I did a quick search to see if anyone else posted this and didn't see it. An old salvage yard (Dickey Dean's) in west central MN is closing. here is some of the info: http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/pts/341241994.html VanDerBrinks has a partial list of some of the cars: www.VanDerBrinkAuctions.com I have never been there and don't know anything about what they have.
yeay. More good news from our friends at the EPA. Why worry about hog factory farming waste when there's old cars that are cluttering up out of the way locations that need developing? Sheesh. Here's hoping that they sell a lot of stuff and crush as little good metal as possible.
This needs to stay at the top so as many cars as possible can be saved! Here's a little story on this: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2007/04/25/save-these-cars-brainerd-minnesota/
Wanna-B -- it's not the EPA / Environmentalists that are forcing the closing. It is economics 101. Over the years fewer and fewer people showed up for parts. Now the local business owners think that the salvage yard is standing in the way of their progress. "The Baxter Economic Development Authority (EDA) is now exploring an expansion to the park on the Dick Dean auto salvage site, just south of the Industrial Park at the intersection of County Road 48 and Evergreen Drive." http://www.ci.baxter.mn.us/cityhall/newsletters/Feb03.pdf I have seen this happen many times before. My old man worked for an excellent automotive machine shop in downtown big city MN. The sons of the guy that started the place in the early 1900s decided that at 70 years old it was time to retire. They tried hard to sell the business, but the land was worth 10 times what the business was worth, so one Friday afternoon the bosses came in and said that it was the last day of work -- done. Now an office building sits on the site of that historic machine shop.
There is some really nice looking tin in ALL of those auctions!! I would love to find out what these cars actually go for... may convince me to take a road trip someday!!
This seems to be happening on a daily basis lately.I think its time to start really worrying,especially with the steel prices rising.
Ech...don't worry. For every 1 car in a junkyard that's closing, there's 5 more that the owner won't sell and is letting rot on ther own property.
I have been to some of these type of sales and you can buy some small stuf ,it is cut and dryed befor the sale i have seen it more than once,i have a frend very close frend he wont sell nothing he has about 20 flat heads and the like but he just had 200 old cars crushed and the crusher talked him into 100 more to make it pay he has about 200 acres of old cars and trucks he says he wonts them to return to the earth. dont make good sence and he is younger than me. alleyoop ps just thought of one i and my frend went to abig truck sale in salem oregon and could not buy nothing and some other restores that are frends of mine and they could not buy eather,i am talking about 100 old trucks all from one collector, shit i could go on and on im done alley
I've been there. FWIW, that yard is pretty picked over. Line after line of stripped shells. Sure, there are some parts left, but at some point you have to get rid of them. I was at Windy Hill last fall. When I asked why they scrapped 75% of the older stuff, the reply I got was: "People have to understand that this isn't a museum, we need to sell parts to keep the doors open. People would walk around all day and buy a $20 piece of trim. We needed the space for newer vehicles that are profitable."
nobux, that is a good point about the cars being well picked over. I posted this just as an FYI to anyone that wants to take a look. I will not be at the auction, as I don't think there was anything I could use right now myself (I will likely regret it later -- but...) I'll spend the day working on my truck instead. What is really bad though is that with less competion the prices for things are going to go up. I called Windy Hills the other day looking for a transmission for an older truck. They wanted 3 times what a guy on the HAMB sold me one for. The only thing I would go to them for is a $20 piece of trim I just wish these guys didn't think that iron has the same value as gold! That said I probably should dig some of that gold out of my garage and get it up on the classifieds.
Amen. I moved here from the West Coast, where rust was rare. After seeing some of the stuff here in the Midwest, I can't see keeping these old yards open to 'save' some of these rusty 4-door piles. They're well-picked over, and now they're selling the carcasses. "It" worked here - people got the chance to get the parts they needed. Now, it's just time to pack it in for a lot of these cars. You can get to a point of being beyond saving, and that's where it's at here. ~Scotch~
I feel better knowing that a lot of these cars are picked clean and ready to be scrapped. Plus the auction will help save whatever good stuff is left. That was not the case at the last couple of junkyards around here that crushed out. Vans in Waupun and Quast in Cecil (Barry Lake) all had a lot of cars with a ton of good shit still on them. Barry Lake in particular, some of those cars were still complete down to the hubcaps. I saved what I could. At least here there'll be an auction before everything is crushed. At the two here everything was scrapped with very little time to save anything.
To bad other yards couldn't follow this guy's lead. Minimum bid of $200 doesn't sound bad. That's almost what they get for scrap. If it's worth more, people will pay more than $200. Whatever doesn't sell, then I agree, crush it. We had our chance to save it. What sucks are all the loose piles of parts that do get scraped before an auction. But stuff like doors that have been "stored" outside on the dirt for 30+ years are usually junk anyway.
I have seen this happen many times before. My old man worked for an excellent automotive machine shop in downtown big city MN. The sons of the guy that started the place in the early 1900s decided that at 70 years old it was time to retire. They tried hard to sell the business, but the land was worth 10 times what the business was worth, so one Friday afternoon the bosses came in and said that it was the last day of work -- done. Now an office building sits on the site of that historic machine shop.[/QUOTE] I have relatives in Tampa Florida that just closed their machine shop after many years in business(40+)Finch Machine.Real estate prices and development forced them out of their location.My biggest regret is i never made it to see in person.
The Jalopy Journal
