Salvage Auctions/ yards

[Raggleflaggle]

i know, we all go to scrapyards ro find parts for our dattys, but has anybody ever bought their datty from an auction/scrapyard? a quick google search shows  plenty of repairable datsuns getting ready to be scrapped. their listed starting prices are usually pretty cheap, yet everybody seems to get their cars from Private sales. is there some reason we are letting people crush DREAMS?!

[zianian]

So ours are worth more?

[Raggleflaggle]

that's like burning money to make yourself richer. theoretically it increases your value but proportionately it has no direct market effect, i.e prices are easily more relative to location than to actual rarity. besides, why don't you want to spread the datto love?

also, 
CRUSHING. DREAMS.

[Raggleflaggle]

also, if your theory holds true, my 5 speed hatchback 98% penetrative rust free b210 would be super valuble due to all of those aspects combined. but yet nobody will even touch it when it's 60% off. point being you can crush all the b210s you want, and nobody will ever come swarming after me or anything.

[datzenmike]

Does a Datsun in a crusher make a sound if there is no one around to hear it?

 

 

Until our local yard closed I used to wait until a vehicle was stacked on the crush pile. At this point it was considered just metal and nothing of value on it left. Some were complete. I would ask the owner if I could help myself and he would say go ahead. Got lots of free cool stuff this way. Often I had parts stripped off and hidden away. ;) Carried a 620 door out once with electric fuel pump, starter and shit inside, fuck it was heavy.

[Raggleflaggle]

Does a Datsun in a crusher make a sound if there is no one around to hear it?

 

 

Until our local yard closed I used to wait until a vehicle was stacked on the crush pile.

i am envious of your mettle. i would lack such constitution.

[hobbes_the_cat]

The insurance auctions can be a good way to score a Datsun but they really cater to businesses so they make it hard for the general public to get a deal. There are often membership fees, auction fees, storage fees and usually all business takes place in the middle of the day while most of us work. If you try it make sure you know about ALL of the different fees.

I prefer the local towing auctions as they are more small time and you usually only have to bid against a few local wrecking yards and scrappers.

[Raggleflaggle]

I prefer the local towing auctions as they are more small time and you usually only have to bid against a few local wrecking yards and scrappers.

theese are the ones i'm talking about. surely some veteran ratsuner has netted some sort of goldmine from them. plus, how are there no businesses who recognize us as a profitable market?

 

 

i couldn't even say that out loud with a straight face. they know how cheap we are.

[OkieRA29]

I have bought a few toyotas from impound auctions, but none of the insurance pool auctions(copart etc)  The impound stuff, is easier.  When I was frequenting them, most of the salvage yard guys got to know me and if I was bidding on something, would step out of the way.  Also, got to know a few of the wrecker guys pretty well.  Had one that would call me when he got something good in.  Called me one time when they made a haul out of a guy's backyard.  30+ vintage japanese stuff.  We are talking mostly late 70s/ early 80s stuff.  200sx, 510 wagons, sedans and hatches, a couple of celica gt and a supra or two.  He wasn't even going to auction them, just scrap them.  Told me to come down and pull everything I wanted for scrap price(.40$ per lb)  Unfortunately, he went on vacation and did not tell his yard guys about this.  I show up to start pulling... everything is in a giant pile!!!  I did not get a thing.  I know for a fact that I missed out on 2 doglegs and a supra rear end.  He has been cool and helped me and a friend out with other parts really cheap so it is not all bad. 

 

Insurance pools are a different animal.  The ones around here want 150$ buyer fee to start, plus a 1000$ 'retainer' not to mention commission fees and such.  So, if you are buying a lot of cars from them, it evens out, but for one car it is not worth it.

[datsunaholic]

I've bought from towyard auctions.  Bidding against the junkyards.  Insurance auctions around here generally aren't open to the public, or you need a large deposit.

 

It's been around 6-7 years since I hit the impound auction, but I found that while the junkyard guys can and do get cars really cheap (because they're in collusion with each other, watch them one-bid in round robin fashion on "unwanted" cars like mid-80s American junk)  no one else does because the junkyard guys will bid up to scrap value (which is a couple hundred normally).  It's still rather cheaper than a private sale, and you're pretty much guaranteed to be able to get a hassle-free title if you want to fix it (at least here in WA), but you have to either get to know the junkyard guys, or get auction saavy, or you'll end up paying full street value on something that likely doesn't run, is full of drug paraphanelia, smells like something died in it, and has quite a few of those lovely "prior owner fixes".  Both the 620s I bought had elements of that, but I had both running the day I picked them up.  One the smell was due to the cache of empty beer cans under the seats and the remains of hundreds of corn dogs.  The other, well, I could have filled a small "sharps" container with all the needles the truck was full of.

 

Overall, though, it can be a hassle for the average person.  You have to put down a small (100-200) deposit in cash, most times.  You're bidding against folks that do this for a living and have established relationships with the towyard "auctioneer".  You have to be flexible on pick-up, either you have to take the vehicle right then and there (and not allowed to work on them), sometimes with no keys, or the car might be in the back of the lot and you'll have to wait until the yard is cleared to get to yours, which might be the next day at 10AM.

[Raggleflaggle]

i was under the impression you could only get salvage titles this way, not road legal ones for registering the vehicle?

ethier way at least somebody is saving them!

[OkieRA29]

Here in Oklahoma, the tow yards are required to have filed the paperwork for a title 42 before they can sell the vehicle.  That means, you can walk out of the yard into any Tag office and have a tag in your hand that day.  They also have keys made for most of the vehicles that require it.  Around here, if there are any datsuns (except for Z cars) they will pretty much go for scrap (200$ most) price.  The American stuff usually will get bid up if not wrecked.  I would make you sad with some of the cars I have passed on due to outside factors that have gone for stupid money.  One example, 70 Corolla coupe... 40$ had no space for that one.  A buddy did pick up a 79 510 Wagon with dogleg, running and driving for 600$   So they are out there and available if you know how to look.  Around here, they hardly every show up at impound auctions.  I can get you plenty of Explorers and pickups though...

[datsunaholic]

In Washington, if you buy from a towyard auction, you get an AVR (Abandoned Vehicle Report).  Towyard auctions are "Abandoned Vehicle Auctions" because the car was impounded and not retrieved by the owner- either because they didn't care, or because they couldn't afford the impound fees.  The AVR, you could take into any licensing agency and get new registration and a title.  Hell, when I got my '74, it still had 8 months left on the registration, so I didn't even have to pay for that, just transfer and title.  I even drove the thing away from the auction yard (after towing it out so I could jump-start it).

 

Insurance auctions are another deal.  If the cars were truly "Totalled" by the insurance companies, they will have had the titles turned in to the State as "destroyed".  You buy one of those, you get a bill of sale.  However, you CAN repair the car and have it inspected, and a title issued.  I've done that, though it was a private sale of a totalled car.

 

Other States may have different rules, but most are similar.  The only exceptions I've seen are some "Non Repairable/Not for Highway Use" titles.  Typically those are crash-test vehicles that you don't want to repair anyway, though I've seen a few that probably could have been fixed.  But better off as an engine swap donor.  They go for pretty big bucks for a wrecked car, though, if the engine is intact.   Some States have Non-Repairable titles that prohibit ever retitling in that State.  But that is usually fairly rare.

[bananahamuck]

i was under the impression you could only get salvage titles this way, not road legal ones for registering the vehicle?

 

ethier way at least somebody is saving them!

 

 

In washington the tow auction only shows up as change of ownership no rebuilder or totalled tag even if it is.. It has to be inspected by insurance company to be totalled and that usually means someone would have claimed vehicle and payed fees.

 

Wanna by a turbo supra two owner no wrecks ,,, i'll even give you the Carfax record to prove it,,, oh the back vin half numbers were accidently,,,, uhmmm,,, lost when i washed it this one time  :rofl: :sneaky:.

[Raggleflaggle]

then it would stand to reason that there's at least a couple people with yards full of >$200 datsuns bought from scrap auctions....

[OkieRA29]

Yeah, the shop I kept my stuff at was that way for a bit...

[elmerfudpucker]

hehe, Does using the scrapper count? I get them right before they get crushed.

[Raggleflaggle]

i've done that, and it's a bitch replacing all the little bits people wanted off the car...

[johnnyjames]

I brought my BMW from copart auto auction and its perfectly fine till date. Yes it does take some time in inspection, paper work of the salvage cars and I feel its really important to know the history of the salvaged car before purchasing it.My experience of having a salvage car is good.

 

johnny has been identified as a spammer and banned.