When your car reaches the end of its drivable life, you’re faced with a few options. Other than just leaving it to rust in the yard or garage, you could sell the car for parts privately or sell it to a wrecker.
One is much more convenient, while the other could mean more financial gain, if you’re willing to put in the effort.
So, which option is right for you?
Quick, easy hand-off of auto parts
WINNER: Wreckers
Looking for the easiest hand-off of your life? A wrecker is your best choice here.
When it comes to ease of sale, you can’t beat the auto wreckers. In most cases, call the wreckers and they’ll pick up your car, provide payment, and the vehicle will be off your plate.
When it comes to selling auto parts privately, you’ll first need to have enough knowledge of your car to take it apart and resell at an appropriate price. If you’re looking to make a side gig out of selling auto parts, then this is almost certainly the better option.
But if you’ve got a beaten up old car you’re looking to shift, private sale will be a lot more effort that you can likely be bothered with and require extensive knowledge.
Financial gain
WINNER: Private
Selling to a wrecker is convenient, but auto wreckers will give you a flat price for your car, and that price won’t be monumentous.
If you sell privately, you’re able to seek different prices per part, depending on value, and perhaps sell parts that are more in demand for much higher than you would get otherwise.
If you really want to make as much money as possible from selling car parts online, then private is probably the best choice here. However, it does come with its own monetary issues.
Less financial and personal risk
WINNER: Wreckers
Often, it won’t matter what state your car is in when selling to the wreckers (as long as you can mostly tell that it was once a car). But this will matter if you’re trying to sell privately. If you want to sell your car, rather than as parts, you can forget about the private route entirely here.
The condition does usually affect what a wrecker will offer you, but they will often buy the vehicle regardless.
As a seller of car parts online, you need to make sure that the parts are trustworthy, reliable, and still in good condition. This adds a lot of extra legwork to the equation, and also means that you’ll need to know a decent amount about cars.
Don’t forget, too, that when you sell parts privately, you face your own personal financial risk.
Not only will you need to pay (often exorbitant) prices to ship the car parts, you will also be at the mercy of the online marketplace, which can often be full of scammers and low-ballers.
Searching for used car parts online?
If you need used, reliable car parts, drop into Advanced Auto Wreckers. If you get the part installed by us, we’ll even add a 3-month warranty on. Get in touch with us here or give us a call on (08) 9459 8155.