Given the market, why are the newest scrappers even bothering?

Originally Posted by DakotaRog

jeanbean- Sounds like you have a good gig going. Where's your general location (part of state, etc.?). How do figure a price to start off some of your parts; ebay histories? a certain % of what the part is new? other? Just curious...

NE PA. I believe in capitalism 101. Whoever has the cheapest parts gets the sale. I also strive to get everything cheap or free. I look at past sales and base it on that. Then i look at current sales and drop accordingly. I firmly believe in cutting everybody throat since i have zero overhead other than a helper. Gas is not figured in the equation since I primarily run junk cars. And use the drain gas. Oldest gas I ran was sitting in a field for 7 years. Threw it in my van, ran perfect. Ddint smell funny or nothing. Wasn't going to let a full tank of 20 gallons go to waste. Fuel filters are cheap. Ok case in point. I pay scale price for cars. No title cars are free or maybe 20 bucks, thats it due to having to cut them in pieces to dispose. I used to have connections to run cars without titles across the scale and not have to do it, but they dried up. There is a nice handy dandy webite for free that will tell you if a vehicle is stolen or has a lien before you run it without title. Anyway case in point. 02 kia sedona van. Guy literally said get it the f out of his driveway. Give me anything. Mind you scale price was about 125. I said 50, he said 75. I said done. Profit 50 bucks before i left the driveway. Only had 104k miles on clock. Made a video of it running. Motor was going for 700 on ebay for same mileage. I sold motor for 400 picked up. Now you may say I lost 300, I dont care. I was already in profit. Then cats paid like 100 for 3 cats if I remember right. 40 for alu wheels. Sold a bunch of other stuff. All told almost 1500 in a month cutting everyones throat and selling at reduced cost. Scrap is not the answer..parts is. Just had a washer I sold almost for 300 in parts with zero expense...all the electronics and even the door. I literally leave my house once or twice a month and make 2 grand with 2 runs.

I also cruise craigslist and will pay up to 500 for certain cars, because if you know what is worth what...then you can make money. Foreign whips are bucko dollars in parts.

Here is my last rant. Interesting story. Last july or august. Guy called me up from craigslist. He was cutting a car up with no title to dispose. Supposedly his buddy was in rehab in jersey and couldnt get title due to that. He asked for assistance in cutting it aaprt. I said no, no profitability. He also mentioned he was selling parts. I told him not worth my time, when your done call me. And I will make the rest disappear. Sure enough just 2 weeks ago, he called, 6 months later. Didnt know how to proceed further. His dad wanted it gone. Got there and all was left was drivetrain, cats, and the floor. Literally doors, half the trunk, roof, front clip all cut off. He literally tried cutting trans in half with sawzall. It was quite interesting nonetheless. Dragged it up on trailer. Made 85 what was left running acoss scale. Amazingly cats still there, so another 100 there. Saved the drive train. Trans probaly going for 25 as a core in spring. Will pull heads from motor. They are 200 a piece if good. Scrap the rest. So all told almost 750 profit for two hours work and 15 bucks in gas.I got pictures if you dfont belive me. At this point, I would say cars are most profitable in parts. The last one case in point was a all wheel drive audio a8 quattro with a 2.7 or 2.8 v6. If it was complete, that would have been a small printing press of ben franklins. High dollar parts car. Sadly I did one mistake. A week after I ran it across scale, a guy need the rear diff. I could have sold the rear diff for 400 and I forgot to save the rear calipers. They were 8 bucks a side as a core and 50 a piece on ebay.

So to sum it up, their is a lot of gold out there if you know where to look. Hell I have the cutting edges from a d9 dozer that look like new outside. They got to be a couple hundrend. They were free and part of the deal with the sedona. Looking for a buyer for them currently.