trade vet

If you are MOTing all your stock,its the prep costs that kill you on older stuff.If you do the job properly,I find that the average cost of retailing a 10 year car hardly makes sense anymore.

Correction,fake news........it was A60’s we used to doorstep ?

Welcome,so you do under 5 grand stuff.How are you coping with the agrovation,please keep us informed.Alternatively if you have any good news stories,we don’t get many of them on here.

Hi Jason .....Cue A55 story........When I was 17 I used to moonlight with a mate doorstepping nothing else but A55’s.We bought them for £40 and sold them for £85 with a £2 lineage ad in the local rag.Except the punters never came to us. We used to qualify elderly punters from rural areas within 20 miles and we would offer to take the cars to them for viewing.This would impress them and it rarely failed.We would often do 2 a week but you could not charge more or the phone didn’t ring.We were earning more than a lot of first division footballers. Its a shame you guys can’t do that.

The first unit we had was 2000 sqft.You would get 10 in without any bother.Also depending where you are,no business rates.

Thank you,I did mean they were chipped.They were too quick for me,I used to smoke an 827.

I think I remember Paul a youngish nice guy.I don’t think he had very much stock and he must have been promoting his business.The rest of us were doing the opposite because we did not want the other traders to know.WOMA was good,you would probably know me and our main buyer Nigel,then there was Greengrass ( blue overall,big boots and a beard ) ,the Finneys and Rod Stewart....those were the days.We were on the road night and day bidding against each other and offering each other fake information of one sort or another.

I recall I had plenty of S Yorks 827’s out of Rotherham but not so many of their well used Astras.I think we got mainly ex Essex Escort and Sierra estates out of Colchester.I remember discovering something ‘untoward ‘ at the auction where they did not declare all the entries so I complained to Essex Fleet office.From then on they would notify me about what was being entered and they got more money for them.As for the Met,I must have had hundreds of Sri autos and Astras which were really good,these were often average mileage with clean interiors and out of WOMA. Regarding stuff being supercharged,those Senators were,we were carefull who we sold them to. I am enjoying this thread but I imagine most people will be bored by it !

They are right in general.However it depends which force they are from.In my experience each force has different policies.Things have changed of course but stuff gets off sold for all sorts of reasons.Last year our local BCA was flogging off the recently sacked Chief Constables low mileage,1 year old,full spec RR Sport !

We bought loads out of WOMA,mainly ex Met stuff.The unmarked cars are still good of course.Infact the best deal we have done of late was a fully spec’d petrol 3.2 Avant.In the 90s there were only 4 or 5 ex police car specialists and all did well.We traded as The Ex Police Department,sounds rediculous but punters would squabble for stuff so we had to introduce an ordering system....I kid you not !

While the majority may have been heavily used,there are still hundreds of good ones being sold off,you would be surprised..Unfortunatley as Tango has confirmed that when they are decommissioned they take little care and leave dashboards in a mess and wiring exposed.If they replaced the dash’s with stuff that was originally removed,the tax payer would get an average of a grand more per car. May I be nosey and enquire which forces you were with around the millennium because the chances are I will be able to remember what cars they used.

AD must be on holiday.Remember to contact him you must send him a deposit first. Dave may have been seconded to Merc HQ Stuttgart to advise them.

Where is Taz ? he started this topic.

OK but it sounds more like a West Midlands car to me.We used to buy stuff from Police forces all over the U.K.

Thames Valley stuff is usually very clean,you would be very surprised.Now had it been,South Wales,Glasgow or Liverpool it would have come for £300 !

I have to say that you are not very brave.£500 for a low mileage Thames Valley and £30 buyers fee.They would not have dared to submit your bid.TVP stuff nearly always used to do over reserve.

Hi Taz I am highly qualified with regard to retailing ex police cars.The majority of car dealers have no idea and shudder at the thought about retailing ex police stuff.However the fact remains that when they are correctly marketed,they have a big following.Unfortunately now and especially with patrol cars,the costs for renovating paintwork and dashboards alone can be considerable.Also a lot of forces are now decommissioning them beyond 120k which makes them a lot harder to sell. What cars do you have,which forces are they from,have they been renovated and how have you described them.Alternatively get in touch and I will pass on a few tips.

There is no doubt that a new set of replica alloys helps sell stuff.We were doing it years ago when a new set of rims and tyres were £600 and you could flog the old ones online.However the downside with these Chinese imports is not only the higher cost because of the low pound but also the low quality of the rims which can mean they buckle quite easily.I was told that retailers are now barred from using them in Australia as they have caused accidents.Our guy’s view is now that it is too big a potential liability to fit them and run the risk of being charged with some criminal offence in the event of an accident.

Out of interest,I have known one or two people who have started up in this job later on in life.They usually have good iron clad pensions from a previous occupation and operate quite well by picking and choosing who they deal with.

I was told to just work half days but it had to be every day.Then the other 12 hours each day were mine.

Good punters from the Republic.We are near the airport and the last time the pound was low we used to find them waiting outside unannounced for us to open on Saturdays having got the early £15 Ryanair flight.It was A3’s then with big alloys.Sometimes we would get a call from the airport saying they had stopped someone carrying a lot of cash and could we confirm that they were collecting a car.We would of course but sometimes we had no idea who they were.

Relying on Parker’s............maybe you are not quite ready to set up full time after all.

Because I do it as a private seller at the moment I am trying to buy under 5k maybe a bit more for certain cars and sell for 500, maybe 1k profit. (just found a desperate seller that wanted a Skoda Kodiaq that sold me his 12plate Merc c220 82k miles for 3500 and luckily I sold it in 5 days for 4750£) So you dont declare your trader earnings for tax or NI, you dont have trade plates and you i imagine use these cars on test drives, You dont put a warranty on them either i imagine, Why dont you pay tax on these earning what makes you so special Come on,give her a break.Where you whiter than white when you started out.I wasn’t when I was door stepping aged 17.I paid plenty of tax in my day job though working 7 days.

Second thoughts,from what you say,I think you could do OK.There is plenty of stuff to buy at Blackbushe if you are not frightened by stuff needing work.

Hi Marian Could you possibly give us a ballpark figure on what you are currently earning in your day job.Unless you can afford it,not a good time to go solo in this job.One thing,I have to tell you is that those ‘ moments of joy ‘ you refer to may turn into ‘ moments of relief ‘when you go full time.Best of luck though,you will get plenty of good advice from the guys on here.