The
best (easiest) place to buy a wreaked car
or a salvage car is at the Insurance Auto
Auction (http://home.iaai.com). They do not
require you to have a dealer's license to
buy cars. You can be any Joe off the street
with some $$$ and get a pretty good deal on
a wreak (or a driver).
They
have two sections there, a drive through and
non drivers. Usually they have 10%-20% of
the cars listed that are in the drive through
section.
If
you are a newbee to this industry I would
suggest to buy drivers. Those cars usualy
have cosmetic damage but the engine runs and
drives.
Getting
a Buyer Number
To
get started buying cars from Insurance Auto
Auctions you will need to locate an office
close to you. You can do that by going to
their website at home.iaai.com. They will
give you an application to fill out. The buyer
license cast is $200 for a year's membership.
Once you fill out the application and pay
the membership fee they will issue you a Buyer
number and an ID card. Now you can buy all
you want.
They
have a bid online option too but I don't ever
use it because chanses are the live auction
bidders will outbid you. If you're looking
for a great deal you can probably bid online
with a cheap price and maybe, just maybe you'll
win. Otherwise you can bid online if you really
want a car. Then you bid a high price (or
top dollar you're willing to pay for it),
then also you might win. I personally preffer
the live auction, it is more fun and you can
actually inspect the car before buying it.
Bidding
When
you find a car you want and inspect it, listen
to what people around it are talking about,
assume everybody knows more about the car
then you because maybe they do.
When
the bidding starts wait until the price settles
down. The auctioneer may start the bidding
at $5000 and see if he gets any bites and
then will go lower until someone will bid.
I usually wait until the bidding is almost
over, when you feel that it's almost sold
then if the price is still in your range you
bid. Don't wait too long because you may miss
an opportunity. Once he sais Sold, you're
done.
Make
sure you DO NOT scratch your head while the
bidding is going on, because you may bid on
a car without knowing about it and then you
can't refuse to buy. If you refuse they will
apply a penalty of about $250 or something
and they only let you back out once if you
do it again the will cancel your membership
for a year.
Claiming
When
you "win" a car you will need to
display your Bidder Number to the auctioneer.
Then you're done.
You'll
need to get a total from the cashier in the
office and then go and get a money order or
a cashier's check for that ammount.
They
will charge you a Yard fee and Gate fee and
other fees. Plan to add on about 10% to the
bid price for fees plus tax.
Getting
it Home or to the Shop
After
the auction is over they will start bringing
the cars out. You'll need either a car dolly
to pull the car or you can hire a tow truck
to tow it for you. Or you can drive it home.
I
usually drive them home if they are drivers.
If you decide to drive you will need to plan
up front. You'll need a 3 day trip permit
(or whatever is available) for each state
you plan to drive through. Then just drive.
If you get pulled over show the reciept and
the trip permit. If an officer is having a
bad day they may give you a ticket for no
insurance but I never got one so your choice
on that.
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