Salvage prices
Discussion
Is it me or are all salvage prices almost as dear as the same undamaged model? I've more or less finished my home improvements but like to have something to do so I thought I might buy the odd vehicle, preferably with mechanical damage as opposed to being banana shaped. How do these salvage channels on YouTube buy them for so little.
At the moment we could do with getting our apprentice a van so I was looking at something with a PSA 1.5 diesel in, tonnes of them with broken chains and a relatively easy fix if the damage isn't too bad. You do have to price them as if it needs a replacement engine but at best everything I look at is only £1000 or so cheaper than a still running one yet the cheapest engine is at least £1k anywhere, plus you would still have to do a belt, a service etc.
I Remember when salvage yards were everywhere and you had the pick of all sorts but it seems 90% of them have vanished today and co-part is just about the only one left, but you have to pay a sub to buy from there so its only viable if you are doing loads of them.
Are the sellers on Ebay and similar just buying from co-part and them sticking them straight on Ebay for 3 times the price?
At the moment we could do with getting our apprentice a van so I was looking at something with a PSA 1.5 diesel in, tonnes of them with broken chains and a relatively easy fix if the damage isn't too bad. You do have to price them as if it needs a replacement engine but at best everything I look at is only £1000 or so cheaper than a still running one yet the cheapest engine is at least £1k anywhere, plus you would still have to do a belt, a service etc.
I Remember when salvage yards were everywhere and you had the pick of all sorts but it seems 90% of them have vanished today and co-part is just about the only one left, but you have to pay a sub to buy from there so its only viable if you are doing loads of them.
Are the sellers on Ebay and similar just buying from co-part and them sticking them straight on Ebay for 3 times the price?
Yep because everyman & his dog has jumped on the salvage band wagon. I was a member for years of a salvage website (salvage market I think it has rebranded to now, I hope it's ok to name & doesn't upset the mods?) where you could bid on cars / bikes / plant etc etc from salvage yards around the country, but in the end the juice wasn't worth the squeeze if you wanted to fix the vehicles properly & not using stolen parts etc etc...
How do they ever sell any though, I could go out and buy a van for £5k and put it straight to work, or I could go out and spend £4k on one that potentially needs an engine at £1k plus all the hard work fitting it. If I got lucky it might just need cams and followers etc at £500 or so but that's only £500 better off after doing all that work. I would want at least a couple of grand off the usual price just to make it worth it. Especially when buyers want £500 knocking off something just for a tiny scratch.
Blame Youtube, Mat Armstrong and the like. As a result, people think buying salvage cars is the way to make a living, so the prices are silly.
If you have a bunch of trade contacts and can do most of it yourself, maybe. For the average joe - especially if you can't do body/paint yourself - it's not worth it.
If you have a bunch of trade contacts and can do most of it yourself, maybe. For the average joe - especially if you can't do body/paint yourself - it's not worth it.
shtu said:
Blame Youtube, Mat Armstrong and the like. As a result, people think buying salvage cars is the way to make a living, so the prices are silly.
If you have a bunch of trade contacts and can do most of it yourself, maybe. For the average joe - especially if you can't do body/paint yourself - it's not worth it.
I remember watching a video from Dean at Salvage rebuilds when he first started saying that even when he was working at VW/Audi and could get the parts cheap, there was still no money to be made in fixing cars.If you have a bunch of trade contacts and can do most of it yourself, maybe. For the average joe - especially if you can't do body/paint yourself - it's not worth it.
How does he make a large amount of his income now? Rebuilding salvage cars.
The only way to make money is from the views and from selling them via a raffle.
ThingsBehindTheSun said:
shtu said:
Blame Youtube, Mat Armstrong and the like. As a result, people think buying salvage cars is the way to make a living, so the prices are silly.
If you have a bunch of trade contacts and can do most of it yourself, maybe. For the average joe - especially if you can't do body/paint yourself - it's not worth it.
I remember watching a video from Dean at Salvage rebuilds when he first started saying that even when he was working at VW/Audi and could get the parts cheap, there was still no money to be made in fixing cars.If you have a bunch of trade contacts and can do most of it yourself, maybe. For the average joe - especially if you can't do body/paint yourself - it's not worth it.
How does he make a large amount of his income now? Rebuilding salvage cars.
The only way to make money is from the views and from selling them via a raffle.
The Salvage rebuilds guys have done it for years before YouTube and can make a living from it. They generally have a policy of putting a max bid of what they want to pay on a lot of cars knowing full well they will only win 1/2 if them.
If people believe something is a 'bargain' then they'll be willing to forgo the actual sums, and slit the throat of anyone who points out that they're being loathsome morons and it actually costs a lot more.
Seems to be human nature.
I remember when Jessops went under. An auction house picked up all their stock and created a website for it.
With the premium included, I think pretty much every single item sold for 10-30% more than you'd pay brand new elsewhere.
Seems to be human nature.
I remember when Jessops went under. An auction house picked up all their stock and created a website for it.
With the premium included, I think pretty much every single item sold for 10-30% more than you'd pay brand new elsewhere.
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