Cars for Cash

Cars for cash is a buzzword with it's origins in the earliest late night television. Local junk car dealers initially bought up cheap late night ad space and used cheesy videos of cars with their doors falling off, and a handful of cash, to drum up business.

Cars for cash was a novel approach in the 1970's and 1980's because up to that point, people were used to paying to have their old cars towed away, and even had to pay storage or disposal fees on top of that. Small cars for cash operations flourished because they could offer $20 to $40 dollars for a car, junk the car for scrap steal, and make a few bucks after paying for their marketing and towing expenses.

The cars for cash business was initially challenged by the cars for kids and other car donation charities. By 2005, fully a third of junk cars that left America's road ended up being donated to charities. More recently, however, the diminishing costs of of marketing because of the Internet, as well as the economic environment, have brought a resurgence of businesses offer to pay cash for old cars.

Selling cars for scrap used to simply mean selling car for recyclable steel. The green movement and the tight economy, however, have expanded the definition of what salable scraps can be recycled from your car.