Learnt me- starting my own junkyard

So our local upullit got shut down by the EPA. And just recently, our local junkyard got burned up in a wildfire that erupted on Saturday. The local guys do not appear interested in re-opening now. So, we officially have no junkyard Anywhere near us.

I have very fond memories of rummaging around the junkyard as a 16-year-old kid learning about cars. Really, really fun times. That nostalgia has reminded me that I would probably like to own a junkyard someday.
 

Since I know a lot of you guys are hoarders, and basically already have your own private junkyard, what would I need to know about opening a junkyard for the public as a side business or main business? 

Learn me legalities, internet sales, target audience for yard collection (how do I know what cars will be most sought after by people who still swing a wrench?)

Your township will have specific guidelines about it, even before you get into state and federal inspections and bureaucratic red tape. Expect to see fencing requirements, minimal acreage requirements, and to bends all the way over for the EPA for "storing hazardous chemicals".

Depending on where you live and how much of an shiny happy person the overseers of the area are, there can sometimes be a thin grey line between "collector who occasionally sells on eBay" and "junkyard". 

Good luck with this. Any business that spills automotive fluids of any sort is persona-non-grata in the USA. Trying to sell a building where such activities have been performed is difficult and expensive.

Your best bet would be to take over the acreage from the place that shut down, but then you would be assuming their liability for environmental regulations.

Definitely not a business I'd want to be in. EPA is gonna eat your lunch. 

I've watched two 20-somethings down the road from my M-I-L make a huge business out of parting motorcycles via ebay.  Requires a lot less space than car parts and most everything fits in a box.  

Their ebay store currently has 103,448 items listed.

As you can see in this Goggle map they started this by occupying a couple of airplane hangers at the family's privately owned rural airport.  From those hangers, each son (less than 30 yrs old) build a $200k-ish house on the family land (backing up to the pond.)  Most recently they built the huge, 2 store pole building at the left of the property.  Since this goggle map photo was taken they have built a second, equal sized building.  

Good luck with this. Any business that spills automotive fluids of any sort is persona-non-grata in the USA. Trying to sell a building where such activities have been performed is difficult and expensive.

Your best bet would be to take over the acreage from the place that shut down, but then you would be assuming their liability for environmental regulations.

Sounds like a specialty automotive enthusiast with his "rare collection of cars", and randomly eBay sell for a lot cheaper and with less fines/red tape. 

Crud... really wanted open an automotive nut's version of disnleyland. 
 

what if it was called a "museum", and the car parts were "souvenirs"?

Not sure how profitable a yard would be these days, as opposed to in the past, but I bet you could still squeak out a damn fine living if you wanted to.

I worked for car-part.com about a decade ago. You wouldn't believe how backwards and/or antiquated most yards are. Even to this day a great deal of them are decades behind on inventory management—which is car-part's bread and butter. Even if they are still one of they top players in what they do, they are behind in a lot of areas themselves, mostly due to stubbornness. 

It all comes down to buying the right cars at the auctions, getting them inventoried, and ready for sale—which could be as simple as the ecologically-mandated fluid disposal and setting them out in the field. Or as difficult as breaking cars down completely and organizing/part grading/inventorying everything. As I hinted before, there's software for the majority of the business side of things, but the security facet of salvage yard ownership is not to be taken lightly, nor is the hiring of the right kind of yard help.

Hmm. I guess I learned more there than I thought I did.

I know from recent problems our Upullit yards have had, "New" junkyards have to install a plastic barrier to keep any of the fluids from entering the water table; obviously a big deal for someone just trying to build their own thing.

Instead, why not a concrete building? There used to be tons of old factories and shops that were empty across America; Nebraska even had a Ford plant that they made into apartments, and I know the AMC factories in Kenosha sat empty for decades before they were finally torn down. Maybe having one of them would allow you to sidestep the typical regs on fluids since you'd have a floor.

Also depends where you are, I'd guess. For instance, the big pick-and-pull yards in Baltimore and near Northern Virginia have a HUGE market to cater to. I can go to those on any given day and see a hundred people there (mostly pulling for their own business needs vice "hobbyists" like me), so those yards are big, have lots of cars, and get lots of buyer pass-through to make money.

I can't see how a smaller pick-and-pull yard could make much money unless it's also doing a lot of internet sales on the side (in which case you're selling all the parts your pick-and-pull customers wanted in the first place). 

I'm with the guys above - lots of regulation and expense and I highly doubt there's a ton of money in it unless it's really a high-volume, high-traffic lot. Seems like the more profiable thing to do would just be to rent or buy a warehouse or somehting and buy specific types of cars for specific online sales markets and do it that way. For years there was a place around here that literally bought any cheap e30/e36 that was for sale and usually parted them and listed the stuff online unless they were really nice. He seemed to be doing ok, even with a fairly niche market. That said, screw that guy because he bought up all the cheap e30/e36s around here............

I feel like selling online would be better than in person.  You need a lot less space, but you do need to solve the inventory issue that basically nobody else has solved.

I hate playing in the junkyard.  Its like the mall to me.  I go in with one specific thing in mind, get it, and get out.  If I could have it shipped to me for a nominal fee, I would in a heartbeat.  Its usually not that simple to (see inventory problem)