for one or two kinds of cars how about selling them as lots? List all the parts for each lot with retail prices in the ad and Put a price on it that makes the cheapest part reasonable with shipping. Maybe someone will figure two of the parts in the lot are useful and take the whole lot..... And your problem!

This fall I took a Volvo flathood to the metal recyclers.

Donebrokeit wrote: I went through this a few year's ago. I shudder when I think of the money I put in the dumpster/ scrap yard.

I throw out more good parts at work than I'd know what to with.

Because if I knew what to do with 'em, I'd keep it for myself.

I hate good car parts going to waste. I'm happy to sell them, but if they won't sell, I'll give them away. I've still got parts that are sitting around. Engine, suspension, door. I want cash for the bike carb, though.

i've taken trailer fulls to the scrap yard. a couple months ago i took a stack of radiators. if i keep everything i'd be buried.

I loose more E36 M3 than I throw away