I am looking to start a little side gig selling used Miata parts.

I can get NA Miatas for pretty cheap, and looking for a list of most common/best selling parts.

If any one has experience in this, i would appreciate comments.

Some part out businesses told me they can get upward of $3k for a fully parted out NA, but i honestly dont see how this is possible at all.

The obvious big ticket items are:

Engine
Transmission
Torsen

 

Fenders, bumpers, hoods, trunks from NA miatas can pull a premium. Axles, especially 1.8 axles. Tombstones. Just to name a few

 

Everything has value to the right buyer. I needed unconventional parts when I bought my car. A few bucks for something on forums like these are better than sending the car to the crusher with a few extra pounds. I'd suggest pulling all the valuable stuff then putting the car on the forums for a week for the vultures to pick over then off to the scrapyard.

 

I can think of half a dozen miata part out companies on the east coast. So I don't really think it is an overly viable business model for someone to jump in as a side gig. It also ends up being a ton more work then you realize. As generally there is a ton of left over parts you will probably never sell, and then disposing of fucked up car bodies and ****.

 

This. I tried it, and figured out it wasn't worth my time. Still have miscellaneous stuff I'm trying to get rid of, fortunately was able to give away the shell. Wasn't looking forward to dealing with that.

 

Find the diamonds in the rough for a little more. MSMs, nb2 LSs, or any nb with (or without for the right price) decent aftermarket parts. The first two have known 6-speeds and Torsens, and any nb motors have much more value than $100-300 NA motors. Wreakers and insurance companies don't see or know of the value of wheels, suspension, hard tops, turbos, exhausts, etc. Gotta find the cars with these parts to make good money. I've made $6-10k on 3 of these type cars so far.

 

All excellent suggestions. Thank you!

I can find decent deals on salvage NB miatas on copart. will likely be around $1000-1500 for a wrecked NB-NB2.

My only hesitation is shipping big items like engine, transmission, fenders, bumpers, doors, hood, etc... i have no idea how to package these on the cheap, and i dont want to build my own wood pallet each time neither as that is 3 hours of labor and cost of wood, which aint cheap.

There is LOTS of competition in Florida from miata partout companies. but if i market most stuff on ebay then this local competition is not relevant.

How does one get rid of an empty, non rolling shell? would some one pick it up for free to get scrap value for it themselves?

 

You have to factor your time and energy into pricing also. You may think you can get a car for $1200 off copart, then fess, towing it home. Then make $1800 after selling parts off it. Then you realize you spent 40 hours of time ******* around with it to make $500-$1000 in "profit".

 

I think the best way to do this is try and find a 6 spd nb1-2 with torsen, and then there are lots of goodies to sell off. much more than a base nb

 

You know what doesnt sell, windows, bumpers, small **** from the interior, seats, engines that need a rebuild, PPFs, NA8 dash stuff. NA hoods seem to be worth gold. Its ******* stupid, ones that arent totally fucked up go for like $500 around here.

 

uggggh, PPFs. Great for aluminum scrap money. Otherwise, everyone has one, or if they bent it, they're either out of the Miata game or they buy another Miata that has one. Same god damn piece from 90-05. Ooooh NA8s got a worthless bolt protector ramp.

 

never thought hoods sell for much? they are so cheap to pickup in pick a part junk yards

My list of parts that sell well are:

good engine ~500-800
transmission ~200 5spd 600 6spd
torsen ~6-700
axles 100
nb2 center console 150
nb headlights 200
tail lights 150
convertible latches 80
weather stripping 60
speedo 50
ECU 200
lock set with matching key 150
door panels 200
oem wheels 200
Mirrors 100
radio bezel
pw switch 30
non ripped soft top 100

big stuff thats a pain to ship and wont easily sell:
hood $200
F bumper 100
R bumper 100
door $100 each
trunk $100

so around 3-4k out of a decent nb 6spd w/torsen. much less for a base model. if car can be purchased for around $1k, it might be worth it.

 

You forgot to factor in that everyone will offer 10-15% less than what you want, even that being said I know like 4 people who have 5 speeds sitting for months priced at 150$, also dealing with flaky people is a waste of time. Go ahead part out one car and see if you like it/get enough money out of it to warrant doing it again

 

Thats good advice. I only parted one out because I bought it for 1200 bucks with a hard top and it was catastrophically rotted out. Like the rockers were rotted out front to back all the way, and you could see into the wheel well both from the drivers seat and the engine bay. I think I ended up making 2k in parts sales but I still have a **** load of parts taking up storage space. I used the hard top, hood, and 5 speed from it though, it's not bad to do it like I did. I had everything usable ripped out in a weekend. But I wouldn't want to do it all the time, especially not in Florida where treasure coast is.

 

There is also the assumption that you will get those unicorn cars for cheap. The problem is all the vendors that part out miata's also watch out on co-part and buy the cars that they know will have the parts people want. You also don't exactly know what you are getting till you get the car home and start taking it apart. Last year I got a NB2 off co-part, I wanted it for the ABS parts. The VVT engine was a nice plus. Turns out the engine had a hole in the side of it, and the head was completely destroyed. Did not know that until I started pulling it all apart.

 

How long do you have to wait? I've parted a few out over the past few years, but it takes time to sell parts. I can tell you that you are high on the parts prices. Those are good asking prices and you might get that if its the right buyer, but you are about 25% high on most of them in my experience. Transmissions and doors sell slowly. I have a 6 speed for sale for less than market value that hasn't had anything but low ball offers in months. Unless its a white face cluster or a 90-94, it just collects dust. I'm not saying don't do it, but I've learn you have to get the car for under 1k to make it worth while and usually special edition or high option cars don't go for cheap. I've had better luck picking up cheap ones, repairing, and cleaning them up for resale recently. The problem is way to many people are picking up cheap Miatas and flooding the market with parts to build go carts, lifts, and Exocets.

 

Most folks I've seen locally that part cars usually have a few things they want off a car and do it to about break even.

I know folks that have parted cars because they needed an engine and trans, or hard top etc. They just wanted to break even or come close so the work was worth it to them.

I only know of a few people that tend to do this as a side gig with a car or two at a time. Might be worth doing if you can clean up a car at some point to sell it ruining just to get rid of sitting parts.

Also, roll bars sell. So Do NB2 and leather seats.

All suck for shipping.