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Who pays the most for junk cars?
The buyer who can do the most with your car, and who has to compete for it. No single company pays the most everywhere, so here is which kinds of buyer tend to pay more, which tend to pay less, and how to get the ones who pay the most bidding against each other.
The short answer
The most money for a junk car usually comes from a local buyer who can use it: a salvage yard that sells its parts, a scrap yard that crushes it for the metal, or a tow company that buys cars to pass on to them. Each of them works out a price in its own way, so the offers on one car can be far apart.
So the honest answer is that the buyer who pays the most is whoever wants your car the most this week. The only way to find out is to get several of them to make an offer at the same time. For what a car like yours tends to sell for, see how much is my junk car worth.
Which buyers can pay more, and why
Buyers who sell the parts
A salvage yard that pulls engines, transmissions and body panels to sell can pay for what those parts will fetch, not just for the metal. A yard that only crushes cars cannot.
Buyers near you
Every offer has the cost of the tow inside it. A buyer a few miles away spends less getting to your car, so more of the price can go to you.
The end of the line
The business that will actually part out or crush the car does not have to leave room for anyone else. A middleman who sells it on has to keep a cut.
Buyers who have to compete
A buyer who knows other buyers are looking at the same car has a reason to offer its best price the first time, and to raise it if it is beaten.
Why more offers means more money
Every buyer works out a price in its own way, so when several of them offer on the same car at the same time, the top offer is often well above the rest. Calling yards one after another rarely shows you that, because each quote comes on its own and you have nothing to set it against.
On BeaterBoss, buyers near you send offers to your own offers page, and the biggest one sits at the top with every other offer listed under it. Buyers can raise an offer but never lower it, so the top offer can only climb while you compare.
Who tends to pay less
One price, nobody bidding
A website that buys cars across the country gives you its own number. It can be fair, but with nobody bidding against it you cannot tell whether a local yard would have paid more.
A middleman
Some buyers never tow or crush a car themselves. They buy it and sell it on to a yard, and their cut comes out of what you would have been paid.
A quote that changes at the curb
A price given over the phone can drop once the truck is in your driveway. On BeaterBoss you can refuse a lower price at pickup and tell us, and we step in.
To weigh every way to sell, side by side, see ways to sell a junk car. For what you can do to raise the offers you get, read how to get the most cash for your junk car.
Questions sellers ask
Who pays the most for junk cars?
Usually a local buyer who can use the car, such as a salvage yard that sells its parts, and who has to compete with other buyers for it. No single company pays the most everywhere, so the only way to know for your car is to get several offers on it at the same time and compare them.
Do junkyards pay more than instant-offer websites?
Sometimes. A local yard that can sell your car's parts may beat a national website's single price, and sometimes the website pays more. Neither is true every time, which is why it pays to compare real offers on your own car before you decide.
Do salvage yards pay more than scrap yards?
Often, when the car has parts worth selling, because a salvage yard can pay for those parts as well as the metal. For a car with nothing left worth pulling, both are paying for the weight, and the closer one or the one that tows for free may come out ahead.
Do tow companies pay less than junkyards?
Often a little, when the tow company sells the car on to a yard, because its cut comes out of the price. Some tow companies run their own yards or have the closest truck, and then they can pay well and come sooner.
Is the highest offer always the best one?
Not always. An offer is only worth what you are paid at pickup, so a slightly lower offer from a buyer who can come tomorrow, has good reviews and is held to its price can beat a bigger one that cannot come for a week.
See who pays the most for your car
Describe it once and the buyers near you battle for it on your own offers page. Free, and your number stays private.