Anyone Flip Cars from Auctions?

**InsomnicBrain** · 04-20-2008 01:26 PM

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with buying cars at there local car auctions and fixing them and selling them for more.

Thanks,

Robert

**rogercbryan** · 04-20-2008 05:41 PM

Yes... I've been doing this for eight years... I sold a little over 6000 cars last year... what types of questions do you have?

**InsomnicBrain** · 04-20-2008 06:33 PM

Thanks for your response. Could you tell me how what you do to prepare for the auctions and how you do it? How do you know what cars will make you profit, where you sell them, do you fix the cars yourself, etc. I'm opening a automotive shop and I know business will be slow for the first few months when I first open up.

I was thinking I could do this on the side and fix any cars that need to be fixed that I buy from the auctions. I have mechanics and thought I could keep them busy and bring in income to cover my overhead during those slow months. I would greatly appreciate any advice you could give me on how to do this.

Thanks,

Robert

**actariq2** · 04-20-2008 06:39 PM

I was interested about this too.

**HL08** · 04-20-2008 07:09 PM

I have never done this but I know someone who made a full time living from it and loved it. If your able to fix the cars yourself, it is a lucrative market.

**HiTechGadgets** · 04-20-2008 07:46 PM

Ok my brother buys and sell cars. He gets them from different auctions some of them require you to have a dealers license to get the cars. In my knowledge he has his own mechanic to fix the cars. All he has to do is to market it around places in the internet. So far he has been getting lots of people wanting to buy the cars from him especially this time when the economy is not stable or strong. Its a great business if you know what you doing. Wish you all the best!

Any more questions let me know. Also Roger is the main guy here on YE when it comes to selling cars/auctions. I am sure he would be glad to help you!

**eeloha** · 04-20-2008 10:48 PM

This seems like a good way to make money, but what if I dont know how to fix the cars nor do I know a mechanic as a friend, can I still make decent money?

**InsomnicBrain** · 04-21-2008 10:32 AM

Thanks guys! I hope we can good thread going on this, I'm really interested.

**superkid667** · 05-19-2009 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by rogercbryan

Yes... I've been doing this for eight years... I sold a little over 6000 cars last year... what types of questions do you have?

I'm 22yo and just got into this business. I'm Toronto however i acquired my dealer's license and purchased 2 used 2006 Honda Accord Coupes with all the savings i had left. They were purchased from dealer only auction ( Adesa). I listed them on ebay and they both sold well and i made roughly $5000 in profit in 2 weeks.

My Question: From your experiences, please give us a run down the best places to sell vehicles online other then ebay. My goal is buy 4-5 vehicles weekly and sell them within the same week so i can't just depend on ebay all the time.

**krisss** · 05-19-2009 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by rogercbryan

Yes... I've been doing this for eight years... I sold a little over 6000 cars last year... what types of questions do you have?

Hi Roger,

Could you explain a bit more , of how you do this?

You sold 6000 cars last year! So thats approximateley 15 cars a day!

Or did you mean 600?

Just wanted more details

**Ctash** · 05-19-2009 03:08 PM

I was considering starting something like this. The products I was going to buy were mid to late 90s Hondas. I used to live in ohio where a dependable honda would run for about $2,000, where I am at now they run for over $3,500. I figured that if I found and shipped 5 cars, for around $500.00, plus $150.00 for maintenance for each car, I would have $2,250 in each car. With that being said it would be $11,250 for all five cars, and if I sold them for $3,500 it would yield revenue of $6,250.

**chosenberg** · 03-04-2011 11:37 PM

It's not as easy as you think. You will lose money along the way as well. Craigslist used to be a good place to buy but no longer. Too much competition and scammers. If you really want to make it a career you have to get a dealer's license.

**rogercbryan** · 03-05-2011 10:21 AM

Sorry I lost track of this thread. Because I saw a few threads started on this topic I created a blog post with some basic info about buying and selling at auction How to Sell Cars. Check that out first.

Kriss - No, I meant 6000 with that being said I own a vehicle brokerage company. I rarely ever see the cars as they are sold all over the country. My staff controls the inventory from DC and we use a handful of different auctions and vendors to liquidate the vehicles when they come into inventory.

Ctash (on the Honda subject) - You have to remember that ever car is different. Once a vehicle gets past say 5-7 years old it no longer has a real 'book value' as there can be so many different variants to the condition and mileage of the vehicle. Each car has to be handled on a case-by-case basis in order for you to remain profitable.

Superkid667 - I can't stand selling on eBay. I would prefer to buy at a dealer auction and then sell at a public auction. It allows you to move volume quickly. The margins might not be as high but I work wholesale so I need to move a lot of cars. I'm not sure where you are located but you can check out selling via Auto Auction | Online Auto Auction | CAA (I'm their National Sales Director) or you can use http://www.copart (they have 120+ auctions in the US). If you are still looking to go online I actually love Craigslist both for buying and selling.

eeloha - This is the biggest problem people face. They take all their money and buy a bunch of cars then one of them has a bad engine or a bad trans and they have no money to fix it. All of sudden their broke and out of business. I tell people to never put more then 50% of your cash out at one time. You'll need the reserves to cover advertising, insurance, and repair costs. If you always have 50% of your money in the bank you'll do fine.

So here is the deal if you have more questions visit my blog post and ask them there. I'll answer 100% of them with the best info I have available. I'd really like my post to be informative to everyone so I will not answer more Qs on YE.

Lastly, if you need a car towed any where in the US I recently launched my company http://www.1866vehicle.com so visit my site or give us a call 1-888-VEHICLE (pretty snazzy number isn't it!)

R

**Capitalist_Pig** · 03-05-2011 09:45 PM

There is a charity in California that accepts cars and sells them on eBay with no reserve. You have to arrange for pickup/transport, but decent cars often go for a couple of hundreds bucks on there, and parts cars are essentially free.

I missed an auction a few weeks ago on a nice pickup with no reserve that sold for $10. I wasn't happy ;(