PartingOut.com, as Kevin describes, is an online visual marketplace for used auto parts. “For the cus- tomer who has a yard management system, as we do at our yard, PartingOut is more of a place to expose your car parts to a new set of buying eyes, mostly retail buyers, but we are attracting more commer- cial buyers,” he says. “We are filling the niche for all those parts that you may not want to take the time to inventory.” For the seller who does not use a yard management system PartingOut is a great tool to put your cars online without having to list each part. On the site, the deal is recorded from first question to final invoice. An auto recycler posts a photo of a parts car they know still has valuable parts that are not inventoried. A buyer comes to the site to search for a particular parts car. Once found, they directly message the seller to negotiate a deal on a part they need, in- quiring if the part is available, and to specify the time- frame that it is needed. The seller can then accept, counter, or deny the offer. If a deal is made, the buyer is directed to PayPal where seller is paid and deal is completed. PartingOut receives a four percent com- mission on completed sales and the first ten thousand cars are free to post, a pretty fair deal in Kevin’s eyes. To date, about 40 salvage yards have posted on the site.

“My point of view was that I was crushing too many good parts, but I didn’t want to put a bunch of time in taking parts off a car to inventory that I wasn’t sure would sell,” he says. “But if I had a buyer, and we negotiated a fair deal, it was worth it. Recently some- one paid me $700 for a pair of bumpers. Not bad for just posting a photo of a car that had parts. If I can even make just $100 to $200 on a car, it is like crushing it twice.” Kevin’s next venture began much like the salvage yard, out of a passion project. In 2006, a piece of property nearby caught the eye of Kevin and his

Kevin Fullerton surveys his land from the roof of his barn.

AUTOMOTIVE RECYCLING • July-August 2018

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