Great info.
In in no hurry to get something, so ill probably put the Martinez and Vallejo yards in my normal searches. That way, its close enough to personally inspect anything that come up and I can do the math to see what my bottom line is including associated fees.
Probably just wait until the right deal comes along on CL. Hell, if you are willing to wait, there is always a smoking deal around the corner.
Martinez has WAY more selection but also has WAY more people looking (i.e. driving up the price). A decent way to get a good deal at either is wait till the Monday night sales cus no one cares to look at those. If you do think you will buy a bike there eventually, you better start looking in to what you need to open an account (unless you know someone who has one). It seemed like every day more and more licensing was needed to actually be able to bid thanks to CA's wonderful regulations and Copart's inability to decipher them. Last I knew, you needed a Business license AND dealer/wholesaler/importer/exporter license. If not, you have to go through a bidder that has the proper licensing. Otherwise, they will stamp your salvage cert with a lovely "for export only" stamp. At which point, you are effed and the manager himself will tell you to go pound sand.
That may have changed in the last few years but I would call up and talk to someone to make sure before you get too far in to the process.
Yep, look at CL real good. That is why i stopped buying from Copart/IAA. Don't know how it is now but a few years ago after all the fees and the cost to repair the bike, I could have just bought a Clean Title one on CL.
Yea the fees are no joke. There are good deals to be had but you'll probably end up spending way too much time sifting through the
almost good deals to make it worth it.
The worst part is when you think you get a good deal, only to have the seller deny your bid because they think they can get more.
That's why I stick to good old craigslist. Also, if you are ok with buying a salvage title bike, you certainly get a much better bang for your buck without having to go through the process of fixing, inspecting and retitling it.
That scene pretty much died around Y2k with ebays free listings.
I wasn't working there back then but this had a bit to do with it. A bigger part, however, was Copart opening up bidding to international buyers. All of a sudden, you were competing with guys in Nigeria who could spend more on the cars because they A) spent WAY less on fixing them and B) don't have to deal with the salvage branding so they can sell them for WAY more.
The guys that make real money at copart buy in bulk and export the cars to somewhere with cheaper labor costs and less regulations in getting it back on the road. I think like %40 of our cars went to Mexico or farther south and another %30 went oversees in containers. Competing with these guys is how you end up spending way to much for a piece of junk.
Excellent post, well written & full of good info.
BlueScholar for MOD!!!
arty
I'm too much of a petty grammar nazi. One too many bans for run-on sentences or incorrect there/their/they're usages and the masses would be chasing me out with pitchforks and torches
for your track bike