I hadda brain wave..I've got friends with farms close to me..and I live close to endless old cars for like $100 - $300..think it'd be a good money-making "scheme" If i were to buy cheap cars, put em by a friends place and part em out? Then I'd have an excuse to make money doing something I LIKE instead of flipping burgers like other people my age.. I was thinking pick up junky cheap beaters, ebay or list in cl***ifieds the good parts, make some $$ then s**** the rest.. Whatta you guys think?
Wow, neat concept. You need a name for your new discovery ......hmmmmmm.....lets see..... uhhhh......maybe call it a JUNKYARD?
Sounds like a plan, just be careful not to fall on your ***...good luck with it, it could definitely work. Greg
I did this while I was in college. I could get stuff like 2 4dr '57 belairs for $500. You have to really watch shipping costs and don't forget your time and shipping materials. They add up and quickly make profit on smaller parts go ****. Other than that it wasn't a bad deal if you have the room and don't mind pulling rusty parts all day. Cleaned and primed parts are more attractive to buyers. I sold most stuff on ebay, where you have to account for fees also. Good luck to ya though. You'll learn a hell of a lot about the cars after you dissasemble 4-5 of the same thing.
Can make money, but its a real pain. Its fun at first to remove the parts and ship. After a while, you start having to pull parts under the car, and in places that just plain **** to get out. If you damage it...then your out of the deal. After the 20th time under the car pulling parts, it will get old. Its a good idea, but lots of work.
you might wanna check out the local ordinances too... with all the good s****yards closing up due to environmental guidelines, it would **** to have the EPA come down on you. i wouldn't quit your day job yet, but i could see it potentially being a profitable thing. with the old tin getting harder and harder to find, maybe you could sell complete cars as well?? good luck to ya.
You have to be your own boss, which is good and bad. You can be tempted to not do **** for a week or 2 because you had a few thousand in sales on ebay or at the swap. Or you can go balls out and pull in 10K in a month...I've been in both places. Its actually a great money maker. But buy what you know. Just because its old doesnt mean its worth something. And for it to be ebay-able, it better be 90+% good. People dont like paying good $$ for ****. If all the parts are rusted up and frozen, forget it. Really pitted chrome, forget it. Unless its really rare. And dont look at only big body parts. You sometimes get more for a trim part or a taillight housing than you'd get for a useable fender. Big parts cost alot to ship, alot of people want them, but cant justify the total cost. Dont buy a car if you cant at least double your money on the parts, I shoot for triple. And be ready to work. I've been doing this part time for over 15 years, and full? time for 4. If I put in 40 hours a week pulling parts, I'd make 4X the $$. I guess I'm lazy. Then again you'll spend at least 3-5 hours a day on the computer searching cl***ifieds and dealing with phone calls, etc. If youre not married, do it. If you are, be ready for the incessant complaining. Go for it man!
Really the worst part is finding suitable boxes and packing it so it makes it to the buyer.............yeah, I care about that ****! My only SNAFUS in 20 years of shipping bikes and car parts are a busted chainstay on a MINT Aluminum Monarch ( Insured at 5k) and Fedex losing some Nailhead parts recently.
Tman, good point.. I spend money on bubble wrap, tape, etc. I try to find good used boxes when possible. You need to learn how to pack right, and how to use the various shippers available to you. Alot of your buyers are gonna want to know the shipping cost before they buy it. Its not hard, just find all their websites, they have shipping calculators. If you can scavenge bubble wrap, etc, great. Another good thing to do is if you find a car you might buy, go through ebay on it, including the completed items. It'll tell you right away whats hot property and whats a dead ****. Most of the time...the rest is trial and error. No more industry secrets from me!
First of all, don't always ***ume that these friends will always be your friends. I learned this the hard way and had to dump a few cars for dirt cheap. If you are making money off these parts, make sure that the friends gets something for storage or rent or whatever. Secondly, if you are not there constantly, plan to lose some ****. I lost alternators, starters, all kinds of ****, and it only disappears the day before you need it. If you have any rare parts on any of these vehicles, or parts that are easily sold, take them off and keep them elsewhere. I lost a good set of Torquethrusts like that. What I have doe over the last four or five years is dragged one car into town - lately it has been 5-6-7 Pontiacs - still fairly cheap to buy, and lots of Chevy interchangeable parts - and stripped them right to notheing. I keep what I need for my own cars, Ebay the good stuff and junk what's left.
This is this year's "stripper", a 56 Laurentian four door hardtop that I picked up for $70. I needed interior windshield moldings for my 57 hardtop, window regulators to replace ones I got from a HAMBer roach that were junk, and a few other odds and ends like a good set of 235-261 rockers and shafts. The rest is going on ebay, like the odd bits of stainless, a Pontiac steering wheel in good condition, a Powerglide steering column and bits of dash trim.
Thanks guys...To whoever it was that said "dont quit your day job" Well, I dont have a day job And of course HAMB discounts I live near about a gazillion old cars (the only GOOD thing bout the prairies) And I've seen decent-shaped old cars anywhere from 150 bucks up. One guy even wanted to give me a 63 Pontiac convertable parts car! I just figured that by stripping liike a car at a time, I could keep myself away from working at mcdonalds like all the other 16 year olds Thbaks for thr tips/inspiration
I'd say you should be REAL careful of environmental concerns--I'm sure Canada is just as bad as here. Try to totally drain all fluids and recycle the batteries so there's nothing around for anyone to complain about, and keep a tarp under each car so that not one drop of oil can reach the ground. An environmental case, no matter how silly and exaggerated it might be, could be a nightmare for you and whoever owns the turf where the car sits for years; Any other sort of trouble could be quickly killed off by s****ping the hulk if necessary.
Don't strip them, ship them. Find some place that doesn't have "a gazillion old cars" (like Southern Ontario); is in the rust belt (like Southern Ontario); and has a market for rust-free Saskatchewan cars (like, hmmm... Southern Ontario); ship them to some HAMBer living in that place (like Southern Ontario) Mr. 57, that $70 Pontiac was worth about 2 grand here, four doors and all. No, I don't have any money either.
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