Here's why it makes NO Sense to Buy Salvage Auction Supercars Anymore...
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
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Rebuilding Salvage Supercars looks glamorous and a great way to make a ton of money. But the days of snagging a Cheap Dream car at auction are gone, and these cars are now selling for way more money than it makes sense.
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Email Me: SamcracAuto@gmail.com
You don't want to be the guy who restores auction supercars, you want to be the guy who sell parts to the guy who restores auction supercars.
That'd always how it works with cars expensive cars in the euro space the parts guy always makes money
The V12 engine has to be $20,000 at least. 🤑
i'm in the transaxle porsche community the parts guys are the ones making money they have all the local junky ones and just sell individual pieces for alot to all the fools like me that can't afford a nice one
True. It wasn’t the prospectors that got rich, it was the guy selling shovels.
😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
before UA-camrs started buying these things up, the prices were much more reasonable. People were paying less than a quarter of some of these cars original worth for cars in better condition than that ferrari.
It’s not the UA-camrs it’s the car market itself People don’t want to buy a new car l. it is cheaper to repair or restore a vehicle.
@rickchowsr2532 partially true, but there is no doubt that the popularity surrounding some of these super car rebuilds boosted the price.
@@rickchowsr2532 i watched car youtubers rebuild supercars since i was a junior in highschool sam and others motivated me to buy and rebuild one myself it definitely had an impact on the market normal people still arent going to buy a salvage title car we live in a always have a car payment meta
The same thing happens with pro audio and guitar gear now. A youtuber does a video on a random device review to get a certain sound and now a 20 dollar guitar pedal or a 50 amp has a ridiculous price.
The extra fees are a scam and the vehicles are overpriced .
you can’t get full coverage on a salvage vehicle
The public will pay any price for a bargain . LoL 😂
Posting what they sold for makes the video so much better. 👏
I agree and even posted the sale price in the comments for some of the vehicles he (and others) looked at in previous videos.
The reason it makes no sense to buy auction cars anymore, is because of youtubers. They spent all this time lying to people about how much it costs to do, and now all these jabronies are bidding up the price of auction cars to the point that it's more expensive to repair an auction car than just buy a clean title used car.
It’s also all the foreigners overseas who have tons of cash to spend on copart, and outbid everone
@@cheesejadeitekiwifox I'm well aware of how youtube monetization works. You missed the point.
@@cheesejadeitekiwifox
Correct 👍🏾
@@daveh2612
Also correct 👍🏾
@@MisterMechanicV
Which point?
14:54
Uncle Tony's Garage did a really good video on why rivian trucks are so obscenely expensive to repair after an accident.
Turns out that it's because of the integrated aluminum body panel construction that basically necessitates completely replacing half the vehicle even for something as simple as a minor fender bender.
Like the older Honda Ridgeline, the rear quarters are part of the roof. One good dent on the back fender and you'll to replace everything except the hood and front fenders
Not necessarily true, some of these dent repair specialists have been doing amazing things on some of the newest high dollar cars. Pulling out smashed fenders and doors and with no paint repair. Not every accident lends itself to this type of repair but we are seeing some new technology applied to things that in the past required total replacement of parts. Super cars are on another level and the risk reward can be huge
The number of times we have heard Sam says he's nearly finished a car, but yet we never get to see the results but yet a new car video.
Finishing projects is not part of his business model
I got an RV at copart and man what a mistake. It was a big trailer, but I found so many hidden problems other than the ones I knew about when I inspected it. Be careful everybody
I do many restorations, most motorcycles. This guy is a superb mechanic. Ability to fix cost effectively is related to diagnostic savvy...notice his ability to use compression testers, wand cameras and diagnostic software. Impressive. The biggest problems I've had are with old machines which sat for 17+ years. Start them without juicing engine (kicking oil through engine) and engine wear begins, then grows. It's micro scratching which simply increases over time.
As someone who builds RVs for a living, hail damage can tend to be detrimental to an RV. Roof damages lead to massive leaks and it’s a super expensive repair. We’d charge 4-6k to redo a roof on a unit that size but that also comes with a “warranty”
As someone who buys crashed bikes and rebuilds them on UA-cam, let me confirm something: you lose money when rebuilding (yes, even on bikes).
Regardless if it's a clean title or a salvage title, the resell value will be less than the bike and parts (and of course in the meantime you had to buy more tools and create a paintbooth somewhere). If you do it right you will lose thousands of dollars, if you do it cheap you will lose a few hundreds.
Rebuilding doesn't make financial sense.
The only way I see it becoming a profitable business is by parting out the bikes and sell the parts on eBay.
It's a great business to go in if you enjoy fighting rusted bolts, have an inventory of parts all over your house, take photos of this constant flow of parts to then create eBay listings and package/ship weird shaped things when they sell.
After eBay fees you may have enough to keep going.
But if you like money you might want to find another business idea, just my personal experience
I think you hit the nail on the head with parting out though. Astronomical markups for new OEM parts are the only explanation for the high value of these totalled cars.
Then you are buying the wrong bikes LOL. It's possible that buying a wrecked car can end really bad if the damage is way further down then you thought. But if you bought it for the right price you can always decide to sell it in parts. Many things just cost allot of time not really money. So its really depending where you live and what the average hourly rate is. But with every business opportunity the higher the risk the more reward you may get.
I bought my car on Copart in the beginning of 2019. I paid $1750 with fees and transport to the friends shop for it. Nowadays the same car goes for around $4k in a much rougher shape, adding the cost of repair makes no sense to buy this car anymore. And I'm talking older BMW, like 15 years old! Back then for the price I paid for it I had perfectly sorted car, visually and mechanically for the price of used car on the market that more than likely still had some things that needed to be done. I know about this business from when I was little, Copart and IAAI are the ones I knew even before I got here in the US. Nowadays it doesn't make sense financially to buy cars there anymore. If I can pay like a $1k more for a clean title car on the market, I'm not gonna bother doing all the work just so I'm gonna end up with a rebuilt title car that's automatically worth less on the market and it's very hard to sell later. But to be honest, these days fixing car from auction will make you spend more on the car that it's worth on the market.
Yup, the rule of thumb when buying salvage was paying 15-25% of retail, and having it fixed for 40-50% of retail. Now, these bidding fools are bidding 50-65% of retail, plus fee's, transportation, parts, labor, bodywork, paint = retail price on a salvage car.
Copart has a ton of fees. I bought a totaled car as a parts car, my winning bid was $850, final price was around $2,000. Not only are there a variety of fees, but at least in the one I used in the Tampa Florida area, only a licensed auto transporter can remove the car from the yard (maybe it's different if you have a dealer's license, but I am just a regular person). So you can't even take a trailer and pick it up easily. So granted the $2k included delivering it across the state, but still it was far from the $850 I started with and either way I would have had to pay a transporter to get it out of the auction yard.
Crashed cars are not worth it anymore in the post covid world. By the time they're fixed (assuming they're even fixed properly), they cost almost as much as a non crashed car with similar year/mileage and will always have a crashed title.
Not necessarily, which is why you have to have two brain cells to rub together to access what you're about to buy. If you do your research properly, and do good work, these can absolutely still be considered steals.
The buy salvage and fix on UA-cam has become so popular it's raised all the prices and ruined the fun of it, like American Pickers did to garage sales. I used to make a living buying and selling musical instruments from and on Craigslist in 2010 or so. It was easy, then everyone started doing it and it's near impossible to make a living now because the deals are so few and far between. Also, Guitar Center used to haggle, now they don't.
I really like your Copart walk-arounds especially w/Sage. Including RVs is good too.
UA-camrs killed the market
UA-camrs killed a lot of markets
Rich kids with their family money
The INTERNET killed most markets. Everyone knows the price of everything now. People giving out the “sauce” for likes. Etc.
Very true said👍
True👍
Definitely enjoy videos like this, always wondered about total costs involved when buying from copart. But i also know that in order for it to sense, one would need the ability to repair these projects basically in house.
I didn’t know those damaged Walmart electric shopping scooters made it to the aftermarket 😂
It’s always the same, I used to buy insurance write off laptops to refurbish and sell, always hard to know if you bought something viable or only good for parts. It was ok for a couple of years until people found out and would bid crazy prices thinking they were getting a 600 laptop cheap only to find they bought junk, it just became hopeless to buy stock so had to give up.
Goonzquad is a good example of spending way more than it’s worth to rebuild salvage autos.
They make money on the yt videos, not the cars themselves.
I stopped watching them. They do the same shit over and over. But I agree that they do everything for the views, the cars mean nothing.
What do you expect them to do exactly?@@JayPoo1321
Goonzsquad is a good example of marketing, personality, and the power of 14-17 year old kids. They could literally roll every car they build off a bridge (and probably should, given the quality of work), and still make a fortune.
I stopped watching them when there rebuild videos goes for more than 10 videos to finish unlike vtuned hates seeing a car not done and taking too long that is why I love vtuned and his brothers in 23rd garage they hate taking too long in fixing because they grew up in a repair shop.
The hail damage is almost certainly a situation where a dealer had this for sale used, ready to go and the roof or similar got the damage. They can get as much in insurance as selling it damaged and clear up a spot. As long as it doesn't leak, you're golden as nobody looks at the roof of your trailer - lol.
Auctions are mostly about ego. It's people putting themselves into a "win or lose" situation voluntarily. Since they want to "win", they do win - at a cost.
Those "winners" are in fact losers, because their inner insecurity and often inner low self-confidence, drives them to do dumb things for that "win".
I've been to auctions and the participants are pathetic to see them how their ego takes over and overpay for that all important "win" over the other guy.
I'm quite certain that is going on here.
Professional volume car dealers don't let their ego get in the way of rational and sensible decisions during auctions.
One issue when you buy salvaged motorcycles is that, once you get it home, you may very well find that the engine ( often the head ) has a nice big crack in it. The engines are often a stressed member so, if the bike gets whacked, that often works its way through to the engine where it bolts to the frame. Then your wallet takes a huge whack.
Insurance guy here - that Rivian might be an animal hit. Sheet metal usually crumples like that when you hit an animal ( or person? 😳)
Some newer cars like these stolen dodges can have the keys cloned while they are running. It allows someone to clone your key in traffic and steal your car as soon as you park it. Can't believe there are no lawsuits over this.
Outstanding that you showed the sold for price.
RV's like that are crazy, my parents bought a 2023 model Jayco North Point 382 for just under 130k while their home was being built. little over a year later the thing is worth like 55-65k. they didn't plan on selling it, but crazy how much these drop in price.
Wow when he said srt 4 my heart dropped. I use to love those growing up omg
Great video guys thanks. Hail damage on vans normally mean water leaks in the roof.
the first thing you gotta do is replace the roof on that jayco.
Agree. I was surprised they said it didn't smell, I expected it to be moldy.
Auction and insurance companies know that UA-camrs will pay for it, even if they go backwards on the build as the Adsense money pays more than most cars, and they need to keep buying them for frequent uploads
because salvage auctions didnt exist before YT lmao
@@dazasc3994not at that market price haha
Please do a update video on the white Aston Martin
$100K for a total loss car that is only worth $200K in good condition. You wont even be able to buy the parts to break even on that.
Definitely one of your better videos. I enjoy the fact you covered more than just cars 👍🏾
I love heading to the auction with Samcrac!
That Conquest TSi you showed in the intro was my second car. Mine was electric blue, really fast and so much fun. Loved that thing.
Blame the youtubers. Same thing that happened with the stupid "we're gonna lose the shop" TV shows. They say they buy and sell classics for insane prices, which is a lie, and every moron thinks their classic is worth a fortune.
Whoever is watching this video, I hope this day will be a great day.
I love these co part walk arounds especially when you say what it sold for
remember when a car lost half its value just driving away from the dealership, i miss those days
Really liked seeing the final selling price
VIN Theft, some folks just steal the VIN tag....for use on a stolen car.
The stolen car then becomes a stolen car with a stolen VIN.
Where is the benefit?
@@dacat8171 If you fake the paper work that goes along with it, you got a legit car. Granted the stolen VIN tag is not registered as stolen...
@@dacat8171 They buy an auction car for it's vin and put it on their stolen car.
@@dacat8171ghetto logic
@@dacat8171 The benefit is Fox News now has something to talk about for a couple hours, whether it's real or not.
The motorcycle probably had the most return on investment. Would go for at least 10x the sale price with minimal work. So that one.
The old bikes sell for pennies. Late model prices are crazy just like the Ferrari
genuinely blew my mind the zx6 only went for 225, back in 1999 my dad was shipping containers of scrap 70's and 80's Jap bikes from Texas to London and making a fortune, now that container is worth 40 or 50x what he paid for it all. USA is the best place on the planet to buy cheap motorbikes
I had a 1984 suzuki GS 1150EF.I had the shop come to my apartment building to pick my bike up from the underground parking lot.I told him the two of us could push it out before loading.The guy said its a nissan quarter ton so they can do un derground parking lots.We loaded the bike with lots of room.I heard him going out at the door,he crushed my plastic fairing.They bought the bike from me for good money.The faing cost fifteen hundred for a three thousand dollar bike.
what happened to the V12 you sent to VTune to fix the frame? He posted a video showing it was repaired and we never saw it again?... that was over a year ago or so.
He was waiting in an oil cooler. Vtuned said it’s coming
Parts. Everything for it has been near impossible to source apparently
I've been waiting on an update video on this Ferrari for months but Samcrac hasn't so much as mentioned it since the last installment.
Damaged Steering rack wasn’t it? 20k new.
Parts for it are like unicorn poo. Ferrari didn't make many of them.
This just proves that people are willing to pay any money for a perceived bargain.
What happened to the 2007 chevrolet Monte carlo ss It was getting painted that Last
No one does a segue into a sponsor like Samcrac.
that srt-4 hurts my soul. OG owner here.
and for that sale price I'd take it for parts.
reason it has no crash bar is someone installed a BFMIC (big front mount intercooler) which means you have to ditch the crash bar. probably took it off and sold it, since the bumper is in the back seat. also the bumper was cut up; missing the crosshairs, an unfrortunate "mod" some idiots do to it, destroying the value of the bumper in the process.
These are good, a higher volume of what you see and what it went for total in a neat add-on.
10000,000,0000,0,000% agree. Not worth it at ALL after auction fees, shipping fees, repairs costs, months of your time repairing it. By the time you're driving it, you're in for the price of a clean title with lower miles than your salvage title one.
That 2007 Allegro Bay motorhome looks like a 2006 with those headlights. 2007's had the little round headlights. Rust problems I suppose since the carpets look like water damage on the carpets. $17,000 USD? Need to upgrade the TV to the new Digital airwaves and HD etc. Parking levelers need to be checked for operation. They sell for $40k-$50k so after cleaning it all up it might be worth it. Still, every trip to each camp ground is $50 fuel and they have to be at those big flat treeless campgrounds that charge $50 a night. I asked a guy that had one and he said they get about 5 MPG. Then you need to store it at a RV storage facility which costs unless you have a nice big yard. The thing is 36 feet long. A weeks vacation is like going to a resort in price if you have a good time share like Interval International. They have the best price for nice big condos with granite counter tops and in suit laundry. The motor home would be fun though if you are into maintenance in one of those older rigs. Women might be taken a back by the trouble involved but the fresh air and highway driving? Depends on what you like.
Don't forget that these fools that purchased these salvage cars and rebuild them, the cars are still virtually worthless because of a Salvage title which means very few insurance companies will insure the car..
Thanks for the video you shot for steve lehto i enjoy both of your shows
nice vid dude thanks for showing us around with u 2!
23:41 it looks like the axles have shifted.
Usually the wheels are centred in the arches. 🤔
Really enjoying these type of videos Sam. Thanks
Where I am the salvage process includes an inspection where you have to show you followed the factory repair method with proof, I can't understand how some cars sell so high
here in TN you just need to send before and after pictures of the fixed car and youcan get a rebuilt title thats ready for registration. it leaves a loophole for people that have stolen cars, they can buy the same car in terrible condition at auction for cheap, and just transfer the salvage vin onto the stolen car or transfer all the parts from the stolen car onto the salvage car and then get a legit rebuilt title
The GTC has a wicked exhaust note in race mode. The handling is very close if not better than a 911. I own both.
I will admit, it's more fun when you actually buy them bring them home and then find a million extra things wrong. Or a simple fix and its perfect. Either way, its a really great show.
Hail damaged rv you'll have to look at the roof. They are plywood with a rubber membrane. Very easy to damage and will be expensive to repair/replace.
Keep these walk arounds coming
Sales Tip - Branded or Rebuilt Titles (we call them "Enhanced Titles"). If the customer asks, explain that a car with a branded or rebuilt title is special because they are individually inspected by the State prior to sale. And, we don't charge you, the customer, extra for the extra inspections or the Enhanced Title. :)
Did the aston martin ever get finished? Would love too continue watch the fix 😅
Great video, the prices of some of them damaged cars is crazy expensive.
Always i like your video's..but left a little frustrated with this one .....i liked the Mercedes with no apparent damage. But why didn't you take a much closer look. Lift the bonnet up and look underneath at the front....And see why it was there......also what happened to the white Aston Martin with flood damage did you flip it .....🤔
He sold the Aston Martin back at the salvage auction.
8:34 Why are car buyers so afraid of colour? Those four cars in a row, are the dullest, most conformist shades of dark grey.
I enjoy your vids when you go around salvage yards the most .
Great ideea Sage with living in a camper.I was thinking the same but the big problem fr me was electricity supply and water beeing in a city
The way you get hail damage in the Jayco is to have it parked outside IN A FREAKING HAIL STORM!!!
Great video, liked the format.
it all depends cause in case you start selling these as spare parts things can turn around pretty soon cause who would not buy these parts for half of the Ferrari spare part price. Therefore it is a thin line what to do with such a car. If it is too expensive for you to fix it is cheap enough for another who wants it as a donor car and afterwards for a spare parts sell. He will make a profit at the end only question will be when, but as a donor car to get a car fixed again and selling the rest as spare parts you will have still made a profit even though it takes efforts to strip a car down to parts . But you can also offer what you have left over after fixing your car as a donor car again just without the parts you had needed.
Weird seeing you and Stradman making similar content on the same day. Didn't expect that.
Thx for showing what they sold for, interesting to know.
I knew the founder of Jayco and some of his kids. Very nice, down to earth people, didn't live like rich people at all. He and his son died in a plane crsh years ago. His wife and children sold out several years ago for 400 million.
Sage sure does like to gently place his open palm and the cars, haha! Guess his love language is physical touch.
Sam build a camper trailer and turn it into an office in the farm or let Sage live and rent a portion in the farm. Would love a rebuild and make it more modern interior. And Call it Crac House.
you highly disappointed me over 6 months maybe a year been waiting for a video on the white Mercedes amg GT and still nothing... ive lost hope
ZX-6 was one hell of a deal.
"all these 911's kinda look the same!" A truer word never spoken Sam!
Would it pay Off to buy any AS a parts car to Flip vital pieces?
How much did the red Mistubishi Starion /Dodge Conquest go for? The one in you first few seconds of video.
I owned one years back, loved that car..got in an accident as a kid, car gone
Sam Exactly my thoughts on salvage auctions!! YT rebuilders are driving these auction prices 🤑🤑
My insurance went up 30 bucks a month in the last year on my challenger... 15 the year before. Doesn't sound like a lot, but that's 45 to 60 90, it doubled because of all the thefts.
lol my daughter borrowed my iPad for her violin practice. Unbeknownst to me, she left the playback speed on .75x I thought Sam was high as a kite filming this video!
Wow I gotta come to FL to get a camper. That hail damage one with the salvage title, that's a 25k camper all day. And then a clean title one in that shape about 3-5 years old. Looking at 30-60k any day of the week. So hard to find a good deal on one!!!!! Wife and I have been looking for 4 years now and trying to find a good deal is near impossible!!¡
TIME IS MONEY, hell of a run-around too, the amount of work and hours to fix these up
must also be added in if it's going to be worth it or not.
I have an 1988 Chrysler conquest. 55k miles, looks exactly like that!
Did that i8 get bought from a few years ago?
Best video ever, love the fact you posted the prices
I have a 2000 ML 320 with 197k Kilometers, I want to keep it. The HVAC is not working are you aware of any tricks or advice. I have checked what my minimal knowledge can do. Thank you
Did you ever sell the 612 Ferrari ? I’m interested to know what you got for it ?
Do a video on thar red Chrysler conquest you came across in the beginning of this video. Thanks
I watched the entire video looking forward to seeing that 1989 Chysler Conquest TSI or Mitsubishi Starion, but somehow missed it🥴
How do you get thses insane deals?? In europe people think theyre selling gold infused crystal meth for 10 times the street price when it comes to vehicles that have had damage or faulty engines and what not
Here I thought I was gonna see a Stradman X Samcrac vid. But whatever... I'm here for it!
liked that you posted the prices
Stradman looking at that:
🤣🤣
I only clicked on this video for this comment 🤣🤣
I can’t watch his videos. He’s like a 13 year old boy after 10 cans of Red Bull 😂
@@chimps4gimps So is samcrac tho 😂
hello sam from greece. watts your opinion on X3s 2007 2.5si?
I had an insurance company's mechanic say my little dent and scrach was going to be over 3k (mind you my out of pocket was 2.4k so a bit sus) he wanted to change the headlights which tipped me off when he said they were cracked, every make and model of my car looks like that it's not a crack. So i took it to my mechanic, who fixed it for $80, which nowlooks completely brand new. Don't trust insurance "mechanics"
Kind of disappointed that the Chrysler Conquest wasn’t featured in this video. Love that car