Anyone make a living scrapping/flipping cars?

Sorry for the extreme scrap newb


I need roughly 450$ a week minimum to get by, is this plausible full time scrapping?

ive scrapped probably 3-4 loads in the last 3 years ranging from 80-240 $ roughly , Ive learned though that breaking down the stuff pays ALOT more on the better metals. Also this was all stuff i had around me, ive never went and searched for things to scrap.


Bascially saying are most using it as a hobby/part time i guess.


My first "real" idea is to buy some car for 200$ and breaking it down EVERY nut bolt wire, breaking down trans, pretty much everything then chopping up the shell.

local yard pays 185$ton (what is a ton measured in yards usually? 1850 2000 2200?)


your pretty much guaranteed that 185$ but how much more $ profit is left to be made breaking it all down is what i have no clue with?


On that note, how are places advertising to pick your car up from 350-700 ? my friend sold his car with a blown trans but engine ran for 425$ Are they making money selling parts or the metal?

If there making money on selling parts i dont think as a individual you can make any money that way unless you were very specific with the car your buying and what the market is.....some car parts just dont sell. Those junk yards wait to make that cash long run i guess

Any advice if im looking to make this a primary source of income?

forgot about the whole flipping cars part....i should be asleep anyway :)

Is there any "consistent" money in that? I definetly know THERE IS money in that....about 3yrs ago i went with a friend a bought a civic for 650$ sold it for 1500$ the next day and washing/cleaing it etc....i know money is there etc....

i know these question are insanely vague :)

first, let me say that $450 a week starting out is very ambitious. my biggest concern would be your local competition, even the best competition can be worked around. $200 a car is a good place to start, that is my minimum but you will find out that sometimes you will have to pay almost or even more than scrap price for a car. jghillo on here regularly pays more than scrap in his area because of competition, and he sells alot of parts on online services. my local competition isn't as harsh here and i get more cars than the average scrapper but it still took alot of work and time to acquire the cars i get as alot of them come from repeat customers. also to get repeat customers you typically have to pay closer to scrap price and sometimes a little over

when scrapping a car there is no right or wrong way to do it, depending on the car, location of pick up, time of day,bills due, whether its raining snowing or sunny, or the amount of calls i have backed up on my board will determine how much i will take off a car or if ill just park it in the yard for a rainy day.

ill describe my average breakdown but i do it a little different than some and the same as others. on a good weather day with only one car to pic k up later, we will do a quick search of the car looking for money, tools, cds etc. we then breakdown the car taking of the good stuff including raditators , alternator, aluminum wheels, converters, batteries, and wires.

sometimes we pull lights, switches, visors, and other easy parts from the interior.

sometimes we pull the motor and transmission

sometimes we pull out the whole dash all the seats and get the wire front to back on the car, not been doing this lately because of the weather but summers right around the corner

sometimes we pick up a car and see no converter or aluminum wheels, we will just drain the gas onsight and just haul the car straight to the yard.

as far as flipping, thats a whole different story, its not nearly as glamorous as on tv, it takes time to build up a list of people to buy cars from you. typically you can make a little more than scrapping out a car, but remember your buying junk, almost always a transmission or engine problem unless its a wreck, so your selling them a risky investment because they always have to fix more than it appears. you also have to sell it cheap enough for them to be able to make a profit. on a flip i usually only have the car for a couple hours which is good, but i have tried selling a car for 4 or 5 hours and end up scrapping it after trying to sell it and basically wasting part of my day or even the whole day.

to clear $450 a week every week is a challenge, but is doable, realistically you will need at least 2 cars a week but really you will need 4 to 5 after taking care of fuel and other expenses. to be honest i keep my bills paid and try to add an extra car to the yard every few weeks for my savings account. you will also need to have several hundred dollars laying around just to buy cars anytime of the week, if you get below a couple hundred you need to have a source of cash from someone you know or a extra car you can afford to scrap.

this post was kinda long, i covered a little of it without getting into too many details, but i really just scratched the surface

Do you have a place to do this without getting to meet your local zoning official?

Do you sell on eBay?
In addition to what Cory pointed out,
I check completed auctions to see of items from the car have been selling
I eBay >> Easy to pull, Easy to store& and easy to ship items
Head Lamp assemblies, Taillight assemblies, side mirrors, switches and climate control units.

Then check your area for core buyers
Good luck

Wishin you luck!

To hit the number your looking to make on income from my experience you would have to part out 10-20 cars per year. But then you still need to use multiple methods to move your parts Plus the time to find/pickup cars and haul off you scrap. You also need to be able to store all your parts and need the time to clean and ship them. Also need a well equipped shop. So yes its possible but its alot of work. I process about 5 year. Plus another 5 i just do resale on that my partner parts out so i do about 10 year. You are going to need to do other forms of resale/scrapping to supplement it because sales dry up from time to time. I stockpile scrap and cats untill i am out of work/money then i haul it in.

If you know your way around mechanics, find cars that need repairs and flip those. Last van I picked up I netted $3,200 after all was said and done. I'd rather do that all day long versus junking cars for $180/ton.

If you're not mechanically knowledgeable you might partner with someone that is, however I myself have a strong dislike for partnerships.