Would anyone know which is the best cars to buy and sell,looking for a hobby and spare cash on the sideline too?
Say cars between £1000-£5000.
cheers.
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Edited by Pugugly {P} on 26/10/2007 at 18:24
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First poor choice of subject header and it will get edited. Soon. This subject asked loads over time and therefore try a Forum Search.
Dead right
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 26/10/2007 at 18:24
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Yeah! Those you can make a profit on.
If we knew this, and it was that easy,we'd all be doing it, not just Bell Boy ;>)
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 26/10/2007 at 18:25
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Try the following thread for more discussion, and especially the useful link on Xileno's post.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=54644
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 26/10/2007 at 18:25
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settle down bathtub,nice name!!! not.
No need to be nasty only trying to help you
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 26/10/2007 at 18:25
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Generally, if you have to ask which cars to buy then you'll not make any money.
--
I read often, only post occasionally
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 26/10/2007 at 18:26
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I agree with the "if you have to ask" bit... If the original poster does not know that much on cars he could get his fingers burned. Sell to many in a year and there will be income tax implications as well - it's not a blank cheque book. If we all knew what sold and made money and then didn't pay tax on it then we'd all be doing it.
And make sure you can sell from home too without problems. Thinking of restrictions and also what the neighbours will think.
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It could easily turn out a bit of a nightmare. This isn't for everyone. Ask bell boy.
You have to be a combination of salesman, hustler, mechanic and scrap dealer. Oh yes, and you have to be honest too on some quite visible, checkable level or everything will start to go pearshaped with furious punters and so on, and the authorities hot on their heels.
Think carefully, and ease yourself ambivalently into it with a nice bargain you quite like yourself and don't really want to sell.
Edited by Lud on 26/10/2007 at 18:57
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If all you want is to make money, then buying and selling a few £3k cars won't be very profitable. I've bought and sold about 10 or 12 "items" in the last year. Lost £25 on one, made an average of £400 each for a max outlay each time of £1100.
In one instance the item was on my drive for less than 24 hours before a buyer gave me the asking price and a £500 profit. Another I bought for less than £600 and sold for £1050 within five days.
And what are these? Classic caravans, which I buy in Holland, Belgium and France.
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Making a profit merely by buying and selling on is fiendishly difficult in practically any business these days. The industry I work in (IT) is full of companies desperate to 'add value', because there's no margin in just selling Stuff. It's difficult to see how someone without specific expertise - 'adding value' by restoring a tatty rarity, for example - is going to make money selling cars.
But, to look on this more positively, if the OP can find a way of turning something people don't want or can't use into something they're prepared to pay extra for, he might at least be able to cover his costs and have some fun in the process.
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I've seen a few local traders start out with a couple of cheap cars on the kerbside to operating multi-million pound turnovers and very lucrative businesses by all accounts.
What they had in common was an honest, friendly and realistic approach to trading cars and 'serving' people. People want cars - the right car at the right price sold with the right attitude.
One chap who's particularly successful has a real gift with punters - call it the blarney or what you will, everyone warms to him. He chooses clean, immaculately presented cars and gives full trade in prices for his retail-priced stock. He's invested his profits into employing a secretary, valeter, two mechanics and a state of the art service area. He wants your business!
The other chap sells cheap motors, not perfect, but will always sort things out if there's a major problem. He employs young lads on minimum wage to tart up and fettle the cars and his prices are always attractive.
It can be done but these two traders have had lots of pressure from the bank manager and some seriously disgruntled customers from time to time. They clearly please most of the public most of the time.
Good luck!
Edited by Rumfitt on 26/10/2007 at 20:13
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Maybe the naysayers are really traders keen to limit the potential competition :-)
Go for it - you have nothing to lose but your money.....
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The road to the mad house.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Is this not the sort of activity that every used car buying guide warns you against?
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I used to trade a bit in my younger days, around 1975 -1980. I'd often run two cars: one to use for transport and the other to spend a bit of time on tidying it up a bit. When sold, I'd buy another tatty one and sell the one I was using etc. etc.
Usually, I got them a MoT, used plenty of T-Cut (pre-metallic days) and just made them look an attractive proposition compared with the heap I'd bought a week or two back.
It was quite hard work making sure I'd get the local paper the minute it came out and then often sneak off work to be the first to view. I didn't make a huge sum, but it was enough to put down as a deposit on a flat.
If you want to do it, I'd say go for it.
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This is just chat ? I have no experience of selling cars but?
There might be some mileage in a kind of geographical arbitrage, depending where you are based
Very general comment but, I think it?s broadly true - in London and parts of the South East 2nd hand cars are more expensive than the rest of the country
You could potentially self fund a hobby buying in the cheaper areas and selling in the more expensive. You won?t make a living from it but you might cover your expenses
I had a friend that did a vaguely similar thing shipping big >10 year old BMWs, Mercs, Jags etc to Austrialia/NZ. In UK these were cheap to buy, but the market down there was much stronger. Covered his shipping costs plus a couple of hundred on each one. Still not a retirement fund?..
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If you want to do cheap cars, either learn how to fix them ( unless you already know ) or find a gud local mechanic who can assist you with picking cars and fixing any problems.
I do the odd one when the opportunity arises - the trick I find is to find a car that is cheap to buy and fix up, then even if it had issues, the recon cost is still manageable.
I sold an 86 Cavalier last year. Bought it for £125 off a local garage, nearly a years MOT, taxed it and sold it for £360. Small profit but at those prices you will always find a buyer, thus you can get the turnover quickly. Its a nice supplement.
Always buy as cheap as you can. Id advise starting at the very bottom with low mileage 'elderly owner' cars for a few hundred quid with 40% mark up. These will most likely be well looked after but still cheap enough.
If your lucky, you will get a bargin and be able to double your money, it does happen.
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"What they had in common was an honest, friendly and realistic approach to trading cars and 'serving' people."
As well as the cars these individuals also sold the all important "service". We all are looking for value add these days and always have been.
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"You could potentially self fund a hobby buying in the cheaper areas and selling in the more expensive. You won?t make a living from it but you might cover your expenses"
IMHO this is very relevant. When searching for a Nissan Micra recently I found prices in the northern part of the country up to £400 less (in the £2000 - £3000 range) than down here in the SE. So much so, that I told the person I was helping to buy that she could have saved
about that sum if she was able to search in and then collect from the north.
That's a lot of hassle with driving, fuel and accommodation costs - but if aunty bess or your girlfriend/mum lives in say Carlisle/Bradford and you live in the SE it could work and make a few hundred each month.
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>>When searching for a Nissan Micra recently I found prices in the northern part of the country up to £400 less
Perhaps the prices rise radially from Sunderland?
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>>recently I found prices>> in the northern part of the country up to £400 less (in the £2000 - >> £3000 range) than down here in the SE.
I used to know of 3 brothers who purchased cars in Glasgow and sent them to the Auctions at Blackbushe near london. Once they Purchased 10 Audi A4's as a job lot for £3500 they all went through the ring at above £4250 so not bad for a days work even with the car transporter bill (£750) they made the best part of 10K that week.
Regularly they used 3 loads a week south in fact word had it that BCA done them some kind of deal to start using other sites !
Then one day the tax man cometh (now that be a lesson to you)
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i buy boats and outboards in the north and bring them home for a clean and sell them off on the southcoast and make about 10k in the summer and also buy in the winter when prices are low and start selling them at easter when the boaters are back out.
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Look around a few cars that have spent their lives in the North East and you'll see why they are cheaper.
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Look around a few cars that have spent their lives in the North East and you'll see why they are cheaper.
LISTEN TO THIS MAN.
MD
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thank you mate!what kind of boats are you dealing with,i live in northern ireland.
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i buy the unloved speedboats and clean up the engines and sell them seperatly. if the trailer is good then that goes next and most of the hulls on the older boats get scrapped or sold very cheaply.
peoples projects get stripped down for saleable parts and the hulls get sold without remotes etc as another project. can normally double my money but have to be careful as dont want to upset the neighbours so can only have 2boats at a time but can store stuff ive bought in the winter in a friends barn until weather is better and sell at a profit without having to do much.
will never make me rich but helps with holiday money and a new car every 2-3 years
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>>looking for a hobby
Like all hobbies, it will cost you money. More fun to take up golf.
And don't forget the taxman, who has little men searching for people like you, getting tax out of them.
Try buying £50 non-runners and breaking them and selling the bits on eBay - more likely to make you money. Alternator £50; ECU £50; CAT £50 - you've made 200% profit already.
It might have been possible in the early 1980s, but consumer protection law has overtaken the selling cars 'hobby'.
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I would concurr with mapmaker.
I made a small loss on a car a few years ago. It seemed to be a reasonably well presented Xantia with a blown engine that I was given but had to fork out £70 to get it transported to my house.
I thought, from looking in Autotrader etc, that I could get around £900 for it. It was only around 6 years old at the time. Hence £300 for a new engine and some £100 to fix it seemed reasonable. Plus I needed to sort a minor ding in the nearside front out. Cost a mere £100.
However I also chose to put a new MOT on it, then I found the fault was not in the old engine that had blown, but somewhere else, that part cost some £40 plus vat.
Then came the crunch. Several ads in Autotrader failed to shift it. Cars that were advertised in autotader that I was comparing it with weren't selling. It was really worth around half what I thought it was worth. The most obvious problem was that it was a petrol Xantia Saloon. The fact that no trader would touch it was the biggest wakeup call.
In the end we put it on ebay and lost around £100 - cheap for a valuable lesson I suppose. Someone did get a good car out of it but as one forum member pointed out to me the price of these hulks had just gone through the floor.
If I had my time again, I would have broken it for spares. £70 initial investment, which could have probably been made on the gearbox alone. Plus it had 5 good tyres on rims. All the body parts and many of the mechanical bits would have fitted the diesel. What I couldn't sell would have probably been scrapped and generated more income.
You live and learn. I vowed I would never try and make a quick buck by buying and selling cars again. Other stuff is a different matter......
I would say to the OP if he really wants to give it a go, try one. If this doesn't work it will get it out of his system, but he should be careful not to turn a quick flutter into an expensive drawn out nightmare.
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