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Automotive Used Parts Website Idea

ZeekOSUZeekOSU subscriber Posts: 2
edited August 2009 in Selecting a Business
I need some advice on this particular website idea....
One of my biggest passions in life is working on cars, motorcycles, and basically anything mechanical.  I didn`t have a lot of money growing up, so a lot of the parts I bought were used.  Autozone and those types of stores have a lot of inexpensive small parts you can buy, but components like wiring harnesses, interior panels, special bolts, etc is nowhere to be found in those types of stores.  Plus, their prices are rather high.  Considering there is a huge number of junkyards in this country, it`s considerably difficult to gain access to their inventory without visiting them yourself.  Some people shop on ebay or search local classifieds to find used parts, but finding the right part is still difficult on those websites because there`s not an organized way to search.
The idea is to create a website that is free to sellers to post their items and free for users. The junkyards and other sellers can post their inventory on the website, along with pricing, contact information, shipping info, etc.  The website would be setup with an easy to use search function where users could search by name, part number or location of part on the car. The key to this website would be to have a strict format that posters would have to follow but a format that would make it easy to junkyards with a large inventory to post the items.  Specific information and pictures of the product would have to be included when posting.  The website would also use a specific shipping service that would result in lower shipping costs.  The website would have an electronic shipping form that the part seller would print out and slap on the box.  The shipping company would pick the items up without the seller having to make a trip to the post office or shipping post. 
The main idea of this site is really to create a centralized website for anyone looking for any used and hard to find auto/motorcycle/boat/rv parts.  Junkyards, private sellers, etc can all use it for free provided they include the required data.  (A lot of sites I`ve seen try to do this fail to include pictures, email address, part condition or even price - they usally say "call for price" which irritates me)
Any thoughts?

Comments

  • shemwelljrshemwelljr subscriber Posts: 2
    www.car-part.com
    I think that your idea has been done.  Maybe not with everything you`ve entailed, but that is a pretty good site, in my opinion.  I`m not sure how you would improve exactly on a site like this, but the idea is obviously a good one.
  • daniel_carsodaniel_carso subscriber Posts: 0
    You have a huge potential with this. Cars nowadays are not made to last long (at least not all cars), and not all people can afford to buy a new one every year.
    I work with a web agency and they replace plenty of labor force with business intelligence. What you can have here is a site where user/finder can look up for a part, while supplier or manufacturer, be it a used part from a junkyard or new can also upload a list of their inventory with an image and price.
    user/finder can then access and filter by search term, category, location and condition of the part to find what they are looking for.. A match and buy!
    A gateway with paypal could be used, it's simple if you are a small business you can get cheap shipping and handling from any postal service or other optional for the large parts, so when an item is bought the supplier or manufacturer will get payment via paypal along with a label to get things out of the door and shipped.
    It's all business intelligence, it can definitely be done. I was looking for a part myself a few weeks ago I couldn't find at any autozone, had to get it online. Plus, if you love cars and motorcycles you can also start a blog/online magazine for recommendations and the like. A good niche no doubt.
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