February 9, 2023

Quick Money – The Yard Sale

Your car may be junk to you, but gold to another. Parts are valuable in the the junk business. Any salvager with a brain is going to strip the car and sell any parts that s/he can before taking it to the crusher. Research the parts on your car. A simple Google search would do wonders. This will give you an idea of what demand you're dealing with.

Let us start with ease of obtaining. Obviously newer car parts will be easier to get than older ones. A friend of mine still has a 1975 Pontiac Lemans. To obtain parts for this car he has to literally go to junk yards and even online. No new car dealers keep parts beyond 10 years or so and even auto parts stores limit their inventory to cars under 20 years. A 30 year old vehicle is almost impossible to find parts for. Plus, if you can find the part, depending on where you get it, the cost could be anywhere from 20 to 100% over the original part cost. To say that late model car owners are taken advantage of would be a gross understatement.

There are a number of auto parts distributors that specialize in one brand of auto parts and if you look for VW auto parts you will find that a great many of the specialty auto parts people do focus on the VW. Why is this?

See if you can find anyone who has bought anything from the particular dealer in the past and if they are satisfied with their purchase. You could also get in touch with auto restoration professionals to guide you in your collection effort. They are experts in restoring vintage cars and they know a great deal about these parts.

Contact local salvage yards. Most any clunker whether it is running or not is worth something. If your car is still running, then it is worth more than one that is not. Search online for local salvage yards and make contact. Get a price for your car and learn how much it will cost you to have it towed or driven away.

2) The junk yard. While you might think you are above visiting a car junk yards for parts, are you above saving a lot of money? Probably not. A quick stop in at the local junk yard might save you a lot of money compared to a new air filter. And, even better, this ties directly into point #1. A friend of my, Robert, needed an auto part so he looked online and found a junk yard. The junk yard shipped him a part that was almost new and he couldn't have been happier. Just cause an air filter is used, doesn't mean it's very used!

san antonio junk yards are created equal. Some metals demand very high prices (copper, silver) and others are worth quite a bit less. Also many salvageable items contain many different metals and are scrapped on an itemized basis. A lot of metal isn't unattached and ready for a refiner. Much of the metal found will have plastic or other unwanted material attached to it, wire is a good example of this. If you are taking your scrap to a yard, take the extra time to extract all non-metals from your haul. If you don't do this the yard may give you a much lower lb basis for your metal translating to less money.

When it comes to these vital parts, you'll want to go new. You can go just about anywhere for them, but the most accessible place to check is online. You may not be able to tell what exactly you're getting until it shows up, but you can find just about anything. On top of that, most sites will deliver the part straight to your house, or at least to your local mechanic.