I have a new friend. She got MS about 10 years ago and her husband died in an auto accident in 1999. She has decided that it is time to participate in life again and wants to think of something to do. Once upon a time, her husband and his father had a successful auto salvage business in the area and she was very much involved with the up front and the bookkeeping parts of the business. She was experienced at brokering parts on the phone and teletype and I imagine she was very good at it. She claims that she knows everyone in the area that was or is involved in auto salvage. I won’t dispute this because she can rattle off the names of people that were in the business 6 or 7 years ago, real movers and shakers. I’ve been telling her to go approach some of her old network. I believe many of them would give her a leg up. She is wheelchair bound and has doubts but I think she is really impressive and adaptable. In addition to personality and phone skills she also has some internet skills. I have begun thinking that she could apply things that she knows already and broker goods on the internet. Is this viable and how would we go about learning to do this? She doesn’t have a high school diploma and I am helping her get a GED, it seems like a good start.
I know of a few people that are making money selling used parts on Ebay. This would require that she be able to pack and ship, or have someone to do it for her.
I read an article about this once, written by a man who parted out and old Porsche. I think it would almost have to be something specialized like this. Obviously, small valuable parts would be better, since body parts cost so much to ship it would nullify any advantage you got from buying the part on e-bay. Since she knows a lot of people in the business, she could start by looking at the want it now listings on there, get a price from her friends and sell that way. There are a lot of those listings for car parts on ebay. She might have better luck if she tries to find semi-scarce parts from older cars. Newer car parts might be harder to find.