Anyone doing Copart?

I've been looking at Copart and seeing all the flood cars here in NJ. Some really cool stuff. I looked at a '32 ford coupe, advertised as a custom looked to have a real ford vin. saw it today is plastic with aftermarket frame etc....disappointing especially as it was appraised at 111k (?!?)
Vin is 18A15139, does that seem real? I thought all new stuff had 17 digit vins? Even kit cars?

Anyone here looking at these or bidding/buying? You need to be a dealer or some such, general public cannot bid but I have that covered w some friends who are dealers.

Anyone have experience here?

Cheers!
Laz

 

Thats not a VIN...its a serial number. So its registered as an old car not a new car. Copart sucks....I use to have an account and was never able to get anything at a decent price. Then I found out its all rigged. There are mysterious registered users that always bid everything up....and if they are the winning bid...its on there again the next auction.

 

remember, the stuff from NJ area was in salt water -rust and beyond.

 

Yea I went through the same thing. I turned in my wholesalers license,it was more work than it was worth.There are better deals on the outside if you look,that's not to say you can't score once in a while but with all the fees it just didn't make sense.

 

i had a copart account. all rigged. you try to bid or buy, then they start wanting more fees. leavem alone.

 

I sold an older car through their auction system. I has no trouble what so ever and I was treated well too.
Normbc9

 

Never even heard of it, don't think I will bother

 

I bought a few back about 4 or 5 years ago, had good luck, guess they have changed.....Jim

 

STAY AWAY!!! DO NOT DO ANY BUSINESS WITH COPART!!!!

They RIP YOU OFF with their fees. I know a guy who worked there. You have to buy online, they charge you $ 30 internet fee. IF YOU CAN NOT BID ANY OTHER WAY WHY DO YOU CHARGE ME TO BID ONLINE???

Another guy bought a car for $ 2650 and it cost him $ 1800 more to get it out of there... It was more then it was worth.

TAKE MY ADVICE

STAY AWAY FROM COPART!!!

 

I used to deal with them too,very snarky bunch to deal with,their way or the highway seems to be their attitude.Fees are outrageous,nail you for every little thing too,storage was 20 a day after 5 days,it will soon add up if you cant get it out of there fast.Also a lot of unscrupulous sellers on there too,a lot of doctored up cars made to look like a light hit,but all the real damage is covered with some new pieces.I haven't dealt with them in 5 years and I don't miss it a bit. Harvey

 

There is a COPART lot near me. I think it is exclusively an insurance salvage pool. Everything in there is wrecked. Occassionally I see something interesting over the fnece, but they never seem interested in letting you know what they've got or letting new buyers come bid.

 

Does copart actually sell any parts...or just complete cars for rebuilders?

 

Just complete cars. They're basically a clearinghouse for insurance companies that have totaled out cars.

 

I will agree that some of their fees are way too high, but for a person looking to get late model builders it can be a decent place to buy. I have personally purchased two wrecks from them and had good luck. A buddy of mine does a good business building wrecks and buys almost exclusively from Copart. It sounds to me like the people at each lot must run things quite a bit differently from each other. If you go to the lot in Des Moines, IA all you have to do is give them your Copart member number and you can poke around the lot unsupervised for as long as you want. They don't really seem to care what you do as far as inspecting the cars while you are there, even starting them if they do run. It is not my number one place to look for deals, but a person can do OK with some diligence.

 

I purchase an O/T BMW through a COPART auction. Said to be "Road Ready" or some such term, with no Carfax history of damage or repairs. Turned out it was being resold by a body shop after they repaired a major (but non-totaled) front end collision. Got a decent driver in the end, but paid (with fees) what I could have gotten a good non-repaired car locally for. No deals there.

Steve

 

I sold two older cars through their auction and also purchased one. The total experience was a good one. Well managed and very well conducted online and it impressed me. I used their Vallejo, CA. location.
Normbc9

 

Copart is not a bad place to buy cars, just do your homework before bidding. A lot of dealers place vehicles in auctions. The shady ones do a lot of work to the vehicles just to make them look good for the internet photos. We use www.salvageresearch.com to protect us from these practices. Go to their site and see some of the vehicles they have "outed" from these dealers.

 

Interesting,,guy joins the hamb just to bitch,,hasn't ever logged back in. HRP

 

Bought a car from them. Bought it cheap. Had no issues. I'd do it again.

Now my buddy who buys from them had bought vehicles that had been doctored up to look less wrecked. Different wrecked fenders and grills on pickups to hide damage. Suspension parts welded up to get it on all 4's etc.

 

there is another site/business called World Salvage, i have checked their site a few times, they did get a bunch of hurricane Sandy cars too. seem to have cars all over the US. never had any dealings with them.

 

I have bought a few cars from copart, not a bad overall the fees are alittle high but for what I have gotten out of there it didnt kill the deal for me.

 

one of the yards I visit seems to get some good older ones in....kinda a hit and miss as I've taken a look a time or two for local stuff.....

 

Easy way to tell if it's been on a frame straightening rack is to look under the rocker panels, where the pinch weld lip is,look for clamp marks. Most shops don't worry about cleaning up the clamp marks.

Bill