The selling car parts on eBay thread made me start thinking of what might be easy to pull high profit car parts.
Headlight and taillight came to mind.
What vehicles have high value headlight/taillight assembly's to keep an eye out for to resell?
Cadillac XLR
Saturn sky
The problem is the junkyards are all online and know the value.
When I broke my Silverado headlight the dealer said $1200 and online GM dealers were running $875.
Everyone said go to a junkyard but they knew the value and were $675 with a busted tab. Finally the Asia market had lights for $395.
In reply to Somebeach (Forum Supporter) :
Do you have a good supply of finding these lights? Does your intended JY sell the parts for "what they're worth" or just cheap generic prices?
Back in the late 1900's I was doing some "buy low, sell high" JY parts. But, I was lucky enough to have King Road Auto Parts (KRAP) in the Toledo area. With a name like KRAP it has to be good! This was before the pull-your-own craze. However, this yard (which is since out of business) was both a double-triple-stack JY as well as pull your own. Yes, I've climbed up on one car to pull parts from the car atop it - - sketchy AF!
KRAP was focused on big pieces like engine and trans. They certainly didn't care about plastic. I discovered they had 7 Mk1 MR2's onsite. I picked them clean of knobs, switched, trim, etc. I would bring the plastic to the counter (and maybe a little metal) and the counter-guy would just make up a price. His price was typically based on the metal and the plastic was free. I do remember selling a MR2 radio/ac surround piece on ebay for $100. My fear was that it was a fake bid...I actually got paid! Generally, I had about $5 into the part.
So, in the immortal words of The Graduate: "Benjamin, I just want to say one word to you... just one word... are you listening? Plastics."
Clean metal comes from the south. Clean plastics (and interior pieces) come from the north where cars rust out before the interiors wear out. Another nice thing about knobs, switches, trim, etc is that its all light and typically small making it easy to box and ship. Tail lights are plastic and as such, the northern finds will be in better shape than the sun baked southern choices. Specifically for tail lights your price competition will be cheapo, chinese reproductions found on Amazon, Ebay and RockA. If it is a popular model, someone in China is making a version. Your best target might be cars that are not "mass market" popular, However, fewer cars means fewer owners and therefore fewer shoppers. You'll need to find that nice middle ground.
Best of luck finding unbroken headlamps in a wrecking yard. That's the end of the car that gets driven into the stuff the driver didn't miss.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
Yes. And no.
The front is ABSOLUTELY hit more than the rear and as a result bumper covers are nearly impossible to find I discovered. However it is possible to find one headlight intact. For example, a car that gets hit on the passenger front side, will destroy the bumper cover, fender, hood and headlight on that side. But often leave the driver side intact.
In reply to Indy - Guy :
Yes, and no.
A good headlamp in the wrecker disappears rapidly, for the people who hit the stuff they didn't notice, gently, on only one side of the car.
I really have no plan, just would be nice to know if you have a junkyard find, or I like to buy salvage cars.
Knowing that selling one or two lights could pay for the entire cost of the car at auction would be good info to have.
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