I do some car transporting for a local guy a few times a month around the area. Yesterday I picked up a 48 Buick turtle back car in South East IA. The guys who owned it has an old salvage yard that he is cleaning up. He told me they had crushed around 5000 50s and 60s rides this summer because they are less hassle to sell at $235 a ton than they are 1 at a time. Shame to see all that stuff destroyed but to each their own.
Hey, I sure hope the guy lives long enough for his grandkids to thank him when the U.S. is suckin' hind tit, to China, in a world economy! Swankey Devils C.C.
That happens CONSTANTLY here in FL... One guy has a yard that is all cars from the 30's to 60's. He wants top dollar for parts, and complete cars, and will let a perfectly good drivetrain, like a rocket motor and hydro rust into a pile of junk. If you offer a lower price, he acts all offended, and gets mad. The next time you go by there...they've all been crushed, and there are a new lot of old cars.... A lot of those guys do WAY more damage to the hobby than the old coot that is going to "fix it up one day". At least that guy is going to kick off one day and his family will sell it off. The only problem is, the junkyard guy might end up with it before someone else. We've even tried to get the yard owner to call us before he is going to crush, so that we could save some of the rare parts, but he said he isn't going to sell anything at a discount before he crushes it. As a result of that attitude...I haven't bought anything from him in about 4 years...even though I've seen stuff I could use from the road... There are a few others just like him here.
what sucks it some fellas like that when you price parts off of them just 2 years ago or the whole car, wanted to try and rape you...... "well, i'd have to have $3k for it......" but if you wait for two years, i'll take scrapper price for it......
I get sick of people who want to offer me a dollar for a part because they think I inherited all these cars and picked it up free off the ground. So fucking what if I did pick it up off the ground? Either it's worth $5 or it's not worth anything and I should scrap it. I can't fault anyone for selling out at $235 a ton, but I do agree it's a little stupid to just crush stuff when you can't get 8 arms and 3 legs for it, instead of selling it for more than scrap to someone and not having to do anything else with it.
A quick buck is what most junkies are after. Unfortunately, the high scrap prices are going to wipe out a lot of potential rod material...which is just going to drive prices of the remaining stuff even higher.
scrapping cars is not the way to a quick buck for a business with overhead and rising prop taxes etc. perhaps long term sto for antiques should happen on personal property, take this up with your local government(read rulers), instead of bitching about a business trying to survive. i have invited over 300 folks for a 3 day look see at a private collection of project cars from the midwest hauled to east coast and talk about a quick one, the offers were mostly a joke and dont even represent the cost to get the cars 20 years Ago much less a fair price today. i can only imagine how this must feel year after year. takes a lot of work to present these cars for sale that have languished in a back barnyard for decades and i did not want to give ours away either, scrap them, not yet but wont give away either, and selling less than scrap val is just that. and i have noticed a lot of cars on ebay recently for sale because local assholes wont allow it to remain in yard. my son got a ticket in norfolk va on a dead end street across from the projects because a 1950 ford wasn't operable, it lasted 3 days at prop before long stupid arm of law came down with mega fines if not removed in one week, so bitch at the right people.
I hate to see crush-outs too. But on the other side of this thing, a guy here had an "antique" yard set apart from his regular stuff. It was mostly late 30s to early 70s cars and trucks. He finally crushed it all out a few years ago. He he hadn't sold $800 worth of parts total out of that yard in the last 2 years he ran it. The income did'nt come close to paying the taxes on the ground. If you don't patronize them they have no reason to keep the stuff.
FWIW, I think it's easier for these guys to scrap at $235 a ton rather than spend countless hours trying to inventory what you have that's worth selling off. I don't necessarily agree with it but it's just not economically feasible. Like mentioned above, taxes have to be paid, and most guys are going to invest time or money in advertising 'old parts' from the junk yard.
With the current and rising cost of scrap iron, the yards in the country and the piles behind the old gas stations, service garages are disappearing at an alarming rate. As I drove through Alabama on a recent trip to see my Father and Brother I saw crushers set up in the oddest places like right behind an old service garage in the hilly country near Birmingham. They were pulling old cars out from behind and around the building and up from the gulleys and such behind the building. Judging from the number of empty trailers they had in the parking and down the roadside there must have been a serious number of junks there. One of the guys working there told me they had scouts out all over checking with property owners about cleaning up their fields and so forth and they had a full calendar all over the state!!
If these guys want to crush cars and be "scrappers"....let them stay away from 2-door ford shoeboxes, chopped, 40's chevy sedans, Mercury Turnpike Cruisers, 40 Lincolns, etc... All of these cars were crushed. There are PLENTY of junk cars that can be hauled off for free, or for next to nothing...there's no need crush old cars that are actually fixable, and in some cases driveable. We patronized this guy plenty...but he wouldn't say "Hey...I'm about to crush-out. Come out here and give me X-amount of dollars for these windshields, grilles, whatever, and I'll still make my money on the scrap." It was a stuborn "stance" he took, because he thought we would just wait for him to crush, and then try to lowball him, but if we wanted something, we went out there and bought it...We just wanted a chance to save old parts. Besides...he could get more for a few catalytic converters from a newer car, than he could for an olds rocket motor at scrap prices.
Tell them all to leave the Detroit stuff alone - let them crush the Jap Crap instead - flag waving, you bet!
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