Been looking for a parts truck I can scavenge some stuff from for my 450. Hadn't ever looked into the small city auctions because they don't provide pics of the vehicles, just year/make/model and VIN. But, I'm desperate, been looking for months, so I pull up the list and there's a couple of F250s. Pull up the VINs and one is a 2005 diesel 4x4. Figure it's worth checking out.

Auction is this morning, I finally see the truck. It's beautiful. King Ranch interior is great shape, big tires, crew cab, some engine upgrades - remote oil cooler,fuel regulator cap with pressure gauge fitting, different air filter, etc. It had been stolen, but not stripped - window broke out and ignition broke were the only visible damage. There was no coolant in the degas bottle and the dipstick was gone. Not allowed to try to start, not sure the mileage - I'd guess around 200k.

Not sure if it ran, but assume it did or they couldn't have stolen it.

Only 8 guys show up at the auction, only one bids against me. But, the rules say you have to pay in cash at the end of the auction, and my bank won't let me withdraw more than $2000/day. Auction wouldn't let me leave and go to my bank.

I watch some used car dealer buy that beautiful truck for $1900. He'd have gotten it for $800 if I hadn't bid. At least a $15k truck. That one hurt.

 

Theft recovery vehicles go cheap!

 

Well, not that cheap. No, there's some kind of racket going on among the police, tow trucks/storage yards, and whoever those other bidders were - I assumed used car dealers and dismantlers, but now I wonder if they're just middlemen. The whole scene was odd.

Having never done this, I thought I would hang back when they opened the gate for inspections, not wanting to show my hand. But no one else even tried to inspect any of the cars, not to the extent you would check one out if you thought the high bid would be close to it's actual value. The other bidders just ambled in and stood around, kicked a couple of tires. I think I saw one hood get lifted. It's like they all knew they were going to buy the cars for scrap value. I heard $500 bid several times, a couple of times seemingly reluctantly, as if the deal was that someone had to buy every car for at least $500 to pay the storage yard and police officers (there were 3 there), and it was that guy's turn to get stuck with the junker.

But, I was there messing with the plan. So they had to pretend to have a real auction. I expect they would have gone up pretty high, as long as I kept bidding. The guy bidding against me was the only one there holding a clipboard, like he was tracking something.

And, there was something about that truck. Again, these vehicles are barely publicized, just a spreadsheet list on a page of the City of Houston website. Most are wrecked and abandoned. There's no pictures or other descriptions at all. Year, Make/Model and VIN. And yet, the guys at the auction all knew it would be about that truck. As soon as I got there, I could tell the storage yard guys weren't happy to see me, even though I didn't mention which vehicle I was interested in. No one else even looked at that truck. It was the Big Elephant in the Room, and everyone was trying real hard to pretend it wasn't there.

I expect the word was out that there was a ringer there, and the gang were hoping to slide it through the system. They knew immediately that I'd be there for that truck, or would see it and try to bid. Civilians like me prolly show up every now and then to drive the price up considerably and they figured I'd do that on this one. And I would have if they let me go to the bank.

Funny the way they put one guy on me first, while I was looking at the truck. He came over acting stupid, asking/saying nothing of substance, just trying to get me to talk. I didn't see any of those guys make a real effort to inspect any of the cars. The way no one else bid except the one guy. That truck would have gone for prolly $8k on Copart, double that or more retail, but the gang got it for $1900. Rather than keep driving the price up, I thought it was better if I just got the heck out of there.

 

Well, I've missed on several vehicles this week. Found a cherry Econoline 6.0 with only 31k miles, but got rolled in the auction. Then a cherry Gen 1 Prius (I collect them) with only 60k miles, same result. I thought I might get a wrecked 07 F550 w/148k miles, but it went for $3000. Ain't nothing falling through the cracks these days. Dang, see another potential steal now, but will prolly go for just a little more than I got..

 

Makes me want to get rid of mine while prices are good. If I could just convince myself that my 79 C30 & 79 K30 would do the job of the 6.0 in the interim....