Wheels and the Web: Junkers go online - cement blocks, weeds and all
By Mark Glover -- Bee Auto Editor
Published 2:15 am PDT Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Like it or not, the rusting automobile is a mainstream component of America's roadway landscape.
They are everywhere, from big-city backyards to rural farm fields.
What to do about that restoration "project" that has been resting in the same spot, untouched, for the past 20 years? Surely, there must be some way to make a dollar off it before it turns to dust.
Take heart, procrastinators of America, deliverance might be a mouse click away at http://www.myglobaljunkyard.com/ - launched this past summer.
The Web site is the brainchild of Steve Braithwaite, a native Briton who has been living in the United States for nearly 20 years. Like most motorists who have spent any time behind the wheel in the U.S., Braithwaite said he was astonished to see "so many junk vehicles sitting in the weeds next to homes. I mean, they're everywhere. ... I just thought there was a way people can make money off these vehicles."
From his home in the tiny community of Linden, Mich. - just south of Flint in the state's southeastern region - Braithwaite and Flint resident Steve Myers combined their talents as Web designers to start their "Global Junkyard" site, which they unveiled in August.
The site is structured to be a worldwide database for buying and selling parts ... and not just of motor vehicles. Tractors, motorcycles, snowmobiles, bulldozers, all-terrain vehicles, personal watercraft, boats and forklifts can be listed, along with big-ticket items such as school buses, dump trucks and large farm machinery.
Besides buying and selling, the site also can be used for those looking to "repair, reuse or recycle" mechanical hardware.
In essence, myglobaljunkyard.com is sort of private-party-junk-dealer meets eBay.
The site requires signing up for a free membership before registering the vehicles you want to sell. Sellers submit hardware details, along with uploaded photos. Interested parties searching the site can contact the seller by e-mail. Once the parties agree on a price, items can be shipped by the seller or picked up in person by the buyer.
Searching the database as a prospective buyer costs nothing.
The site is offering free registration for the first 20,000 vehicles entered into its database. After that, there will be a $10 per-vehicle fee for sellers.
Braithwaite, an avid builder of hot rods who someday wants to journey around the world in a 1931 Ford Model A coupe, predicted that most sellers will see earnings well beyond the listing fee: "The way I look at it, if you're selling a windshield or something, you're going to sell it for more than $10."
One would think that myglobaljunkyard.com represents a start toward removing unsightly junk from the yards and garages of millions of Americans. Perhaps, but Braithwaite believes it might go another way.
"I have a feeling that there are a lot of wives pestering their husbands to get rid of their junk vehicles," he said. "But now, the husbands are going to say, 'See, honey, I can keep them and make money off them.' "
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