We had one of the biggest yards in our area close in Jan. No warning except for about two weeks. All crushed and now mostly gone. The one guy had two rows of old fords that were his personal collection. They are gone too, I heard he even had those crushed! Same old story with a strange twist. These two guys have been in the business since the mid 60s. They always fought like crazy, but knew they needed each other. Over the years both have made fortunes at that yard. Seems the guy with the Ford row was sick for a few weeks last fall. While he was not there, the other guy grabbed off a few of his partners collection and crushed em for some quick cash (old cars weigh more then the new **** does). Worst part was they didn't need the quick cash! Anyway, when the collector came back, he discovered the cars missing from the collection, and lost it compleatly. Just so happens the guy with the collection owns the land. He pretty much sent the other guy packing and closed the door. They started crushing everything. Quit dealing with people off the street, and would only sell to companies that they had been doing business with if and only if the customers pulled their own parts, any one else was out of luck. All the guys working there were cutting stuff up for s****. When the end of the year was near, they did not renew the parts license and contracted a s**** company for everything that was left. Jan 1st the keys changed hands and the s****pers went to work. Because there is no parts license, no parts could leave. There is still probably a couple hundred cars stacked up there yet and every so often another load goes out. The partner that owned the yard land is now leasing it to the s**** company. The truth is, both of those guy were rummered to be worth over a cool 20 mil each, before all the crushing took place. There was 40 acres full of cars and trucks there last fall. Both guys are in their 60s. Both guys have had recent health issues lately. Both guys own a lot of land/houses. They did their thing towards saving old cars for many years, now that they are tired, sick, and have money, both have figured they can now retire and do something else. Who can blame them, really? They were probably more responsibly for saving more old cars during their lives then most of us could ever dream of. To be fair, those big yards that are closing are probably under a dead line to clean the place up. They don't have time to screw around with some guy trying to "get a deal". The time they waste with you trying to squeeze them to save a few bucks, is probably pushing them for their dead line. As time grows closer to that dead line, that time becomes very valuable. If your willing to anti up the bucks, they can afford to take the time to get you what ever you want. If you are not ready to spend some money, they don't have the time to waste on your sorry ***. One more thought, around here, prime real estate is going for about $70,000 per acre, and that is probably a real bargen out there where things are actually growing. If they load that big old car in the crusher, it turns into cash, at a pre arranged rate, in about 30 seconds of some slave labor's work time. If you want to buy that same car, now they have to work around it, or move it until you get there. It is still occupying a piece of the $70,000 land for however long it takes you to come and get it. Once you get there, they have to pay some office person to get all the paper work in order including filing lord knows how many goverment forms since the car that was listed for years as a salvage car is now leaving the property in some form other then flattened. Then thay have to pay the slave labor to move the car to your truck/trailer and help you get it onto the truck with mimuim damage (you don't want your "new" body pannels damaged, right?) How much limited time have we used up? How many cars could have been loaded into the crusher in the amount of time they used up with you and your car? Then the slave labor can race back into the yard to load up another car in the crusher. And you can't understand why they won't sell that car for a little over s**** value? Gene
I never had a problem buying off the s**** guys for a little over. The trick is to show up with plenty of cash in hand and be willing to make stuff dissapear right away. Always deal with the s**** people, not the yard owner, unless they're one and the same. But when you're making thousands selling the s****, making another $50 here and there isn't a big deal, either, so.. you never know. Then you have the deal I was into a while back. I bought cars from the boss, but the other loader guy didn't give a **** and their boss wanted as much s****ped as possible to get their investment back. So a '41 Plymouth coupe, a '26 Model T tudor that was just about 100% complete except the top was cut off ages ago, and a decent '38 Buick sedan all went, as did a lot of other good stuff. On the bright side, I will save about 15 cars out of there, including some really good stuff - one '30 A pickup I want to keep for myself.
WOW! $4000 is insane! maybe half that at most for a super clean roller but thats crazy. I saw this rusty nasty 40 Buick on ebay a looong time ago and the guy wanted like 4K for it, It was more or less there but pretty much a parts car with the rust and probabaly a stuck engine(hello $5000!!) I dont know what people are thinking man.
No ****. These guys are WAY OUT THERE in pricing. You can go to the most expensive auction site or swap meet and still find it cheaper. I hate seeing old cars crushed too, but not at me paying several times the amount anyone else wants.
ok after reading alittle bit more on what everyone said about the prices at this place i am better off goin to pomona or long beach swapmeet or something..
Well you can buy a whole vehicle off ebay, drive a few states over to get it, eat at some good Crackerbarrell Restaurants along the way & still come out better $ ahead than paying those crazy Phoenix prices for a few items.
actually there was a proving grounds on the south side of south mtn in phx. international i think. and dont think you will find any bargins at hidden valley auto salvage.
The yards are definitely going fast these days. There is monster EPA liability for those places so I guess if you can get out of it, you should. The good news is that it's making your cars and parts worth more money. The bad news is that it's making other people's cars and parts worth more money too.
Luckily there's one yard near here that charges reasonable rates for old steel, just dont have much thats really old. For the odd items, there's one out of the way country bumpkin place and hour East of us that runs the crusher thru every other year, but the guy that runs it is all about sellin off as many parts as he can for very little. He knows he makes more off that than on s**** even if he does sell them dirt cheap. And thankfully when he clears the yard every other year, he leaves the old steel in the bushes. Love that place! However,... Speakin of the EPA, one of the reasons he clears it every couple years is coz they got hammered a few years back for HAZ-MAT violations up the **** coz of thier proximity to a river. About shut them down forever. That would be one of numerous reasons some older yards are getting out of the business of storing & parting out old cars. Cleanup fees are outrageous and the fines for violations can bankrupt a yard owner in one visit from the inspectors if they want to be *****s about it. Now this new developer may try to get away with the minimum cleanup, but you can be sure that these days thier minimum is a helluva lot more than the maximum requirements about 10 years ago. Even so, all they do is take that $25-50K per acre clean up fee, and $10K per ton disposal fee for the contaminated soil, and tack it onto the $250-500K per 1/2 acre lot with a cookie cutter home that cost them $30K to build and STILL make a killing. Either way, the yard owners get thier money and retire, maybe even get one of the new homes for free, the newest batch of tract home dwelling yuppies get thier new overpriced homes, and some slimy developers get rich off the blood sweat & tears of slave wage labor. Welcome to the American nightmare.
I Was Looking For A Set Of Taillights For My 67 Coronet And Desert Valley Auto Wanted 200 For A Set Of Cracked And Faded Ones Youd Think They Were Made Of Gold
Exactly what I was thinking. I dont think skimming the top of that soil is going to solve the problem.
The Jalopy Journal
