Event Coverage Crusher Alert - Junkyard Tehachapi Ca.

It's already a neighborhood. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks about the value, but the investors or owners.

The yard shares a fence line with a half-block wide strip of housing, in a larger development.

The new development would add a full block, plus a half, and two streets.

Soil remediation takes 4-6 months for a lot that size.

 

I kinda roughly estimated there are 2000 cars in that picture . At $250 a car that would be $500,000 ! Pertty good incentive to crush, plus the sale of the land.





Bones

 

Remediated, the land has space for 36 more houses.

No dumpster company can outbid a developer for that.

 

Do it quickly because they have already stopped car sales and are about to stop parts sales and fire up the crusher.

 

I don’t understand why they would stop selling any thing, untill they got crushed! Looks like it would be better to get $500 for a car than $250! Just my thinking!




Bones

 

A few years back I was following a semi load of crushed vehicles...On the very tail end was a flattened
'54 Buick staring at me for miles. The grille and bumper all looked pristine and hung before me like a carrot. Followed that rig hoping the driver might stop at a truckstop, but no such luck..Finally had to turn off , miles after passing my exit.....
Hated to see it go away

 

I am actually surprised they are letting anybody in there. If I understood some of the earlier post, the owner died, and it was closed. And now it is more of an estate situation. If it is no longer an operating business the legal and liability issues of people roaming around and removing parts and cars could be enormous. Let the right person with the right lawyer get hurt in there and they could be in big trouble. The crushing company would have their own insurance and contracts to protect themselves. If I was the property owners at this point, I would not want people in there either.

 

And once that junkyard is removed and developed the value of those other homes will go up. Especially if the new developments are multifamily apartment units. Around here the big developers are buying up entire city blocks, tearing down and building 5 to 6 story 100-to-120-unit apartment complexes, one right after the other. Not trying to be political, but between the scrap price and land sale these folks are looking at an easy million or two pay day. So sadly, those old cars did not have a chance. Larry

 

if anyone visits this yard, please get some pics and post here, thanx

 

I cannot click like, but you are correct.

The median single family home sales list price in that town is $449,000. Multiply that by 36, which is what it is zoned for and you get $16,164,000 worth of homes once built. That could net a developer ~$4M in profit, and add all of that property tax revenue to the city coffers.

Neither the dismantler, nor the dumpster company to the North could ever hope to touch either of those two numbers.

What others might be missing here is the the property owners may want a quick exit, and that fastest possible payout, for a reason nobody has yet mentioned.

The property owner is responsible for the remediation of the soil, not the new owners, or the taxpayers, under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.

What some see as a "goldmine" is an albatross hanging around the necks of those that own this property.

Any soil contamination, if propagating, will result in a higher cleanup cost, by the hour that it is allowed to continue.

 

The company Waste Management, Inc. has a market cap of $62,260,000,000.00 so I think if they want that lot, they can afford it. But generally I agree, there's a lot of real estate value there, a looming remediation bill, and probably a bunch of heirs looking for a quick payday and not looking to take over a salvage yard operation, even at a small scale or for a limited time.

If they're willing to sell anything out of there, even just parts, for any period of time, now is the time to exploit that. It's unrealistic to think they're going to keep running it for a while just to save some 4 door parts cars or projects, most of which probably would struggle to bring $1000 each even if you had 6 months to sell them.

The yards near me that went out this year, I spent as much time as I could afford to cherry-picking all the best stuff I could get before the time was up, that's all I could do. It's still a shame, but it's less of a shame if a bunch of people take advantage of whatever time is left and pull out the best pieces to be saved and re-used.

 

It does not matter one jot if they can afford it. They don't need the lot. They have the one to the East of it, and are only making marginal use of it.



In any case, unimproved land cannot be taxed at the same rate as residential lots with new houses on them, because it does not have the same value.

 

Real desirable residential real estate there... close to the airport. And Vintage V-12's and Vintage Radials doing aircraft recip engine break-ins a few blocks in the other direction.

I was right by there a few months ago and didn't know the yard was there.

 

There is a bit for every seat. California needs more housing.

You never know who is going to buy what.

I don't even shake my head anymore when my wife sells a house for $1.4M, and the new owners tear it down to build another, or just to improve their view.

 

Time is one factor.
Do the cars have titles?
Dealing with the vast unwashed public is another.
More than half of the people wouldn't pay $500 and many of those wouldn't offer $250.
For all those who cry "save them all" when push comes to shove the excuses show up.
I don't have the room.
My HOA won't let me keep it.
I don't have the money.
My wife won't let me.
The percentage of those who do have the space and money will buy them, drag the vehicle to sit amongst the other vehicles they "saved" only to sit and rot in a different location as they never seem to get around to fixing any of them but they will tell anyone who will listen that they have(insert vehicle brand and model here)at their place...but it's not for sale.

 

The springfield yard you speak of just closed for good in december. Crushed tons of great cars but had no other choice. I bought all of his 20s and 30s stuff and a few others. He had a 36 buick missing the front sheetmetal. Wonder if this was your handywork? I have parts off of that car as well

 

Im seeing 6-800

 

Maybe the owners have shares in electric cars so don't give a shit about old clunkers.

 

Not a knock on California or anywhere else people want to live, but I don’t understand living 5 feet from your neighbors on a postage stamp piece of ground no more than I understand people living in apartments like a bunch of boxes stacked up together. Guess I’m just spoiled having always lived out in the country with my neighbors far enough away they can’t see in my windows from their house!

As to the loss of junkyards, it was going to happen sooner or later. I’d venture to say the stuff in most of these old yards was picked clean when these older vehicles were commonplace on the roads, now there isn’t much demand for a 59 Pontiac fender or 53 Olds tail light. Got to face facts, we are a minority in the auto parts world, even if we think we are major players. At home auto repair is about a thing of the past, too. Most people carry their stuff to the shop when something is wrong because they don’t have the skills or tools to fix them anymore. We are a dying breed. It won’t be overnight, but it will happen in some of our lifetimes. Enjoy it while we can!

 

I think the reason they stop selling whole cars is that they have a contract with the scrap company who has come out and figured their gross tonnage. If the owners start selling a few whole cars after the contract is signed, that will cut into the profit the scrappers have a contract to make from the job. I don't know for sure, but that is my guess.

 

Face it, yards crushing out is a fact of life. It's been happening for decades and certainly isn't about to stop

 

You may be right, I just started counting in one little area, got the size of about fifty and then doubled it and estimated the size of the whole yard! “ Like I said “ kinda rough estimate “ bit even at 1000 cars, it’s still a quarter of a million! That would buy a lot of hot rods! Lol





Bones

 

Sounds like a very good guess!




Bones

 

Not to knock anyone who choses otherwise, but over 50% of the US population lives within 50-miles of the coast, which means largely like this.

The other less than half is spread out across the the rest of the entire nation.

Coastal population is growing, too, and has been for decades.

 

Yeah, for those that want that kind of life, they can go for it. If I had of been around in the 1800's, I'd been one of the ones that went west to get away from it all! I'm no coast fan, I'm 200 miles inland and don't care to get any closer. To each his own I guess.

 

ROI does not get considered often enough.

Steel is ~$200/ton right now. Assuming 500 cars, partly stripped, guessing 2,000lb (1-ton) left for each, that is 500, tons, for a value of $100,000.

I guarantee you that there is NOT $1,000,000 in value in this yard.

Even if there was a multiple of scrap value there, who does the work to part-out, and how much do they get paid to do it?

Presumably, the heirs all have jobs, and they need to keep those.

Hire someone? Hire a bunch of people? Pay them how much, exactly? Remember also, this is a temporary job.

You can make $22.50/hr. working fast food in CA, with benefits. That's $46,800, bringing no special skills to work. You will be trained on how to do everything. Uniforms are included.

How much would someone that has knowledge of these vehicles need to be paid? Since fast food would give them benefits (medical/dental/vision, for employee and family), they would need them at this job, too. That and the salary adds up to the value of the total compensation package.

Now multiply that by the number of people it would take to run the whole operation.

Given the size of the yard, I would put the staffing level at a minimum of four people to inventory the yard, research the parts and assess the condition and market value, set the prices, build and maintain the website, box, and ship whatever has been sold, and process returns.

It would have to be online. This yard was not hidden. I found it about 7-years-ago, and got what I needed, and I am a 650-mile round-trip away from it. It was picked nearly out then.

Oh, and the yard would need to maintain all levels of business insurance throughout the duration.

So, wait a year, and make less money net (if there even is a net-positive number), or make more, in as little as two weeks.

Since there is no guarantee that operating this business for another year even with the most effective operation would even make money, even if the crusher is paying a pittance for what is in there, it will likely be more, and it is guaranteed fast money.

I guarantee you that money and time were the considerations. The current owners made the wisest financial decision for themselves.

They don't live in our fantasy land.

 

I’m with you Bama! Let those folks have the coasts, I am in Oklahoma on our family ranch, that we have owned for 121 years! I like to be able to piss off my porch! Just me! Lol,




Bones

 

A scrap ton is 2250# so it would be less than $100K

 

Unless your savy in marketing you’re not going to sell on walk ins alone. I imagine overhead could be daunting on walk-in traffic alone. Taxes, employee costs paving or property improvements-maintenance, insurance etc. How many old car enthusiasts that live in walk in distance would it take to keep a hobby driven business viable? Think about stripping cars and swap meeting all that inventory, not me……cheers all

 

Exactly, getting emotional at this stage, about cars that have been there for years, picked over and mean little to 99% of the population is pointless.