Second hand prices. Why do we do it?

[rwdrev]

Its a pretty awkward

things like the aem wideband are pretty generic car parts and not many people use them. I was waiting for a 2nd hand one to appear for sale and none came up for ages so I bought a new one. But when i had one to sell it sold in a few hours.

On the whole i say the aftermarket parts to start with from new are to expensive so when it comes time to sell you don't want to make such a massive loss.

With regards to the oem parts it's just the time and and effort put into getting something. I've been asked a few times for things like window Motors and realalisctly £20 posted I'd say is on the high side for a motor. But once you take out the time to strip down the door to get the motor package it and make your way to the post office pay postage and let PayPal have there fee the amount of time and effort you invested in it for a few quid just doesn't add up.

As Daniel said there's a small group of us over prob a 80mile radius that all help each out. I gave dan a mint wee gt shell because I didn't want to see it scraped and we all give each other stuff either free or heavily discounted and it works out well because we don't rip the piss.

Sadly in life there are people that just take advantage of it. I sold a few parts to a lad couple of months ago and he seemed nice enough and the parts didn't ow me anything so I asked for some beer tokens. So he sent me a tenner for parts that would have cost easily 80+ new. Then he messaged me asking about a a strut brace I had for sale for £50 + postage and said what's your best price I went £40 all in delivered is the lowest I can go. And he came back with 30. Said it was a it low but would be fine. He then sent me £20 and his reason was he had already gave me £10 for the "free parts" so he didn't see why he should pay at this stage I was pretty sick of dealing with the guy so just posted all the parts. Few weeks later and I was looking for a small base plate for a prosport gauge and he messages me saying he had one. Asked what he wanted and he wanted £10+ postage. Said that's abit steep is it not considering the parts and prices I gave you to help you out and his reply was that's your fault for selling stuff to cheap.

what a dick, you try and help some1 out and in return they rip you off. the place is full of ripping off scammers, and they are getting more common. if i sell summit i hardly ask for anything, if its spare or just lying there id rather take a small amount and let some1 have the use of it than rip them off and price it for what i would want to pay for it myself

[rwdrev]

alot of people dont bother with the rebuilding sides of things these days tho, i put a rant up ages ago about window motors, was stuck with sitting. with some wd40 and some working the spindle was working sweet again. the motor was still wanting to work but the spindle had seized, so i saved myself £30 (what someone quoted for 1 posted) and kept the original part going. same as rear calipers, i seen the price if new 1's and nearly fell off my chair, so with some inspection and time, i managed to rebuild the calipers for the price of the seal kit and 2 pistons.

in emergencys then sometimes you have to bite the bullet, but i would rather leave the part sitting under the sellers feet than buy an overpriced part

[Phil]

As shaun and the likes have mentioned there is circles and relationships that exist on here or tgtt maybe even Facebook where parts are passed round at value or cost or free.

I'm very fortunate to have been apart of these circles for some time.

This is also why in a world of parts il often put 'offers' and I don't apologise for that in the slightest.

I've gave people awesome bargains when they make an offer and it all depends when they make the offer.

I'm not a business man and I only sell something to chop or change things on my car.

Currently I've a polished inlet forsale marked at 65, which seems reasonable given condition etc and I've asked for offers and haven't had one.

Now I won that on eBay for less than 2quid so if some one offered me 35quid posted they would get their bargain and if get a couple of bob once I've paid to post it.

Everyones situation is different though

Phil

Edited September 12, 2014 by Philm

[daniel_g]

Aye the major robbers in the Starlet world are Toyota haha. About 300 quid for a pair of rear calipers and something stupid like 500 a driveshaft. Suddenly used parts dont seem as bad lol.

[DavidAshton]

Earn more money then you don't have to worry about the price of second hand car parts.

[aaddzz123]

Sadly in life there are people that just take advantage of it. I sold a few parts to a lad couple of months ago and he seemed nice enough and the parts didn't ow me anything so I asked for some beer tokens. So he sent me a tenner for parts that would have cost easily 80+ new. Then he messaged me asking about a a strut brace I had for sale for £50 + postage and said what's your best price I went £40 all in delivered is the lowest I can go. And he came back with 30. Said it was a it low but would be fine. He then sent me £20 and his reason was he had already gave me £10 for the "free parts" so he didn't see why he should pay at this stage I was pretty sick of dealing with the guy so just posted all the parts. Few weeks later and I was looking for a small base plate for a prosport gauge and he messages me saying he had one. Asked what he wanted and he wanted £10+ postage. Said that's abit steep is it not considering the parts and prices I gave you to help you out and his reply was that's your fault for selling stuff to cheap.

Name and shame. Pathetic behavior that makes people think fuck it, not helping anyone out again. Might seem far stretched but that's the kind of thing I would happily tell everyone I knew in the scene over small banter. Avoid them in the future, don't help them out again and eventually it'll come back to them. Exactly the kind of people no one wants in a community.

The starlet scene is quite expensive in comparison to other cars but then again its very cheap compared to other cars aswell. A happy medium id say.

A lot of parts do hold their value really well which is a good thing imo, we all want our parts to be worth something when upgrading and selling them on. Also good standard parts hold their value because its hard to find them in a decent condition now they are 15-20+ years old, rear calipers, window motors, wind deflectors, body panels and not to mention all the optional extras. Then youve got the endless list of aftermarket parts, many not available new anymore and only getting rarer by the day. Its nice to think that your car is an investment whether as a whole car or in parts, not just an endless money pit.

Either way you can build them for pretty cheap if you look out for bargains

Fair points again. I think though if parts weren't overpriced then everyone would be on a win. You still get the same enjoyment out of stuff and you still get your money back when you sell it. It just means you can actually afford it in the first place and experience it instead of just dreaming about it... Yeah you can build a car on a budget, but by the time you've finally found all the bits you want at decent prices, it's probably taken you years and years and then you're selling the parts on for more than what you paid for them and end up being the person selling stuff overpriced because you can lol.... If all prices came down as a whole and everyone were more realistic, we would all have more of the bits we wanted and the only thing that would change is the over all value of the cars. Which would be a shame. But you'd be trading value for fun in my opinion. Sure your car might be worth £500 less at the end of it but you saved that money on the parts in the first place.

Earn more money then you don't have to worry about the price of second hand car parts.

If I earned a little more I may as well go for the R32 I've always wanted lol.

[Glanza-Ben]

Could always make parts fit from other cars like they do in country's where starlets are even more rare, there's many build threads on here from other country's where they have made there own parts from random materials or other car parts and proberly alot cheaper aswell

[daniel_g]

Yeah you can build a car on a budget, but by the time you've finally found all the bits you want at decent prices, it's probably taken you years and years

Probably the main reason ive had 4 starlets over the space of 2 years and only had one of them on the road for a week haha

[mattyD]

How do you feel on second hand parts that are hardly used? I.e. I have a set of drive shafts that I stupidly bought brand new from toyota at over £1k haha! They have done next to no miles so surely I can't be expected to sell them at £50 for the set??

Are after market parts also included? Again paid a shit load for my bits and have done next to no miles so do I drop the price dramatically just because they are used??

[stephen R]

im from Ireland and il be honest prices here are not crazy.

[aaddzz123]

How do you feel on second hand parts that are hardly used? I.e. I have a set of drive shafts that I stupidly bought brand new from toyota at over £1k haha! They have done next to no miles so surely I can't be expected to sell them at £50 for the set?? Are after market parts also included? Again paid a shit load for my bits and have done next to no miles so do I drop the price dramatically just because they are used??

How can you justify spending over a grand on drive shafts? Lol. I'm not sure how to answer without sounding unreasonable. But I would still expect to pay no more than £100 even for new units seeing as they have no benefit overy 2nd hand shafts with new joints which you can probably replace at like £40 a side?... why did you buy new shafts? Lol! I suppose it's a tricky one with near new aftermarket parts. I think it's a case of being reasonable and realistic. Wideband for example costs 130 new, maybe secondhand sell it on for 80? Not expecting to find stuff like that for £20 but should have more than £10 discount from rrp lol

im from Ireland and il be honest prices here are not crazy.

I have noticed that prices in Ireland seem to be much more reasonable on average.

[mattyD]

How can you justify spending over a grand on drive shafts? Lol. I'm not sure how to answer without sounding unreasonable. But I would still expect to pay no more than £100 even for new units seeing as they have no benefit overy 2nd hand shafts with new joints which you can probably replace at like £40 a side?... why did you buy new shafts? Lol! I suppose it's a tricky one with near new aftermarket parts. I think it's a case of being reasonable and realistic. Wideband for example costs 130 new, maybe secondhand sell it on for 80? Not expecting to find stuff like that for £20 but should have more than £10 discount from rrp lol

Lol, rear gearbox mount went.....both inner cv joints went.....only place you can get them is toyota at a cost of like £350 each so I thought 2 new shafts would be a better option haha! outer cv's yeah you can get from anywhere but at the time the inner ones where only done by toyota!!! not sure if anything has changed now......?? I see what you mean with regards to after market parts, still.......again if something is hardly used a saving of £100 or more I would say isnt a bad price

[TrisK]

Try paying skyline or evo scene tax. Not rare cars but still expansive parts

I say keep the prices high. Why devalue our own stuff. AS said there are groups of friends for good deals and prices, passing favours on etc.

Same as why starlet prices dipped about a year ago. We let them. We sell stuff so we control the price.

We need to value our cars and our parts

At the moment the parts exceed the value of the car. So get broken. In a few years it'll only be the good ones left. And that's prime classic car value appreciation time

[morgey]

What annoys me is people selling parts for more than what you would pay from toyota.

Common one ep91 indicator lenses. About £7 each from toyota for amber or clear. Pretty common to see them for £15 + postage and theyre not even mint

The same with the rear light lenses, £47 from toyota for a pair of brand new 96 spec lenses and I've seen them sell for £45-50 (pair) for a part worth maybe £10 they take 5 mins to split from the car and from the light unit.

[aaddzz123]

Try paying skyline or evo scene tax. Not rare cars but still expansive parts

I say keep the prices high. Why devalue our own stuff. AS said there are groups of friends for good deals and prices, passing favours on etc.

Same as why starlet prices dipped about a year ago. We let them. We sell stuff so we control the price.

We need to value our cars and our parts

At the moment the parts exceed the value of the car. So get broken. In a few years it'll only be the good ones left. And that's prime classic car value appreciation time

Keep the prices High so that no one can afford to have fun with them? To be honest with current prices people ask we could reduce the prices of parts and still sell the cars for the same price lol. Why make it so hard for ourselves to be able to afford to run these cars? What's the point in being skint all the time deliberately just so that in 20 years your now 4k car will be worth 10k in bits. I don't feel they're supposed to be locked in a garage to be sold as an investment in 20 years. They're not ornaments lol. They're just cars (as much as we love them) and we should be driving them and enjoying them whilst we're young surely. If you want a garage queen to sit on and just gather dust to make a little money in the future then surely you aught to get something a little more tasteful like an old jag or at least a cosworth or something. Starlets are just considered to be shopping trolleys in Japan so I can't imagine the demand will be high in 20 years and I can't imagine anyone would pay big bucks for one in 20 years whether it's mint or not.

Even so it doesn't change that prices for parts are overpriced. You can still sell the car whole for 4k for example but maybe in bits it were only worth 3.5k. Makes more sense that buying a car whole makes it worth a little more rather than the other way around.

[aaddzz123]

Also on the skyline comparison. You can get plug and play ECUs for the liners just like the ones you get for the starlets and they go for about £100... Yet in our scene people sell them for £500 odd. How can that be justified lol.

[Gainzy]

Also on the skyline comparison. You can get plug and play ECUs for the liners just like the ones you get for the starlets and they go for about £100... Yet in our scene people sell them for £500 odd. How can that be justified lol.

Definitely agree with ecu's silly price's now emb's and technology has advanced the only aftermarket ecu I would pay loud for is a mine's simply for their aggressive reputation, but you can get say teg mine's ecu's £300 ish the odd one's on ebay. I would give parts alot cheaper to local's or pick up simply saves alot hassle than posting it/damage/loss

[Ryan-11]

I think prices are too high, I always try and help out the member that are pretty close to me if I can, I remember I sold a used Toms lightweight flywheel for £150 (i think) I priced it according to the market at the time, I thought it was pretty expensive but thought id try it at that price and see what happens, it sold within the day but i was getting PM's from people says thats way to cheap and here me thinking it was a bit expensive. If people are prepared to pay the high prices then people are gona sell them for them prices.

I have a few friends with evos and there prices are a lot cheaper, one of my friends bought a set of 18" wheels with used r888s all round for £200 delivered, done 4 track days and there still life in the tyres, on here I've seen people selling used 15" r888 for stupid money, even on ebay you can pick them up pretty chea

[Socks]

Ill help local mates all the time I can...

however. If you sold your TD04 kit that you know you could get £500 for...Would you price it at £350 to help the scene out....?

That's where you hit the nail with the head. If you can get £1000 for something your going to try and get that for it. Call it greed if you like, but you could argue you could call it stupidity not too? The money can be used to help you buy other parts. A lot of the time its replenishing money that was spent in the scene in the first place...

I haven't lost ANY money on parts. The amount of people that tell me how did you manage to sell this for that. But when it comes down to it, its cost me that to buy. Or I bought it for the same price a few years ago. Not really spending money, your just tieing money up. Its bit like a giant game of musical chairs. We are all buying and selling parts, for top whack pricing. But that person can sell it again whenever they want.

Doesn't work for all items, but for many it does...

Interesting subject and outlook on it though... Depends what angle you look at it from

[daniel_g]

Imagine trying to spec one of these up in Japan back in the day !! Would have cost an absolute fortune lol.

[Addymk2]

Supply and demand. Simple business. You can sell something for whatever price the end customer is willing to pay for it.

It may seem a rip off at times but when the market is small and the parts are hard to get hold of then expect high prices and not peanuts.

[drongo boi]

I do agree with this I've bin lucky enough to get most of the bits for our cars at a good price but alot of bits I'd like are just outa my price range. Bits are only worth what people are willing to pay

[morgey]

You're all a bunch of greedy bastards

[amatthews45]

I have noticed the prices are high in some cases but there are bargins to be found. Some things hold there money well

Comming from the vauxhall world to this has hit me harder than I thought it would making my restoration slow but I paid 400 for my little GT shes rough but I refuse to let her get broken.

[kavan-k]

Parts are silly money most of the time but like said above there is bargains to be had, i personally think the cars are under priced,compared to hondas etc.. a starlet/glanza is cheap, but if you want to do anything to it its a complete fortune!

any of these parts circles in Northern Ireland i can join in? Haha