[thstone]

The best advice that I can give is that all of the profit is made in the purchase price. The challenge is to buy a Boxster at a price cheap enough to be able to make a reasonable profit after parting it out. Remember, you'll most likely be competing against people who do this for a living and have certain efficiencies (advantages) at buying, disassembling, listing/selling, and shipping salvage parts. Because of their advantages, they can pay more for a car and still make a profit.

To give you some specific advice, a couple of salvage guys that I know won't pay more for a car than the resale value of the engine + transmission. Usually, selling the engine and the trans is the easiest and by using this rule, you're almost guaranteed to break even. Then everything else you sell after the engine + trans is "profit". While this sounds like a great strategy, everyone else also knows it (and a lot, lot more!) and so finding a good car priced at the value of the engine + trans can often be impossible. That is what I meant by competing against people who have advantages. That doesn't mean that it can't be done; I'm just offering a few thoughts that you will want to consider before going down this path.

In regards to "profit", I put it in quotes because whether you make a true profit depends on how you value the time that it takes to find, buy, disassemble, list each part, go back and forth with potential buyers, collect the money, and ship each part. If you value your time at $0/hr, then you'll certainly make a profit. If you value your time at $15/hr, you may struggle to make a true profit.

But if you just want to do this to generate some cash (regardless of the time investment), then it could work out and it certainly would be a great learning experience.

My other best advice to anyone is that they should do what they are most skilled at to earn money. In this way, they maximize their income potential. For example, if you know plumbing, would you work in electrical to make side money? You'd be much better off doing side work in plumbing where can be paid for your experience, knowledge, and tools that you already have. Thus, if you have other skills that have greater economic value than auto salvage, you might be better off using those skills to generate the cash you need to buy the car that you want.

With all of that being said, if you still want to do it, go for it.