I posted a couple months ago that I own the original Mayfair's Hi-Po shop, and that I have closed due to economic factors. Looking for your opinion on an idea some of the car guys have come up with around here. A automotive / hot rod / performance consignment shop. Alot of guys don't want to deal with CL or E to sell their parts, or just don't want to deal with it in general, but have stuff laying around they want to get rid of. I have the room to take anything in, up to full done cars and project cars that we just don't seem to have the time to get to. Plus all the misc., engines, rearends, extra fenders, and body parts, whatever you have. Along with a website, we can get the word out as to whats laying around in all our garages in one place. Just looking for some feedback... Thanks, Dan
Is the shop on VanBorn? How would the consignment work? Sounds interesting, since I know some of us old guys collect stuff and forget we have it!
Hmmm, you must be thinking just local right? Otherwise, isn't that what fleamarkets/swapmeets and eBay are for. Not trying to crush your idea ... just thinking out loud. I damaged a part here in Toronto (shifter piece from an S10 T5), hopped on eBay and it was on its way the next day (I used the "buy it now" feature). Pretty hard to beat that. The other thing is eBay has the potential of getting more money than you might have expected ... I have sold numerous items on eBay for around $80 that I would have had a hard time selling for $5 at a fleamarket/swapmeet. The idea does sound interesting, I just have my doubts there would be enough business to pay the bills. There are shops around (Toronto, at least there used to be ... not sure if any survived) that sell stuff on eBay for people.
With walk-in's, a website, and we could handle the Ebay and CL for alot of the parts. Bottom line is there are people that don't want to mess with it, and it can all be under one roof.... just like a 7 days a week swap meet, just we handle it for you, like any other consignment shop would. We would be automotive only, trying to stay to the hot rod / streetrod side of things, but will help sell any car parts you have...Motors, fenders, rearends, whatever you have.
it would work on pecentage fees just like any consignment shop does, just we do all the work for you....
Have you thought about all the h***le you may get from "THE MAN"? Pawn shops get it all the time. Just a thought.
I had the same idea about 3 years ago, I have a large garage that used to be a business so that was good. I had injured my back and was getting sent to computer school and working through the state. The state would actualy give you x-amount of dollars towards opening your own business so that was good. My failure was that the doctors had put a 23 lbs. lifting limit on me so the state school would not ok the business. Between sorting items and shipping it was a no go because of the lifting that would be involved. They thought it was a weird idea being non car people but were on board except for the restrictions. Good luck with it and you probably would need to venture out into the muscle car crowd as well to get your volume. You would also need to look into e-bay for the amount you would sell there. I hadn't figured out the claimed earned income part because the majority of the sell would go to the owner of the part. I wasn't sure how e-bay reported there sells to the govt and how you could claim only a partial of their reported sell.
I would love to see something like this. I frove by the old shop last week hoping to see some signs of life there. I think its a great idea.
I like the idea, might fee up some space, and or make somethings available locally, that may not be known about.
I know I've got some parts like the old banjo rears and stuff that would just be too expensive to ship. This would work for me. Throw it in the van and drive over.
I think its a great idea as I've got some ****....I mean good car parts...... but I've never sold on E or CL before, nor do I have the time or drive to do so. When can I drop my stuff off???? I've got '47, '50 and '56 Olds parts.
yeah.. sounds like a good idea.. would need some c.y.a. stuff just in case someone tries to unload stolen parts.. also what would make it really work would be having more venues then ebay and craigslist to increase the amount of people that see the stuff, thus giving higher odds of a sale.
I love old parts.....I'd be a regular browser there. I'm in Detroit just about every week and it sounds like a good thing to kill some time for me. I also have a few parts laying around that I have no need for and would like to sell. I always wanted to s****e up some parts to take to a swap meet, but figured I didn't have enough things to fill a space there. So your idea would be perfect for a guy like me.
I think it's a great idea, as long as you don't have to pay rent or utilities or labor. You're the expert of course, you've run the shop, but how can you compete price wise with craigslist or ebay when they don't have the over head you do? You're gonna have to make what, 40 or 50 % on the deal, so do you price it that much over market or give the seller just 50 or 60% of what it sold for? Returns? God help you the police decide to get involved or worse find something, does being consignment get you off the hook? Do you keep it till it sells or can people take it back? Can I just leave all my junk there and price it so high nobody buys it and then go pick it up when I need it? Or do you price the items? How long can you afford to hold a rusty fender for an old buick in inventory? What happens when the consigner disappears then comes backc and wants his money? What happens if it doesn't go and not everybody picks their junk back up, are you responsible for it now? What if there's a breakin and it all gets ripped off or the shop burns, will insurance cover inventory? I think it'd be the first of its kind in the nation. You ought to be able to get some magazine press if you do it up nice, and you'll be hamb famous at least Personally, it seems like it'd be a sloooooow business without a parts counter to bring in foot traffic and eyeballs. I'm old and have to make a living, and it just seems like I'd be eating taco bell every night if I owned the joint and working for the equivalent of a burritio an hour. If it's just a sideline to your car building business, or repair shop, or retailer, or hobby shop, then I'd say go for it, but if you're standing at the counter waiting for bidness then I'd say it's gonna be a tough row to hoe. Have you considered renting out the bays hourly to car guys? I know they do that in England and there is/was a place in LA or SF, I can only imagine the liability though. Good luck to you man I hope you pull it off, and if you do, I'll surely come check it out. Good excuse to go make a fool of myself in Windsor
Ok ... I now have a better idea of what you are suggesting. YOU would do the eBaying and CListing for the parts owners as well as having a homebase/store that people could come/browse/buy parts from. This could work, but I do know from experience that an eBay listing will generate quite a few emails from people reguesting more info about the item. Multiply that by several parts on eBay and you will potentially spend a good bit of time on the internet just answering questions (although, in my case a lot of those questions are regarding shipping costs, if you were to post in the ad a "standard shipping charge of ___" for each item, you would certainly eliminate a lot of emails). Packaging and shipping can also be very time consuming (I do realize that the eBay buyer is the one who pays for shipping and packaging but it will still take plenty of your time to package and label in prep for shipping). You mention that your shop closed for economic reasons. I have a friend that lives in Grosse Point Farms (bigtime accountant) and he was saying the Detroit area was really hit hard by the economy ... my question is "are there really enough people out there with enough cash available to keep this new business alive? Sorry, not trying to "poop on your picnic", these are just some potential issues you might have to deal with. Oh, and everything Johnny1290 just said too. He got his posted before I could finish typing.
Well someone has to be the devil's advocate and the last 2 handled it well. Some of you are missing the idea of cars as well. One good car sale could carry the place for 2-4 months. The point is that just as Denise and several others have indicated, NO TIME TO DO IT. I've been there and have known Dan for over 30yrs. You can't ask for a more honest and decent person to do this service. I applaud the efforts and will immediately consign stuff to him. Insurance, taxes, cops, all easy ****. It's as simple as "...how do I conform to...?" and voila. Consignment is just that, consignment. "X" percentage for "X" amount of service be it fleabay, craigslisp, or whatever. There's our cl***ified and "HAMB-O-DEX" too. Any way to get it out there what's available and where. He's got the space and the retail set up too. Does it seem like I'm all for it? You betcher*** I am. How would you like to walk into a newly remodeled speed shop/swap meet/used car/used parts place, all indoors, and deal with someone with decades in the buisness? Deal with someone who not only knows what he's talkin about but has all the connections needed to find out what you need to know? How about someone who's got your back on selling your stuff? It's easier than you might think.
We have a store like that in Coral Springs, FL. The guy appears to be doing well. http://www.eshipauctions.com/
Forget the consignment part. If you know people with lots of parts to clear out who don't want to deal with it, just buy all of the stuff they have as a package deal, then sell it off and keep the profits. A consignment shop will be PACKED with engine blocks and rear axles and big, heavy **** that was too good to throw away but not good enough to sell easily within a month of starting up shop. And you won't be able to throw it away because it isn't yours. That is the stuff that people will want you to sell for them, not the good stuff. But you've got a great opportunity to make some money if you get into reselling. You've got a lot of people who have stuff and need the money (actually an ideal location to be a buyer of big groups of parts) and you've got the internet to make your sales. Keep a storefront open with generic stuff to sell, somewhere for people to pick up stuff/browse and stop by to offer you stuff for sale. My shop, the Potter Meat Market (sign came with the building and I'm keeping it) does exactly that. I buy big groups of parts, from people, body shops, junkyards, Craigslist, and I also buy whole cars to part out. I sell my stuff off piece by piece and I make a profit for my efforts. I've been in business for about 7 years, doing just fine, the "recession" hasn't hurt me a bit. Lots of overseas sales. My shop isn't open to the public but yours could be if you wanted to. I tried to do a few consignment sales and it was an absolute *********** disaster that I won't ever do again. When you're buying outright, you can name your price, have cash in hand, and it's take it or leave it. I know what I'm going to get for it and I know what I can pay, if I make a big profit or if I lose out, it's all on me. But with consignments, people expect you to do all the work for 10% of the money, you have to sit on tons of **** for long periods of time, and they just bring you the stupid **** they couldn't sell themselves. Plus you have to handle payments to the part owners when they sell, it's a bookkeeping nightmare, not worth the effort. Trust me, I've been doing this for years and I've learned these lessons hard.
A good place to advertise it would be the Auto and RV Trader. They deliver them here on Wendsday and they are gone the first day.
maybe you could run it off of a blog site. create a site and have pics listed with the info and price that you were asking. sort of an online garage sale. there is a vintage chopper site that runs things this way. (i pm'd you the link) you could kind of run things under the radar and maybe be open to the public a couple days a week?
I think it is a killer idea. i live in louisville, ky, and i would make a roadtrip to the dirty d in a heartbeat to see some cool stuff i might need. spent a lot of time there for work a few years back and car people are EVERYWHERE up there (woodward dream cruise, gratiot sp? cruise) BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME
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