How much profit on a part out?

When I was younger, I bought spare cars to get the parts I wanted, and then parted the donors to recoup costs and pay for the work I was doing.

I have less time and patience now, and make a much better wage working my actual job, so only do the parting thing for projects like the $2015 challenge, or if I just want to wrench on something for the sake of it.

I have, so far, sold most of the unneeded bits from the street car I turned into a road race car buts still have a few parts lingering.

I am thinking about picking up a parts car to get some spares for the race car and sell the rest to hopefully break even or make a little cash. Where do most people find inexpensive cars to part out?

the only time ive made money on a part out was if the scrap at the end was equal to what i paid for the car. ive never bought a car just too part out though. i find it easier to buy and fix the small issues and sell at profit then parting a car out. space is also a big concern since i have a tiny 1 car garage!

I have had a lot of parts cars and have never regretted having that parts car. How much you make, depends on what you value your time at. For me, the keys to a parts car are not usually the big parts, but the little stuff like hardware, brackets and stuff you didn't even know you need. Sure, you can see that you need a fender, but did you know you needed that little bracket to hold the fender to the bumper? Probably not, Parts cars make for great trade bait too. You don't need the engine, but someone else does and will trade you a hood and decklid for it.

When it is all over, you can part what you don't need and then scrap the car for half what you paid for the car when you started. I always recommend a parts car with every project you build.

Hmm! Interesting necro bump. I've since shared a couple part out threads and for me if you're not getting 3x to 4x your money then you're parting the wrong cars. My mr2 got me 4x my money while keeping a bunch of valuable parts I needed. I think Keith had it right that bottom feeding is the way to bottom profits. I haven't parted any $5000 cars yet but the cheapest cars I've parted ($200) netted me the least and weren't that much less work than the $2000 car that's netted me $4200 in profit so far. (Just about to hit $8000 in sales of parts from that one.) and that's with me still keeping the engine and transmission and thousands of dollars of parts on the shelf. 
 

Ive said before but I'll repeat: it's a job and takes many hours of work but I don't know of a paper route out there that would pay $4000 for 60 hours or so of work. Plus I'd much rather be schlepping car parts around than throwing papers!

It's all about niche, and not necessarily price, IMO.   

I paid less than $400 for this, and I am am well over $2500 out of it, while still keeping many larger parts for myself and helping to start a mini 'niner side business at the same time. 

At the same time, if I am able to get a drivetrain or other expensive or hard to find part I need out of something for free, I am okay with doubling my money.   I need to be able to better than double my money in the first month on anything I part out.   If not, it isn't worth it for me.   The rest can take a bit longer.

I've got a few parts left to sell, but I netted over $1,200 on the free Ford Focus that I parted out.

In reply to pitbull113 :

Depends more on the car than anything. Jaguar buyers are notoriously cheap. BMW owners spend like drunken sailors. 
  Saab owners can't get enough and  Same with Honda's. 
Every group has their justifications and reasons why.   
But  Bottom line  you have to treat it like a job/ business How much do you  want to earn per hour ?  
Time spent looking for and at candidates, buying hauling, storing ( and the square foot cost of storage )  putting ads on sites. Answering the phone, packaging and shipping time and costs,  or meeting and collecting payment. 
Some of my friends who do it professionally do OK or more than OK. Most don't.  
Some who do it as a hobby make more than minimum wage most dont. Some turn their yard into a mini junkyard. Some store things inside out of sight.  

I've had four examples of what I would deem a "parts car". Two of which were <$500 dime a dozen vehicles, while the other two were vehicles that have more of an "enthusiast" following that I initially bought as "investments" where I knew I could likely get something positive from them whether I fixed it and either kept it or sold it, or parted it out.

I'll echo a lot of sentiments already expressed in this thread. Your return will largely depend on the vehicle in question and how much patience, time and space you're willing to invest.

Before spending any time pulling parts or making ads, etc., it helps to know the market for parts on the vehicle. Especially which parts, if any, are hot ticket items that would sell quickly, and/or likely bring in over $100 on it's own at some point. It's definitely not worth the time if it's something easily found in a "You-Pull-It" junkyard.

In the case of my two "dime a dozen" parts cars (a $300 elderly owned ridiculously low mile running and driving Geo Prizm that I bought for the engine, and a $400 Dodge Dakota that was absolutely destroyed inside and out with questionable brakes and suspension, but had a good V8 and trans that I eventually swapped into my V6 Dakota), I pulled the parts that I needed, then combed them for easy to store spare parts that I didn't need at the moment, parts that were new looking and/or in better shape than what was on my car, easy to adapt optional parts that the non-parts car didn't have, as well as spare change and interesting treasure left by the PO. Obviously this doesn't make you money, but will save you some money if/when something that you stored fails on the car you kept. IIRC, the Prizm had brand new tires, and the Dakota had a brand new radiator, a cool auto dimming rear view mirror and overhead console that mine didn't, some random tools in the interior and a bed half full of fire wood. I then left as much weight on them as possible (and I think threw some other junk into the back of the Dakota) and had the scrap yard haul them off and pay me the difference between the tow cost and whatever the scrap came to. On both, I would've made around 50% of what I paid to get the cars if I had a way to haul them to the scrapyard myself.

As for the other two, while I didn't initially plan to part them out, I knew before buying them that they'd have a decent return if I did go that route. One was an ultra rare (as well as rotten and abused) 1994 Mercury Capri XR2. While that car having a market might seem like a head scratcher, it ends up being a gold mine for a couple of groups. First, whether it's a base or an XR2, Festiva guys are going to be like flies on poo for the engine/trans/ecu/engine harness/etc and some of the suspension/brake parts. The other is actual Capri owners. It's a small group that tends to be more middle aged people looking to keep their cars on the road and willing to spend OK money to get parts that have been long NLA or ridiculously expensive to replace (IE a $750 IAC or $200 dist. on RockAuto). The other draw was the 1994-only parts which some of the younger Capri crowd was after to dress up their more common 91-93 Capri's. The other car was a rod knocking and abused Supercharged Cobalt SS with the "G85" package, which meant it had the Recaro seats and LSD trans. Those two parts alone ended up covering what I paid to buy the car. The other easily sold items like the SC and related parts, cylinder head, bumper covers, 18" wheels/tires and a few aftermarket parts on the car were all a bonus.

I took kind of a different approach for each car:

-On the Capri, I was pressed for time since I needed the space for another car and only had a couple weekends to mess with it. I kept the drivetrain for myself for another project and made a listing on a Capri group on Facebook to see what people wanted. I pulled the requested parts and some other pieces I kind of figured would eventually sell. I then had the scrapyard pick up what was left. I had a few more requests come in after it was gone that would've made me some more, however. Even with that and considering I kept the drivetrain, I still made more than double what I paid for the car. Most of what I intended to sell was gone within 6 months. I think I still have a small box in my garage somewhere with some little pieces that didn't sell.

-On the Cobalt, I remembered the missed opportunities with the Capri, so first I literally stripped the shell clean (other than the front and back glass) and piled absolutely everything into my garage, then took pictures of all of it and posted it on various Cobalt related groups on FB. I ended up regretting this because I was tripping over body panels, interior plastics, the sunroof assembly and the back seat, all of which were no different from what you'd find on a non-SS Cobalt littered all over junkyards. On top of that, stuff like the head/tail lights, door handles, etc. are pretty cheap new, so they got little to no interest. I would've been better off just leaving all that crap on the car and getting a few more bucks when it was scrapped. About 6 months later, I ended scrapping a lot of the bigger leftover metal parts and pitching the large non metal parts. I also steeply discounted a lot of the little misc. parts I had left at that point. I still ended up getting back just under 4 times what I spent to buy the car. I still have a decent sized bin of parts from the car in the garage that I'll probably list at some point this summer.

IMO, it's the time spent on the actual "selling" part where you'll decide how much return is worth it. I'm lucky in that as long as I pay for my non-business use, my company allows me to use their shipping accounts to get accurate costs, set up shipments and print labels. On top of that, UPS picks up packages from our office as well. Although if it's a big part, or I have several going out in one day, I'll drop it off at the UPS store on my way home so as not to be an shiny happy person to the driver. I'm not sure I'd feel the same way if I had to wait around at the UPS Store or Post Office, etc. I also have a Dad and a brother who live nearby and seem to order everything from Amazon and always have a huge supply of boxes...

It's the buyers that will drive you nuts. I guess unless you list everything on eBay, you're guaranteed to have people who:

-Will want to meet locally and get flaky by either showing up at a different time or not at all, or decide that they'll start haggling on price since you dragged whatever it is out for them

-Will "forget" about Paypal fees even if you remind them multiple times

-Message you about the availability of parts that your ad specifically notes you don't have or sold already, or asking for prices that are listed in the ad

-Ask you to quote shipping and/or take a bunch more pictures and then either don't respond, or tell you they'll buy if/when they get paid or some other factor (and usually don't end up buying)

-Ask for a shipped price for like 40lbs of stuff and then act like you're some con artist when you inform them the shipping costs more than just a few bucks

-Ask you about small insignificant pieces (down to like a singe bolt) and hope that maybe you'll just pack them up and ship them out for what it costs to ship in exchange. (That said, this can work in your favor too... I had a guy pay me $20 for the Cobalt's subframe bolts, and some lady drove from out of state to give me the $30 for Capri's dry rotted space saver...)

-Ask if a part will work on their somewhat related vehicle

-Ask if a certain part is going to fix a problem on their car (and in one case ask if I'd be willing to let them return it if it didn't....)

Even with all that, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. I think I'd do it more like the Capri though. Pull the essentials and give people a couple weeks to let me know what they want (and will actually pay for), then scrap the rest and move on.

When I was active duty I parted out a few Mk2 VW sciroccos.  Even tho this was 20 years ago, those were hard to find cars in junkyards.  Good interior bits were worth a decent amount of money.  One of the cars had very desirable euro bits on it.  I made out well on both, this was really before the time of digital cameras and well before smart phones, so selling was more, um, interesting.

I only sold on the scirocco list, it did help I was in the Boston area, so people could drive from neighboring states in only a few hours and pick up parts I refused to ship.

I wouldn't do it now, I don't have the time or space to deal with it...

In reply to docwyte :

I parted twenty or twenty five rabbits on Vortex over the years. I would just peruse the wtb and contact people when it matched. It supported my habit for years! Don't think I've been ON vortex in seven years or so. 

Nothing to add here that hasn't already been well-said.  I've parted a couple cars when parts I needed for my hobby came wrapped in car-shaped packaging.  Monetarily, I've done well.  Time-wise, I consider it part of my car hobby and not work.  

Dealing only in cars I found interesting was a way to meet like-minded people, and less of a drag than the general public.  Hauling to the scrapyard is a damn riot -- usually recruited a couple buddies to help load stuff up with the understanding that we were going to Hooters to blow the proceeds on the way home. 

If I were going to pick another car to scrap, I would consider Porsche 996/986.  They're undervalued and people are going to want parts for them in the near future.  Parts are expensive, too.  

I found that parting a specific car make or brand is always more profit. You can disassemble them faster and you know the market. You are also an educated buyer. You make all your money when you purchas the car. You then just have to earn it once you own the car. 
 

I parted 944s for years. I still have several bins of parts around that were my personal stash. I should dig them out of the barn and see what I still have. 
 

25 years ago I was doing car specific and it was actually pretty profitable; it was paying for my racing. Once I started get paid well at my regular job I gave it up. Like many of you I kept a stash for myself as well. 

In reply to chandler :

I was off the vortex for years too, then I bought my Golf R last summer and I'm back in the mix.  I casually look around for scirocco 16'vs and Mk2 GTi 16v's too. 

Colorado is a waste land for those old VW's tho, you just can't find them here.  Shocking given how many were sold but they all seem to be in New England/NY/CT or So Cal

FYI it's technically against paypal policy to ask buyers to cover fees with additional money.  If you want paypal, accept that as a cost of doing business and don't be a stingy D over $3 for that hundred dollar part.  
 

other than that, I don't have much to add except sometimes that $300 car isn't the way to make money.  It's usually $300 for a reason. It's better to find a desperate seller than a car that's cheap because everything is trashed.  I'm pretty sure the best i ever did was on a rusty 80 z28 that looked like it had nothing good but then i got back around $1800 from my $425, because the engine locked up and the kid needed $ to go back to college

In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :

Is that why $500 Infinitis are worth $500.

Zinga!  Kickem while he's down. 

In reply to John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) :

mine cost me $100 plus a couple hours labor.  That's about what it's worth.  There's a mouse living in it now.

If you don't value your time, then you scan the pick-n-pull to pull valuable parts and put on ebay, because an alternator or tail light is the same if from a Porsche or Taurus.

Don't need to keep hulks around taking up space.   

Only parted 1 car, a 200$ 91 MR2 (non turbo) with no transmission.

Paid 20 to have it delivered to my friends house.

I had received the information on the car over a year before, but thought nothing of it. But, then, me and my buddy got laid off the same day (as well as half the staff) and were like, "man, we need some quick cash... Ive got an idea!"

We looked at it, took three pictures (front 1/4, rear 1/4, one interior/dash shot) and posted on mr2oc

The next day it was delivered. Before it was delivered we had about 300 in the paypal account.

All told, about 2k or so in parts then sold it for scrap, which was very little.

As stated, at first it was great, we were busy pulling parts and boxing stuff up and the money was coming in. After three weeks it was drying up and became a hassle to get out there and remove X Y or Z for a few bucks