Junkyard prices: How much haggling is too much?

About 30 to 40% of autoparts store price. They get 50% for items they normally warranty to work. I use that logic in my haggling, it usually works.

 

The u-pull-its around have only one price. They don't care or know what it came off of. I go almost every week and have for years. I've gotten to know the managers pretty well and they cut me deals on the old stuff because nobody else in this god forsaken town is gonna buy it.

 

Nothing in the way of U Pull It yards in my region. The yards here vary from Mom & Pop to highly organized, pulled, cataloged, labeled and on the shelf. The former often gives best prices......but not always, the latter almost always has what I need, even if it costs more, and they DO use a pricing guide which is typically 50% of list.

As for haggling, I don't like to do it in the first place. Businesses have expenses you can't even imagine, unless you've been in business, so I generally don't begrudge their price. And for a well run yard, haggling is a very destructive , and time consuming, habit to get into. Leads to a lot of second guessing, charges of favoritism etc. On balance, I would just as soon they have a price and stick to it. As a regulat customer though, they do "throw me a bone" from time to time. especially on small items I rummage around for and pull myself. Works for me.

Ray

 

I bought a 1950 Pontiac Sedan Delivery from Milo in 1975. He was a crusty (& shady) old bastard then. He still owes me a grill that was supposed to go with the car that he never delivered.

 

around here almost all the yards even the larger ones are privatly owned. It has alwasy been my opinion that "junk people" as my friends and i refer to them are a different breed of human. i understand that they have a business to run and i understand the hole i have the part you need and you dont mentality, but the thing that annoys me the most is the fact that these people are usualy all business and dont care about helping anyone out b ut themselves. for example the hood one a 58 caddy i was doing was rotted pretty bad, i go to this yard that has a ton of old stuff and a buncha caddys, i find a 58 4 door, smashed in teh rear, every piece of glass blown out of it, no interior, no usable trim on it with rotted doors and fenders. the hood amazingly wasnt rotted but was dented by the hinges as if someone had folded it back or the wind caught it and it flew open. but id rather deal with some dents then the rot. i ask the owner how much and of course he goes into well this is a rare car andyou dont see these everyday and this and that. then tells me the hoods guna run me 700$ i laughed in his face and walked out. these people would rather hold onto the shit forever and then scrap it then sell it to someone like me for a reasonable price who can actuayl get use out of it. this is just one example i have 100s of these. 100 buks for a pitted head light bezel, 85 bucks for rotted rusted bare seat frames. to me its rediculous like someone earlyer on here said they make there money off the car after selling 2 or 3 parts why not cut people who are willing to buy shit thats 5 years away from being dirt a little bit of a break, they are willing to buy it, actualy appreciate it, and are prolly guna make good use out of it to keep these cars on the road and in a way preserve some histroy.

 

After reading the "No Tools Allowed" sign, why did you still go ahead take off the molding?

 

That about sums it up.

 

I don't even go to regular junkyards anymore, except for one where a good friend is an employee. Almost all my junkyard scrounging is done at Pull-A-Part. They have a list that shows the price of every part, and the prices are very reasonable. I have taken many V8s out of there (Pontiac 455s, Cad 500s, SBCs, etc), and never paid more than about $100 for one. They have no problem with mixing and matching parts, either...say I find an engine with a points distributor, I'll swap in an HEI from another engine. Same for carbs. One of the 500s I bought there didn't have a carb, but I found a fresh one on another 500 that had a bent pushrod, and swapped it on.
Never tried to haggle, but what I typically do is gather up a lot of stuff when I go for use on my various projects. Go up to the register near closing time with a wheelbarrow full of parts, and typically they will hit 3-4 big items and just give you the rest. Granted, there isn't a lot of HAMB material there (though they do have a vintage section), but its great for fixing later stuff, or sourcing engines, rearends, transmissions, etc.

 

Pick Your Part SoCal prices: http://www.pickyourpart.com/pricing/

 

The local salvage yard in my small town ( L&M Salvage ) is owned by an old guy named Charlie. You check in and say I need a whatever and Charlie says good luck. Walk around and take tools because he does'nt take stuff off. When you get back to his "office" he'll say "whats it worth" and if you're fair it's yours, if you try to pull one over on him he'll jack you up and send you off. He used to have a enlarged copy of his drivers license on the wall and if you lowballed him he would point to the birthdate on the license and say "does that say yesterday". I love gettin shit from Charlie, but those old salvage yards are all but gone.

 

the best prices come from yards with boozers running them, when their thirsty everything is marked down, when there hungover and still have a few full bottles leftover from the night before the price is double, if they will even sell you anything at all, a smart guy takes a few cold ones with just in case.

 

Most of the time the prices are pretty good, so good they're hardly worth haggling, although some stuff there's no sense in buying because no one will pay their price for it, like most early carbs.


The only time I ran into a bad deal was one yard charges by the inch for taillights... okay, but it's a dollar per square inch... meaning the same lenses I plucked off a '69 Caddy that were going for about $10 online, they wanted almost $20 for. They didn't want to do better so I didn't buy them. (In retrospect I should have bought the tilt-tele column out of that car - $15 for any column and those go for $100-$150 pretty easily)


But another place I plucked some roof marker lights off a Suburban and I told them I wasn't sure if these counted as the markers on their price sheet or not ($6 each I think), but I'd just priced new ones out and they were only $3 a shot... I got the 10 of them for $15.


I can see charging by the inch for something like that, but either do it by length, height, or the longest dimension of the two, and leave it at that. Otherwise for a late model car I'll just go somewhere - anywhere - else.

 

Amen............ Don't haggle or they will just throw it in the crusher.

 

Here in California at least the ones around me there are only mexicans working there.. except for Management. And they tell you what the price is. You can ask for another price and depending on what it is and the price you want they might say ok..or not....Usually they do not have many newer cars..Mostly older and beat to shit... BUT they do let you take off parts and leave you alone while you are browsing...Have found a few parts like an Oil pan for one of my neighbors cars for $20.... But then again I found a set of 4 wheel covers fo rmy cars and they wanted $60...No way in hell....

 

And not go OT, but I used to frequent a scrap metal yard and i struck up a conversation with the nice old guy that ran it. He kept complaining about all the plastic on the imports and he kept having to take the parts off to throw out.
So we came to an agreement that I would strip all the plastic for him and he would let me take it for free.
Mom and Pop places are great if you take the time to get to know them

I made alot of money college selling "them plastic import peices of crap"

 

Not trying to defend the yard guys particularly, as I've seen plenty that made my blood pressure rise, but I bet you, if they give a guy a deal on something, chances are pretty good these days that part will be online the next day at twice the price. Relationships matter. If I was on the other side of the counter, and some guy I don't know came in and wanted a big discount, I'd tell him forget it too.

"Bread? For you...two dollar!"
"But she got bread for free!"
"For you...THREE dollar!"

 

Here in Arkansas, things are a little different. Sure, there are the "Big" yards that sell shit over the counter like a new parts store. But then there are the Leroy Horns of the world. Guys that have 20 acres of tri-fives and pre-72 trucks with exactly the part I want somewhere out in a field of Blackberry bushes. No question about who pulls the part, that would be me, and they are just daring me to offer less that they are asking. "Whata ya gotta have for it?" is the opening line and "Would ya take any less?" is about the only haggling you can do. If I am lucky enough to find the part I need locally, I generally get it and worry about the price later. I once bought a 53 Hundson Hornet just to get the outside visor when the salvage operator said, "I really don't want to part that one out. So I did, less the visor of course.

 

dunno ???

i have gotten lots of stuff for free just because of being positive and having afreindly attitude and a smile

these guys deal with people hard pressed to get the family car back on the road ..they control the $

get overcharged still tip em and say you will be back geez a whats couple bucks for coffee or lunch get to know em ..

i have driven my car 2 hours to get parts with a freind ...we find really good stuff he needs .......only thing ...half of the stuff gets left behind "cuz it was just too much $!".. hour later halfway home i hear" i should have got that it was in way better shape than my old one.."
we call them to set it aside and now the price has gone up more ...were they wrong? no the part was removed and tagged and it goes into loose parts inventory.. they now see the need two people have asked for it the same day!
at the yard the first time i considered getting the part just so i could resell it some day heck, i found it,pulled it, drove for it,let alone that my freind needed it... nice parts will find a home hi or low $


again long drive to a good yard with another buddy who gets to the yard and has only 23 dollars cash... what was he thinkin geez be prepared it ain't walfriggen mart lucklily i had some $ with me saved the day...

cars and parts are like the stock market.... what does that do ...goes up and down.. remember you never ever buy at the lowest price and you never sell at the highest price
deal with it and quit complaining... or don't play.........

i have also had people reject a 5 dollar part i'm sellin at the swapmeet only to walk accross the aisle and buy 2 coffees and donut for 5 bucks then come back and want the part cheaper .... i threw it on the ground stomped on it ..." her ya go that will be 1 dollar"



most peple grumble about what they should have done instead of being happy with being able find what they need at any price

 

I have heard of this and similar gambits by a seller and it's really very funny, imagining how the potential 'buyer' (aka cheap bastard) must have reacted...........shame to lose a good part in the process, but may be worth it to make the point.........besides, the remaining like parts just went up in value.......scarcer now

Ray

 

I once tried to buy a power steering box for an early ford 'bronco', the yard wanted 460.00, turns out the 'new' part at dealer was 430.00!!

 

so true!

 

I am just so happy that my local junk yard guy is old school and lets me roam his yard and he keeps all the old stuff way out back. I just give him what he asks.

 

The local salvage yard here (enormous) has a big sign in front of the gates: "WE NO LONGER SELL TO THE PUBLIC". They grew tired of all the low-ball haggling, idiots ruining things when pulling parts, people getting hurt, etc. So now they sell all their stuff to other yards, over the 'net, and to 3rd world countries. It's a shame. The place was the go-to place for me for years.

 

Actually Im told his kid is running the show now, He's worse Im told!

 

I took my son to a junkyard this summer,told the the guy this was my son and he's 12 yrs old and building his first car its a vw baja bug. we got 2 wire clips for the valve covers and he said 20 bucks was gonna tell him to stick em but paid the money and will never go back. Best of all got em home and they didnt even fit.That 20 bucks that could of went to my 31 damn it.

 

I made a point of dropping off a dozen crispy creme donuts on a Saturday morning a couple times a year.

Unfortunately now the local yards are all closed on Weekends.

 

NW Arkansas is a vacuum for good yards. They have poor inventory and prices. The only u-pull-it around is swarming with illegals all day and when a car comes off the forklift they jump it taking all the resale parts and trashing the rest. It's kind of Mad Max-ish.

 

You know you pushed your luck at the junk yard when you hear the scampering feet of the yard dogs getting louder as they come to lunch on your fanny flesh.

 

....what Verbal Kint said; Take Donuts.

 

He had that yard up for sale a while back. Wouldn't return calls.....

I did get a fly over in a Bell 60, tons of neat stuff there. Too bad the guy is the way he is....