Salvage Yards – A Treasure Field
Salvage yards usually hold old cars and old car parts, although some salvage yards have other items as well.
Every wonder what happens to old cars? Well old cars that do not run anymore and have no hope of ever running again, usually make their way to one of the many salvage yards located through out the United States. Once there they are stripped down of every part that can be sold for reuse and than they are crushed and the metal is recycled.
How Big Are Salvage Yards?
Some salvage yards can be literally acres wide and long, some are simply a lot. It greatly depends on the area that the salvage yards are located as to how big them can become they are closely regulated by several government agencies because of the potential for pollutants to harm the environment.
There are several very well known salvage yards across the United States; their main business is not recycling the cars it is selling the parts that they take off the cars.
Benefits of the Business
Salvage yards have very little overhead; usually the office is a trailer or a small building. Many of the cars that are in the salvage yards were had for free. In some cases there was a charge for taking the car to the salvage yards.
Basically the business profits off of each and every vehicle. Many vehicles that show up in salvage yards do not run anymore but their other parts are in perfect condition. Meaning each piece that does work can be removed from the vehicle and sold.
The profit is near 100% on each vehicle.
Some Items That Salvage Yards Sell
Batteries, tires, body parts, engine parts, electronic parts, radios, speakers, interior parts, exterior parts just about any part that can be taken off the vehicle will be. A lot of salvage yards require that you take the part off the vehicle yourself. This also reduces the salvage yards overhead because they do not have to pay for someone else to do it.
Some salvage yards are more organized than others and will have the parts taken off the vehicles and housed on shelves for easy location purposes. Many salvage yards today have computerized systems that keep track of exactly what they have in stock and even offer the items online. This practice is the exception and definitely not the rule. Most salvage yards look exactly as they are pictured to look, jammed with vehicles, dirty and not well kept.
Locating some salvage yards is simple enough, they can usually be found online or in the local yellow pages. There is almost always many salvage yards in each town or the surrounding areas regardless of how remote the location is.
Salvage yards have been around for a long time and they do not seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, even with the green movement as popular as it is, salvage yards are going to be around for awhile longer.
