What twenty years of recycling data actually says
Notes from decades of pricing, buying and brokering recycled parts — what the patterns look like across the industry, and where they disagree with the received wisdom. Figures are described in general terms; no yard, and no yard’s numbers, appear here.
Pricing your inventory
What parts really sell for, and what moves the numberYour counter gives back 18 percent. A 5 percent price increase never survives it.
The gap between the ticket and the invoice is steady enough to swallow every small price correction a yard makes — and wide enough to explain why repricing feels like it does nothing.
Drawn from repriced parts that soldBuying vehicles
What a car is worth before you bid on itThe cheapest car on the lot is not the best buy. The $800 one is.
Profit per dollar spent peaks in a narrow band, and payback time varies fourfold between models that cost the same money.
Drawn from dismantled vehicle outcomesDemand and brokering
What the market is asking for that nobody hasThe parts that get looked for and not found
A great many part searches come back empty. The shortage sits at the top and the bottom of the price sheet, not in the middle.
Drawn from brokered search trafficDismantling and inventory
Getting parts from the car to the shelfA part that is not listed does not exist
The payback clock starts the day you buy the car. Everything between teardown and the first listing is time the vehicle owes you and is not paying.
Where the payback clock actually starts