Mark Twain once said, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Well, for those of us that enjoy the classic car hobby, owning a salvage yard might be a dream come true. If you are looking for a turn-key operation that will immerse you into parts and pieces of old vehicles every day, this might be the one. The famous L&L Classic Auto in Wendell, Idaho is for sale. It can be found here on Hemmings.com with an asking price of $4,200,000. The asking price includes multiple buildings on a ton of acreage, thousands of classic cars, and the business itself. Have a look at this amazing opportunity!
Here you can see just how big this property is. At 160 acres of land, it is one of the largest salvage yards in the country. Located directly off Highway 46 in south-central Idaho, if you aren’t familiar with this part of the country, it is actually almost a desert climate similar to the Southwest U.S. This makes for the ideal outdoor storage for vehicles where they aren’t subjected to a lot of rain or snow which creates rot.
The property is full of a variety of vehicles. Everything from classic trucks like this step-side Chevy to late model sedans and everything in between.
Here is a great row of sedans from the 1950s! I think if I owned a salvage yard, I’d probably keep half of the good projects for myself!
The property even includes a fire truck from the 1930s. Overall, there’s probably one (or five) of everything. Would you like to own and operate a salvage yard, or are you more suited for picking through the acres of cars? Let us know what you think.
All we need is 4200 members with a grand and that baby is OURS!!!!
I am in for my 1000.
I’m in!
I’m in . Let’s get it going
I’m in if you guys get serious.
count me in!!
Let’s ask Jesse M — how many members are there currently subscribed to Barn Finds? I’d be in for $1k.
I’m in! And, great user name, by the way!
in!
If it was near where I live in Florida, I would buy it tomorrow. When I lived in NY a local guy had such a lot and then sold it to his son. They make a lot of money over the years. Hooked up with other yards around the country looking to fill custom orders. So he had the resource of other places to fill his customers needs.Good business. The sum of the parts is worth more than the whole.
Would buy it in a heartbeat if I had the cash.
And the shipping fees.
So dang cool!! Seems like a great bunch of vehicle too!!!
Well,I guess I just saved $4,200,000,by not buying it.
Is that number four million two hundred thousand, or four thousand two hundred?
Yes, all the zeros are real
Dude.
Too bad nobody under 40 years old would possibly be interested. When will the owners of these “collections” realize time has passed them by?
I just turned 40 this year, and I am interested. Does that count ?
How come this is a “World-famous Classic Car Salvage Business” but the guy in Kansas has a “Junkyard”? They look pretty much the same to me.
This is a Twilight Zone episode one really needs to think it out. If I had the money……….. One, you are in the middle of nowhere. A paying walkthrough museum is out. No way to replenish your inventory. When the yard started cars were either free or $10-$20 each. When it’s gone it’s gone. No blue chip collector cars here those long gone. Many four door sedans and scrap. Speaking of which scrap is in the tank. Don’t plan on prices to go up soon.
You would have to pay taxes on the property yearly. As a business you will pay taxes. Have a good accountant and a money manager.
Some vehicles are salvageable. How are you going to sell them? Planning to discount the price so someone could afford shipping? The location is far from big truck traffic. Then you have the task at finding the title. Spending a good part of the day moving it.
Selling parts would be like anyone who has sold anything on ebay. Only you or someone you have to pay will first need to remove the part. Time and Shipping is another major cost.
Personally I think simply the time has come when the owners realize it’s time to throw in the towel. It has been a good run. 1-800 build a car catalogs have hurt. Also the local Autozone. No thanks.
On a personal level the local BMV just opened. I took advantage of the time off. Had three titles I had to get done for some old cars laying around. $300. License for my other vehicles another $300. Not cheap anymore.
But it is a “World Famous” salvage yard. People in China are discussing it right now over dinner.
Best comment I’ve seen in a while…
Dream squasher
Somebody has to be realistic here.
Nobody has to be realistic here.
I would at least relish the opportunity to be able to walk through it (over the course of some days!), and dream of what could or might have been! :-)
Put on a white T shirt, roll a pack of Camels up in one sleeve, find a young kid to go with you ( in case a rattlesnake bites you) and reprise Milner and Carol’s midnight stroll.
All good comments. And I’m sure most of these cars have been picked over. You would have to look at each car and see what potential each has. I know the modern “recycling centers” are heavily regulated. Junkyards used to be very lucrative, but now with the competition to buy the wrecks at a decent price, and the EPA regulations, plus the DMV rules to make sure none of the cars are stolen, every buck you take in from a part sale counts.
That said, whether its an old car junkyard, or a new recycling center, there’s something magical about walking thru a junkyard! Stay safe.
Cheers
GPC
Idaho. No zoning laws. No interstate for shipping. No major airports for collectors to fly in and see. No thanks.
Well regardless what part of ID it’s in, and major city its closest to, one Could Fly into SPOKANE INTL. AIRPORT(SPOKANE ,WA.)rent a Car for a day and drive to it.
If ones interest to LOOK around or possibly Buy A vehicle or 2 from them ..I’m sure there are ways to get a Semi Truck driver with a car hauler trailer to haul it for ya.. for the right $OFFER to them.
Where theres a will theres always a Way..
I lived in Wa state most of my life (now in So .CA.), iIknow alot of the eastern WA and N. IDAHO area..and have heard good things on/about that very yard.
I’d love to go through it myself and pick out a good few Projects from it…
Even through the new owners ,once they’ve reopened it.
well how do y’all!! My names David and I Was born some 51 years ago and have lived in the very state (Idaho) that you fellas are discussin my entire life. Now I have been to Wendell but only once it was 5 days by horse and buggy nearly broke my dang ol back bounce around on that buck board for 5 days not to mention the 5 day return. Yep gentleman let me tell wild frontier out here in the west! so if you do venter this here way. just do be careful of the gaint im thinking prehistoric birds got to be there so big and they must be nesting near Boise cuz there frying in and out of there all day long. but those are tame compared to the new preditor come on the seen 10 15 years ago nasty sons a guns must be hybrids or somethin like . We call’m outofstaters, or californians for short. there real skidish so just be careful the littlest thing coud set them into a total panic next thing you know you got yourself a stampede just runnin a muck tramplin inisint people. and do be aware of that tail they call the interstate, runs the whole length of this here state. I believe it to be mostly used by … what u all call them? semi-tractors? what a silly name u gotta tractor up in these parts u must be rich and u dang sure better have it out in the field not up on some dang interstate.. plumb silly. now let me just get this letter in the mail that pony will be be here soon.
I know they aren’t making any more of it but $26,200 an acre for arid Idaho land seems expensive. Is there any water? Does it include mineral rights?
Yup , mineral rights would be a good idea !
There’d be plenty of used sump oil in that Idaho soil !
I was just there recently, nothing much good left and the owner is way out of touch with reality on prices. You would have trouble making a profit even if the price was $100K
Like a candy store for adults.
“Candy” that’s been chewed on, and only partially there. What would I do with 20 `72 LTD’s and 50 Pintos?! Let the scrapper have those.
My wants in this yard would be minutely few, and I doubt there is even one of them here. Kind of hard to justify the BIN price if all I’m looking for is a vaguely solid `54-`55 Mercury Sun Valley glasstop.
I bet there are a lot of us dreaming about owning this. But one guy said he was there and there isn’t much left. Enough said. Time to move on.
I used to deal with a lot of salvage yards in the ‘80s in the north jersey/NY metro area. That was for used body parts for insurance claims at our family owned auto body shop. I was into ‘73-‘77 mid size Pontiacs, Grand Ams, Grand LeMans & Grand Prix’s. (not really “antique” at the time) and I would ask if they had any while searching for later model stuff for our current jobs. Some of the yards would ship me the ENTIRE car to strip for parts and I’d pay a flat fee with “round trip” towing. Or they would call ME when they got any of the above. It was the next best thing to actually owning a yard.
I stand corrected, there is more to this than I thought. Wendell is about 10-15 miles from the Snake river. This is potato country. The soil is good but you need to irrigate a lot. Wendell is on Interstate 84 between Boise, 105 miles, and Pocatello, 130 miles. I hear tell they have airports and trucking companies up there now I think you could make the business work okay from there if you are willing to put in lots of work and further investment. However $4.2 million is an awfully steep entry fee for the opportunity to spend more money. You need a better plan than just selling off the remaining inventory.
One obvious route would be to use it to start your own prepper or religious cult.with the business turned into a tax writ-off or non-profit. By all means consult with your attorney first. You don’t actually have to believe in anything. The modern world has produced many heartless cynics with elaborate schemes of power and control that you could use as a model. Plenty of room for underground bunkers and compounds for your followers, acolytes, internet billionaires or what have you. Make sure they bring money.
Another important thing I learned and you should know as well, Wendell is 161 miles from Dickshooter, Idaho. Dickshooter is 90 miles from Owyhee, Nevada.
It’s a direct shot from Dickshooter to “OWYHEE”. Mercy Sake it is and let that be a lesson to any fool Dickshooters out there.
Check the map if you doubt me.
Dickshooter is 24 miles northeast of Riddle Idaho, Owyhee I thought was the county where Dickshooter is located ?
How much longer will the EPA allow this? Thanks to them, plenty of yards in the Northeast are gone.
Pretty sure EPA doesn’t care too much since 2016
Here is your Up thumb Sir!
Why, in the first photo is a early Ford Escort AND a rear-ended Pinto that DIDN’T blow up! Both two doors! Where, exactly, are you going to find either of these?
Just think of the VALUE in cars like these………Errr…..oh…wait…
All Pintos are two-doors, unless one or both are missing.
Nearly enough said. Nampa Idaho is in that area. One of my six brothers lives there. It snows there in the winter, very cold winters. I do believe there’s still a place for auto wrecking yards, but they must be modern places where all cars are catalogued parts removed and placed inside storage. All destroyed or unusable parts crushed for scrap metal. No place for u picks anymore.
God bless America
I’d have to think a junkyard, oops, I mean, an “auto recycling facility”, would have to be one of the dumbest ideas for 2020 and beyond.
What’s happening over there to make it a bad idea?
Very few people repair older cars these days. When these cars were stored here, there were many others like it on the road still, and salvage parts kept ‘er going. Today, cars are throw-away devices. Rather than fix it, it’s cheaper and easier to just get a new one. Also, environmental concerns on even a yard like this, cleanup would astronomical. EPA doesn’t care if it’s in Bumblescum, Kansas or not. Today, a modern “recycling facility”, dismantles the cars as they come in, hazardous fluids need to be put in barrels and labeled as such and taken to a facility that handles it. It’s not the good old days.
Ah, understand what you mean.
Good point, could be some exposure there.
Nordstrom’s Automotive here in SE South Dakota does a pretty good auto recycling business I think. They paved 1-2 miles of gravel road so people could get to them easier, but their U-pull-it yard is pretty small in comparison. Like someone else mentioned, there’s money there, but it is made through carefully controlled and updated inventories.
Throw that old ’35-36 Ford ladder/pumper truck out front and call it a tetanus theme park. Make a killing on snake bite kits and at the nurses station. Allow “Burning Man” festival goers to paint graffiti on anything that isn’t moved out and crushed.
I kinda preferred junk “yard” places like the way Kobers WAS set up on a mountain with some woods & shade. You had to be careful walkin around & sometimes had to move some brush to see what’s hiding from you! & you couldn’t see the whole picture of all the vehicles there at any given time.
A great adventure(pard the pun) – just didn’t want to get bit by something hiding in there. lol
http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/threads/kobers-salvage-washington-twp-nj.23345/
There are still a few out there, huge ones even. Typically been in business during happier times and in regions where urban creep and touchy locals haven’t developed a thin skin for rusty metal, oozing tanks of fluid and general automotive malaise. Leon’s Salvage in Culpepper Virginia comes to mind. You can’t see much from route 29, but you know there is more there when you spot a sea of yellow school buses and a privacy fence that runs a mile and a half. What ain’t covered and shaded by pine needles and trees is exposed to the element on rock bluffs and a nearby river. Someone sent me photos from there a couple years ago. Many intermediate and compact American cars, a few choice imports like Datsun Z, 210 and 510, but an obvious absence of any order. NO convertibles, wagons, or even single axle pickup trucks.
Yeah, we have a place like that in Sullivan Wisconsin. I try to get there a couple times a year, even when I don’t need anything. I just like to walk around that yard, looking at all of the old cars.
It might not be anything but a bunch of “junk” to some people, but it is pure gold to me!
Jack’s Auto Ranch? HE’S a character, Jack Bender. I wonder if he’s still around. I know his kid took it over. I tried to buy the Sterling truck that has his sign for years, but he wouldn’t sell.
https://imgur.com/gallery/mrbax
Yup! I was having a brain fart yesterday when I posted that & couldn’t remember the name.
Jack is still around. I met him last time I was there. Never met him before that.
His son, Doug, is still at the helm.
We had a large yard in CT, called Winnakor’s . Only open on the weekends , and was in business for years . The farther back in the woods you went , the older the cars were. Of course being in New England rust was in full force and most of the 20s and 30s cars were just rusty shells, but I used to go traipsing all over, and every time I went I found something different that I’d missed before .Sadly, when the price of scrap went through the roof a while back, the brothers decided to close up and they all were crushed.
I used to believe a “Classic” car was as defined by the Classic Car Club of America. However, now both Barn Finds and BAT include any relic dragged out of the junk yard and posthumously anointed a “classic”. As with the term “breaking news”, the words have been reduced to mindless cliches. This pointless and snarky rant was caused by too much COV19 confinement.
Howard A. If you feel that way about repairing older cars, why are you on BF? That is exactly what this is all about.
Unless I missed something, Howard didn’t say anything against working on old cars. He was saying owning a auto recycling center (junk yard to us that appreciate rusty gold) is not a great investment at this point. I gotta say, I agree with him. People part out their vintage cars on the internet, so you have world wide competition. The DNR is always up your butt like an Amish mechanic looks up a horse’s a$$.
Then you have overhead, which a lot of the internet parts guys don’t have.
I used to own a used car lot, and I am glad to be out of that business. Currently I manage a tire store and repair shop, but I can’t wait to get back to the world of Harley Davidson. I will keep the 4 wheeled toys as a hobby, let other guys mess with that for a “living”.
A lot of these cars would be a good platform for someone who has a complete but rusted out car ; you could make one good car out of the two. Obviously you wont find a GTO ,Roadrunner etc, but if someone had a less in demand car that they wanted to restore ,this would seem to be the place to start.
Based strictly on the photos, looks like every one of these cars has been picked over, so a solid body may be their only saving grace. The overwhelming size of the property could keep someone busy for decades just cataloging everything. Wonder if the buildings included are habitable and could possibly make residences in the “barn-do-minium” style?
Way too many negative comments here, frankly. Thank God for the dreamers who don’t allow negativism to destroy what they see and seek in their minds and hearts, regardless of the obstacles. I’m 84 and still working in an effort to fullfill some more dreams beyond those I’ve attained in the past.
Ken, I believe everyone can dream. It’s what keeps ones hope up even in the most dismal times. As a cancer survivor I for one can tell you it’s true. I’ll admit this venture would be interesting for me too. At least for six months or so. Then reality would sit in. What the hell have I done here?
If one was handed a check for 4.2 million the possibilities of happiness would be endless. I can tell you if I had that money one of the things I would without a doubt own is Mark Donohue’s winning 71/72 Javelin at any cost and a shack on the beach.
Many posters including me have listed the downside because of the incredible amount of risk involved in owning a world famous junk yard. So many hidden costs so much work and so little time. The amount of people you would have to have to keep it in operation. The equipment loaders etc you would have to maintain would be endless. They say don’t be a doctor as the stress will kill you. In todays environment owning a business would be about the same.
Times have changed. We are not much different in age. We lived and remember the good times. Brother those days are gone. Someone can always get a car or parts cheaper with a tap of their phone and be playing a round of golf or in a boat fishing. Parts will show up at your door. Doesn’t matter how rare or obscure on the web it’s there ever yother week.
I wonder how many snakes hang out there ? Maybe it could be declared a wildlife sanctuary. lol
round here 1 buys them all up ( a multi-national no doubt), they close, or turn into a computerized filing cabinet. The environmental laws got em, mismanagement (didn’t now that wuz possible but is – 1 pop came back cuz his kid couldn’t do it) but 1 thing is sure – none let U walk them any more. U sit ina plush office, easy chair like a doc’s office, they get it off a 20 ft hi shelf on marked sts in the yrd or a shelf inside the back). Guy looks it up on a puter, tells nother guy where to go get it. For 15, 20 yrs now – anything older than a decade old is gone to the crusher for metal. One guy I used alot (didn’t tell me this) didn’t have what I needed got frm another yrd & sold me. They deliver now just like the prts houses. Krazy. No 1 here wrks on their own and just a few of us R&R (used to mean remove’n repair – now, remove & replace)!
Sadly, like outdoor movies, junkyards you could mosey through are a dying breed. :(