Northern truck prices vs southern truck prices.

[Dirtman]

Recently while I was down in Georgia me and my brother in law got to discussing buying old trucks. I mentioned the price for clean rangers up north was skyrocketing and it's not uncommon to see clean 20+ year old rangers selling for close to 10k.

He said down there he can buy rust free rangers for less than a couple grand.

This got me thinking, anyone ever consider making a business of buying and moving clean southern trucks up north to resell at a profit?

 

[Snoranger]

Yeah, there's a guy in the Princeton area that sells Superduty parts. Most of his trucks come from down south, then he parts them out up here.

 

[Grumpaw]

Thought about doing that with old cars years ago. But when you have to throw in your time searching out vehicles, having to worry about title and transfers, then having to pick veh up and transport it to where you live,
gets to be more trouble than it's worth to make a few bucks.
And, you have to consider that you may find a real "nice one" on line, get there only to find it's a piece of poo. Then your out your time and trouble.
You also, if you buy/sell alot of vehicles, have to worry about permits/licences, ect. Pain in the arse.
Grumpaw

 

[adsm08]

And, you have to consider that you may find a real "nice one" on line, get there only to find it's a piece of poo.

This.

Last week I was working on a Ranger at work, and my thought process started with "I wonder what he'd want for this, its pretty nice" and by the time I was done and had seen everything it was "I wouldn't give him $50 for this thing".

 

[RonD]

Did something similar back in the late 1970's and 1980's
But with Cadillac's and Lincolns from So. Cal. and selling in Vancouver, Canada, thats how I end up living in Canada, meet a nice girl and I was a dead duck, lol, happy duck but punching well above my weight class, she is still 5 steps ahead of me most days

You really need a car dealers license to go to the auctions, thats where you will find the better deals and clear titles or you don't pay, then you can flip them pretty fast to Northern dealers if they are selling for that much more up north

Pretty tough for one person to do this, need a buyer who lives down south and a seller who lives up north
Transporting is not very expensive.

If you live up north then take a trip down south and talk to a few used car dealers, they are not ALL jerks, lol, they need to be in a big cities with car auctions, trucks are also cheaper in bigger cities, and may have higher miles but less wear and tear
Tell them whats selling up north and leave them your number, do a few dealers
If a Ranger or ?? comes thru they can call you with the info and send pics, and you tell them max price you will pay
They can buy it and make a quick $500-$1,000, ship it to you, and you can keep it or flip it
Obviously you need some startup cash, but you can start small and flip your way up

Shipping a car from Atlanta to Chicago runs about $400-$550 700 miles
Back in 70's/80's it was $175-$250 from LA to Eugene OR, about 800 miles
I lived in Eugene at the time and would go through the cars and then drive them up to Vancouver, 6-8 hour drive

If you are not in a hurry transporters will make way better deals to "fill out a load" thats going your way

 

[Ranger850]

Recently while I was down in Georgia me and my brother in law got to discussing buying old trucks. I mentioned the price for clean rangers up north was skyrocketing and it's not uncommon to see clean 20+ year old rangers selling for close to 10k.

He said down there he can buy rust free rangers for less than a couple grand.

This got me thinking, anyone ever consider making a business of buying and moving clean southern trucks up north to resell at a profit?

i've thought about this a lot. Especially after i got on here and realized ya'll have a real problem with rust. i have never sees rust like some of the pics i see here. i have see surface rust get out if control and eventually eat away everything, bit nothing like what some of ya'll deal with. i was thinking FRAMES, but whole trucks make sense too i suppose

 

[Ranger850]

Did something similar back in the late 1970's and 1980's
But with Cadillac's and Lincolns from So. Cal. and selling in Vancouver, Canada, thats how I end up living in Canada, meet a nice girl and I was a dead duck, lol, happy duck but punching well above my weight class, she is still 5 steps ahead of me most days

You really need a car dealers license to go to the auctions, thats where you will find the better deals and clear titles or you don't pay, then you can flip them pretty fast to Northern dealers if they are selling for that much more up north

Pretty tough for one person to do this, need a buyer who lives down south and a seller who lives up north
Transporting is not very expensive.

If you live up north then take a trip down south and talk to a few used car dealers, they are not ALL jerks, lol, they need to be in big cities with car auctions
Tell them whats selling up north and leave them your number, do a few dealers
If a Ranger or ?? comes thru they can call you with the info and send pics, and you tell them max price you will pay
They can buy it and make a quick $500-$1,000, ship it to you, and you can keep it or flip it

@Dirtman i have a guy who has a dealers license and probably would be down for something like this, of you really want to , PM me

 

[racsan]

Id love to buy a texas truck (or something southern) the used stuff here is pretty bad sometimes, esp up by mansfield. “salt belt” indeed!

 

[RonD]

Craigslist and auto/truck trader online sites make it pretty easy to see what the markets are like for different vehicles in different areas now

 

[Grumpaw]

I used to dream about finding a nice restorable vehicle...pretty much any nice make or model. But, as with everything, a lot passes you by.
Now, retired, and wife and I travel 3-4 months a year in our motor home, taking a lot of secondary roads thru the USA, many in the southern portion of the country, but pretty much in 46 of the lower 48 and Alaska.
Unbelievable the types, ages, and condition of vehicles I'v seen sitting next to homes, in fields, and in used car lots. Have seen thousands of old cars/trucks, classics, rv's, motorhomes.
Would that I had the time to stop and investigate 10 % of what we have driven past.
Grumpaw

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

Would that I had the time to stop and investigate 10 % of what we have driven past.
Grumpaw

You're retired... ?

 

[ford4wd08]

Please don't take our nice southern trucks and destroy them with your rust.

I think many of you would be jealous of my 34 year old BII frame and underside. There is almost no surface rust on the floors...... and that's on the underside!

 

[scotts90ranger]

Yeah, all the good older vehicles are disappearing, they are either being raced and killed or shipped out to the rust belt it seems...

 

[1990RangerinSK]

Yeah, all the good older vehicles are disappearing, they are either being raced and killed or shipped out to the rust belt it seems...

Why should all you southerners have all the nice antiques? We want some, too!

 

[scotts90ranger]

then move where the vehicles don't get trashed, you buy up all the good stuff to just let it rot out again