I've got a buddy that does this with early Broncos. He buys them locally, cleans them up and takes them to California. Sometimes he doubles his money.



BHT

 

How do you get it to Michigan/wherever for less than your profit margin? Gas, insurance, advertising. what if you can't sell it?

Good idea... needs some work (GOD! I SOUND LIKE MY BOSS!)/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif

If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything...

 

Im selling my relatively rust free cj
If I was rich..there is this guy I was talking to on jeepin.com message board.He said his neighbor was selling his defender 90.I was like how much..he said like under 10,000 or something for a late model one.I haven't seen an old one for that much on autotrader.com..they all start at 20,000!He said it only cost him 1,000 to get his zj sent over there from texas.
If I only had a lot of money

1976 CJ5
SWB BBS Member Page!(exclamation)
http://www.shortwheelbase.com

 

If you can find a way to transport them cheaply enough you can make some money,but why limit your self to just CJs most older cars from the south west are rust free and if you know the right ones to buy the kind hot rodders and people interested in restoration would be interested in you could make a good profit at doing this.

 

my boss does this with older chevies for demo derbies!he knows a guy that travels out west and he gets him to bring back good solid GM wagons and then smashes them to smithereens.it takes all types.he he he

'78 cj-5 black JEEP squadron

 

sounds like a good idea if you have the time. Remeber though if buy a CJ for $4000, put $600-$700 in to fix it and then sell it for $6000 youve made about $1200-$1300. Sounds like a lot but not if it takes you 80-100 hours. You need to think about the drives down there and back( you will need to bring someone with you), the hotels and travel costs. If it takes you 3 days to get down south, do your deal, and come back thats 72 hours x 2 people. Food for thought...

Sold the CJ... Cant wait for the next time around!

 

thanks for the replys everyone...Pretty much the same stuff I was thinking about. I have access to a truck and trailer to transport jeeps, and I would have to pay for fuel but thats it. Also, I was thinking a quick clean up fix up, not spending a lot of time on that. So I guess the big time expenditure would be actually getting the Jeeps. I would limit myself to Jeeps because I know more about them than anything else...have to be a knowledgable buyer if you want to turn a profit at selling used vehicles. As far as advertising, autotrader.com is fairly cheap, and I have sold a lot of stuff by setting it in my front yard, doesn't get any cheaper than that...I think I'll run some numbers on a Jeep and see if it would be worth it.
Thanks
Dan

 

Also some states have a limit on the no. of vehicles you can buy and sell before you need a dealer license.

 

I figured I would get around that by putting them in my dads name if I had to...Also I forgot to mention that the whole reason i was even thinking about this was because I was trying to figure out a job for this summer after school is done. I figured what would be a better job than buying and selling Jeeps? How else can you make money on Jeeps?
Dan

 

i thought of something else. I dont know if you can front enough cash or get a big enough trailer but... Why dont you go down south with say $12000 and a huge trailer. Spend a week down there and get 3-4 jeeps. It would really save you time and cut down on costs... That way you could just spend most of your time cleaning them up instead of traveling down to find them. good luck

Sold the CJ... Cant wait for the next time around!

 

I've got a friend who did that with 4 wheelers and jet ski's. He made a bundle. That WAS his job. He saved his cash. He now owns 2 pawn shops. Free and clear. His home is paid for. He's 32 years old AND still single.

If you're gonna do it to make money, do it to make money. Get the big trailor. Account for all expenses. Don't just pull numbers out of the air. Decide what profit margin you want to make and produce a product that will return that margin.

Don't forget to pay yourself 1st as the mechanic, 2nd as the owner. That would mean an hourly wage plus expenses, then a portion of the profit (or loss).

Good luck,
Joey

I love capitalism!

 

The biggest problem I see there is the amount of competition for those same Jeeps. Here we have not only Collins Brothers doing this, but Mike Jewel with Austin Jeeps, Wagon Masters, South Side Jeeps, Jeep Masters, the list goes on.
Clean close to rust free CJ's here in the south are around but certainly not falling off of trees. Not to mention 5K is maybe a low average price.

Common sense is genius dressed in working clothes.
http://www.austinjeeper.com

 

If you had time, (lots of) space & money, you could pick up any jeeps - dissassemble them & sell the parts on e-bay or set up your own website www.thebestjeepparts.com or somethin like that - it's only $14.95 a month for web hosting through yahoo & the front page program to do a website is really simple. Sheesh - after looking at how much people want for 44 front wagoneer & scout axles cut down - If you could learn how to cut them down right - you could make decent $$ with them too.

Of course, I'd do this all myself - but selling lighting is just too exciting /wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif
-Mel

 

Why would you come to a jeep forum and ask fellow jeepers how to rip off fellow jeepers? I realize that there are few jeeps for sale where you live, but making a 1,000 dollar profit on a 5,000 dollar rig is a rip-off, period. Dealers selling brand new 15,000 dollar TJ's make a thousand per vehicle. Don't be a dick. If you want to make fast money, sell drugs.

 

Other ways to make money w/ jeeps would be just selling parts, hit the cheep you pull its and then bring them back up north and sell them for a little more, also fabercating bumpers and the like can make some serious cash, if you see that quadratec is selling a pretty std. and easy to make bumpers for 200 or so you could add some jazz to them and sell them for 300 or so. You would have to be careful not getting into truble selling full jeeps if you diddn't have a dealers liscinse. I'll send you a privet w/ a guy's e-mail that kinda does this for a living.
Barrelroll

97 TJ 30" ko's stock but not for long

 

Dude, that's pretty harsh there on Dan. $1000 profit on a $5000 sale is 20% profit - I wouldn't call that being a dick. Comparing him with a NEW car dealer is apples to oranges - You can't tell me that used car dealers don't see 20% on the cars they sell. I applaud his entrepreneurial spirit.

 

So you would pay 6,000 for a jeep knowing the guy who sold it to you only paid 5,000. No Way. If he told you what his profit margin was you would walk away. Selling a 5,000 jeep for 6,000 involves stupidity on the buyer or deception from the seller. If someone is that dumb, taking advantage of them is not cool. If they aren't then you must lie somehow to justify the price. Either way it is not a cool thing to do to someone else as none of us would want that treatment. Buying and selling cars for a profit is something a dealer does. Dealers have lots and people know they are in it to profit. Selling cars like a dealer and acting like a private seller is something else. Private sellers rarely if ever make a profit on their vehicles. Someone buying from a private seller is assuming a $6,000 jeep is actually worth $6,000 or close to it and that the seller put more into it than that. So you can see how this involves deception. If Dan wants to set up a business than kudos to him and I hope he does well. But, the idea sounded more like a way to deceive the public and that is being a dick.

 

Geez, I think one thing you are missing here is LOCATION. Basic fact of the matter is, a Jeep that sells for say $3000 down south, will generally net a higher return up north. I didn't make the rules, that's just the way it happens to be. Therefore, if Dan was able to find a couple of clean Jeeps for a reasonable price, bring them back to the rust-belt, and then sell them for a bit of a profit, more power to him. Where I live, finding a relatively clean (i.e. rust free) Jeep that is a minimum of 15 years old is damn near impossible. And when you do happen upon one, the seller wants close to new prices for it. My personal opinion is that I wouldn't give a care in the world even if I did know what somebody paid for a particular vehicle. If it still happens to be a good deal to the buyer, then what's the problem with the seller trying to make a bit of change off it! Basic principle of supply & demand. On average, the south has more Jeeps in better condition than the north. Therefore, prices for said Jeeps in the north tend to be a bit higher.

--Digger--


http://www.users.qwest.net/~ascanlon

 

neno:

Whatever ANY seller pays for his merchandise is NONE of the buyer's business. The only question that is pertinant is, "Is this product for sale at a fair market value?"

There are also better ways of getting your point across than calling someone a "dick". That was simply rude.

Joey

 

You are right. I apologize for using the term "dick" That was rude.

 

Rust free Jeeps in the South? Well I'm sure the ratio vs. Northern Jeeps is better, but it kind of sounds like you are thinking most Jeeps in the South are in great shape. I have found that there are plenty of rusty vehicles here. When I bought my last Jeep I was working a job that I drove around in a about 150 mile radius of Atlanta, so I got to look at many Jeeps. Many were less than what they were advertised as, nice rust holes scattered about from the size of a finger to a fist, in most cases. It took me about two months to find a CJ with a body that was in reasonable condition for what I wanted to do and the owner was at least up front about it and told me all he knew that was wrong with it. I'm not trying to put a damper on your idea, I just don't want you to expect all those Jeeps in the ads to be in primo conditon. On the bright side I did find a couple of very good CJs with less than 60k on them and a price to go with it, but they were way too nice for what I wanted. Other than that I don't have a problem with people making money on something in the way you are desribing. If I took the time to find and fix up something I would want to make somehing for my effort.

BMB

 

Wow, I didn't think this was going to be such a controversial topic...Thanks for everyone who was on my side and sticking up for a reasonable idea. I figured that if I can find good Jeeps and sell them for a profit, and the buyer still buys it then it is his own fault for paying too much. Buy low sell high is what its all about. Anyone who tells you they don't go for this when buying and selling vehicles is lying. My time to go get a Jeep from down south is worth something isn't it? Or should I just get them out of the goodness of my heart and try and lose money on it? I think not that would be pretty stupid. I am not trying to be "a dick" and rip people off, but the fact is there are virtually no rust free CJ's in the rustbelt. And if you do find one it is way overpriced. Like the other day for example I looked at a 77 postal Jeep that was 2wd, and basically a complete beater for $2000. I was thinking it was worth more like 200...and today I looked at a wrangler for 4800 that had over 100k and a large amount of rust. To me that is being more of a dick...trying to sell those POS Jeeps for way more than they are worth.
Later
Dan

 

Is there really a big enough market up north for Jeep and Scout parts to warrant gathering them and setting up a website? What would Scout axles or Wagoneer axles go for up there? What about "rare" parts like an '80 Scout D300, or Postal Jeep D44 (good for center-diff flat-fender swaps)

 

you should steal the jeeps and set up a chop shop and sell the stuff on ebay!!! just kidding. i plan on doing the same thing. differnt kinds of cars have differnt market value in different places in the country. and it that difference in market value is greater than the cost of transportation and the other stuff. then you make a proffit. some day i plan on doing this with many differnt kinds of old cars.

80 cj7 304, WC t-5

 

The way I see it is if you are willing to drive south and pay 5000 for a JEEP then do it. But if you don't want to drive 3 days straight to save a buck or two then you deserve to pay the guy that did make that drive 1000 or 2. I do not see where he is raping people. If you refuse to buy off people that make a 20 percent profit, what do you eat, drive, heat your home with, wear, etc. Give the guy a break, he isn't even going to see all of that money, Uncle Sam is going to tax his profit and then turn around a tax you for buying it.

I say more power to ya, If you need me to go look at any around Oklahoma, I will be glad to help you screw some poor Yankee if I can. ha ha

Swavy00

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin