eBay Marque Modelname Breaking for parts: Wheelnut £5

[Littlepixel]

Honestly - what gives with eBay 'Breaking' auctions?

I have a 21 year old Forester that is getting increasingly hard to get parts for, and the enticing looking auctions for 'breaker' cars seems like a great way to get hold of these rare parts.

So I need a bonnet catch, or a non-frayed seatbelt, or whathaveyou.
"All parts available - Message for details" says the auction.

So I message, and they don't get back to me.
Or on the rare occasion they do, they then ghost me if postage or talk of actually removing the part comes into the equation.

Sorry—but I'm not driving from Kent to Northumbria to pick up a pair of tailgate gas-struts.

Small parts, big parts - no matter. It feels like I'm doing something wrong.
Like I haven't learnt the correct masonic handshake to get things moving.
I'm always pleasant and can-do.

What gives? - I Want The Part - Just Take My Money!
-

Ugh. Just venting. Anyone got any advice to break the chain of disappointment I feel on this?

[westbay]

Scam ?

[westbay]

Littlepixel

Have you tried the ‘find a part’ sites that cover a number of “end of life recyclers”?

I’ve had some success (and failures 🙂) using them…

[Littlepixel]

westbay I have seen those sort of outlets, but they don't instil a lot of confidence. But probably worth another try - thanks for the tip.

[westbay]

Give it a go …zero cost! 🙂

[keithyboy]

I've had mixed results with services where you request a part. Sometimes they come back with what you need at a sensible prices. Sometimes, they don’t know what it's worth and you get a bargain. (Hot tip, if you ever need a boot lock mechanism for a CRV, don’t ask a Honda breaker.) Other times, they want daft money for stuff of relatively little value because they know you are too idle to trawl the actual yards in person.

It costs nowt to try though.

[skkylinedave]

I've found that people who do these listings are not interested in selling anything for less than say £50 so small bits are out of the equation.
I sort of get it because as a money maker they just want to rip out the items they will get £100s for and then it's gone and onto the next one . I'm guessing this especially applies to the sort of person doing it in there yard etc.

[chandlergti]

In the US we have a site called car-part.com (maybe elsewhere just too lazy to actually look) that you can look up parts by postal code at salvage yards. Very useful for seeing who nearby has the model you are looking for and then you can call about other parts.

[akku]

Oct 19, 2023 18:36:07 GMT skkylinedave said:

I've found that people who do these listings are not interested in selling anything for less than say £50 so small bits are out of the equation.
I sort of get it because as a money maker they just want to rip out the items they will get £100s for and then it's gone and onto the next one . I'm guessing this especially applies to the sort of person doing it in there yard etc.

^^^ This.

Someone has a car worth £1000 as it sits

"selling car for £5000 or will break if not sold by the weekend"

Sells a couple of the high value / easy bits for a couple of hundred and then spins out trying to sell the rest of the bits on eBay / Marketplace but can't really be bothered.

Nothing worse than needing low value rare parts.

[swampy76]

Or the seller advertises as Uk, gets back to you but postage is stupid as they are actually in some far flung part of Europe