TeamSwift

As of 4 days ago, all Vancouver BC area Pic N Pull wrecking yard sites were suddenly closed to the public, right after their busy 50% off March sale.

Well this is not good at all. The closest Pic N Pull sites are in Kelowna BC or Arlington Washington. I wonder what is going on?

Maybe real estate prices got high enough that the owner(s) decided to cash in..

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"Don't argue with stupid people. They just bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience."

i don't know how it works outside of the state i live in, but here there is an environmental prohibition on the sale of land that has been used as a junkyard unless very expensive environmental remediation and testing is done.

junkyards and dumps are pretty much impossible to sell where i live. i have seen some giant medical centers pop up on land that was a wrecking yard 50 years ago but i heard that the soil remediation and ground water testing ran in the millions of dollars.

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I know of one pick and pull that suddenly closed on us last year and the guy converted it to a self storage yard..

As for the sale of land, here, if you want to buy it, your on the hook for the clean up.

There are some parcels of land where there used to be oil refineries or dumps and those have been vacant for as long as I can remember.. I do know they treated the soil with those microbes and are probably waiting for those to finish their job before doing anything with the soil.

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"Don't argue with stupid people. They just bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience."

i don't know how it works outside of the state i live in,
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but here is the scoop
China has enough steel they are not in the market for any more scrap steel the have 20yr reserve
the price of scrap steel is $60 a ton ($30 for 1000lb)
$3 for 100lb
the pull-a part yards .... scrap steel is there bread and butter without that.
There operating cost are in the pooper
so to cut cost..... you close the doors and lay off everyone that's not Escentuals or family and look for other buyers
on the up side use car values just went up..!
used to be a used car was $300 (scrap value)
now they have transpo value .... think about it
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BUT THEN I MY BE TALKING OUT OF MY ASS...YOU DECIDE
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.....jv&s
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JV&S seems to have come up with the best summary of the situation - low steel prices plus high operating costs of running auto parts yards. Our local Pic N Pull sites were often cited as demonstrating leadership in environmentally sound auto recycling practices. (better than other non PnP sites)

I drove out to a PnP site today in Richmond BC. There was a security guard posted and signs advising customers that bought a part with extended warranty, and needing to make a claim to send it to Pic N Pull headquarters in Rancho Cordova California.

The yard I visited seemed to be still full of scrap cars, and the website said they are still buying cars. (for steel?)

The parent of Pic N Pull (Schnitzer Steel of Oregon) announced financial losses from auto parts recycling and appears to be in the middle of, or planning further cost savings measures.

This does not bode well for people who need to buy used car parts, if more yards are destined to close.

Additional information:



The news made reference to the Portland North Pic N Pull location in Oregon, and the Freetown and Millis yards in Massachusetts also having been closed to public.

I went to the Kelowna,BC PnP on Apr 6 and picked up a few parts. It was my first time in 6 years that the picking's were slim.

There were not as many cars there that I was use to seeing for springtime.

When you check PnP website, they still show inventory and new(used/wrecked) cars still be put into their yards as Apr 10;

http://www.picknpull.com/check_inventor ... ance=25000

(as a ad on) When I drove by the Chilliwack BC PnP on Apr 12 around 1400, their parking lot was full of cars......

Hi Metro-Mike

There were a total of 7 PnP locations now closed to the public, 4 sites in Canada, and 3 sites in the USA. As you mentioned, the Kelowna BC PnP remains open, as well as the Chilliwack Pic-a-Part; that site is not part of the Pic N Pull organization, but is a shorter drive for Vancouver BC Team Swifters, and at least uses a similar fixed part price scheme as PnP!

The remaining question is whether PnP should be allowed to buy scrap cars from these markets, if they do not intend to sell any of the parts to the public - if PnP intend to just crush them instead for scrap right away, other competing wreckers should be favored by insurance companies and private sellers to buy the scrap cars, in my opinion.

Pic N Pull sites closed:

(1) Richmond BC Mitchell Island East
(2) Richmond BC Mitchell Island West
(3) Surrey BC - North American/Domestic
(4) Surrey BC - Import/European/Asian
(5) Millis MA
(6) Freetown MA
(7) Portland North - OR

and here is the rub ...
I called my local to me scrap yard and ask what th asking price for shread is
Shread is mixed steel car bodies, lawnmower,scrap steel,
$.03 a lb =$60 a TON...... OUCH.!
Do the math a average car wt 3000 lb ($90)
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Price 12 months ago $.08 per LB (shread )
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..........jv&s
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