Dealer Liquidations

[Bonnyboy]

I may have an opportunity to obtain the left over parts inventory for a automotive restoration shop that is changing direction.  I won't say too much as locals would know who it is and he is trying to keep it a secret and stay afloat for as long as possible. 

I'm thinking the shop owner would get 50% of my net sales by selling on craigslist / ebay / personal contacts.  Most sales to take place through ebay.
 
Has anyone done this before where you take on the inventory and sell it.  is 50% to rich to give back?   

I expect to get some crazies and to loose some inventory but overall think it may be profitable enough to put my daughters through at least their first term of university.  No warrantees, aiming for 10% less than wholesale and hopefully some bulk purchases.

And yes there is a vintage mercedes angle in there somewhere if it all works out.



 

[DaveB]

I'm thinking the shop owner would get 50% of my net sales by selling on craigslist / ebay / personal contacts.  Most sales to take place through ebay. 
Has anyone done this before where you take on the inventory and sell it.  is 50% to rich to give back?   

I don't understand your 50% comment but the process would be a total PITA what with the time required to collect, catalogue and list it all, nitpicking buyers, high ebay and paypal fees, and leftover stuff that you will never sell. So I think you would need to buy it at a very low price to make it worthwhile, and that might pain and offend the seller. Maybe you could get your daughters to do all the work but things don't seem to happen that way.

[DaveB]

Oh I see - you sell it for him on 50% commission right?
Still, same comments apply - have your daughters do it

Also, obviously a potentially sensitive issue, but if my car was in a shop that was about to change tack or go belly-up I'd want to know about it.

[stickandrudderman]

I bought redundant inventory in the past at 5% of stock value. There were a couple of little gems but mostly I wish I hadn't bothered as the stock takes too much space and cataloguing it was a nightmare.
I should really just chuck it all in a skip.

[scoot]

I have never done a large-scale project like that and would think you would be likely to acquire a bunch of crap and some gems.    I did a 50% split with someone who had restored his 113 and wanted to get rid of his extra parts and his replaced parts.  That worked well, but we are talking about maybe 15 items including a grill surround and a few other special parts.  My other datapoint is I went to an upholstery shop that has been retired and the owner worked on Mercedes from the 60s - 80s.  I bought a bunch of stuff (3 hardtops, several mis-matched seat skins, a box of misc including some NOS 108 door caps...).  I may have bought a bunch of boat anchors and it WAS a lot of work just to move the stuff.  At the same time, I had the opportunity to buy a huge amount of seat skins for cars I don't deal with, mostly 116 and 107.   I decided not to take it on.  Buy what you know.  Otherwise you could end up wasting a huge amount of time.  If you know what the parts are and what they are worth, go for it.  If you aren't sure, chances are that you could be taking on a mess.  If you have the time, fine.  If you have the chance to reverse the deal and say "this isn't working for me, I want out" that works too.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Hi Ian,

I think you have to make that decision based upon ...

A) Do you have the time to do it.

B) Can you fair price the inventory items the shop owner has on hand.

C) if you have the skills to handle all this *in your spare time or as a project) and the shop owner does not have the skills.

If yes to A, B, C above go for it and good luck ... putting your girls thru first year university is certainly worth the effort

Good Luck, let us know if there are any goodies for us ~grin~

[Bonnyboy]

Thanks all, after a weekend sitting by the camp fire or floating in the river I came to the conclusion that life is too short to do this.  My daughters are not interested and I don't think I'll get any support from my wife if it becomes a 4th job.  I'm thinking of someone else that may have the time, interest and ability.   I will approach him cause there are a few goodies that I would like to get at 50% of dealer cost.  It would be fun making the deal at the least. 

All items are catalogued with part numbers and dealer cost and retail so we will just hope that he keeps track of what he uses or sells off  in the next few months. 

While camping I ran into the owner of a thrift store.  He echo'd the comments from this group.

Thanks for keeping me on the straight and narrow.