How to Sell your Rims and Wheels: 3 Helpful Tips
Lost on how to sell your old rims that have been sitting in your garage gathering dust? Interested in making some extra cash for them?
While we want you to immediately give Santa Ana Wheel a call, we want you to be well informed on how to sell your wheels and how to make the process easy and painless.
Notice the differences between an OEM rim and an aftermarket one.
- Determine the value of your wheels, are they aftermarket or original, a.k.a. factory?
- Original wheels, or “Factory” wheels or other automotive parts which were made by the manufacturer of the car. This is also called OEM, or Original Equipment Manufactured. For example, a set of Mustang rims were manufactured by Ford. As opposed to having an aftermarket brand which fits on a Mustang, which is not affiliated with Ford.
- An original wheel will usually have the original brand on the center cap; typically an aftermarket brand cannot use the car brand on their caps.
- Wheel shops such as Santa Ana Wheel only buy Original Factory wheels; aftermarket is considered an entirely different industry and market. If you have found you have aftermarket or replica wheels, feel free to give us a call to check your options for those.
- Wheel Condition: What is a “Good” used wheel?
A used original Honda wheel in good condition
- The value of your wheels depends on a few variables, mostly the model and the cosmetic condition of the wheel.
- How OLD are your wheels?
- After 7 years the life of a used auto part slowly starts going down so it becomes more unlikely a business can purchase and resell it as a used part. This is something to take into consideration, if the original car has lasted on the road for years and years, or if this car was a trend at the time and it is no longer popular. This will also determine the value of your wheels.
- Do your wheels have a lot of scratches or curb rash? The more banged up a wheel is the more the value goes down, unless the wheel is very rare, in that case, a little TLC will do the trick and your wheel is still valuable.
- What Kind of businesses will purchase your old Factory wheels, and what are their policies?
- Used Auto part shops can purchase your rims and resell to the general public, the value of the wheel is a good determining factor if they can make back their profit.
- The value of your wheels depends on the shops policies and regulations:
- Most wheels must be STRAIGHT. A straight, or "true" wheel still has the same shape and integrity without any bents, hops, bumps, etc. It is entirely possible to have a bent wheel and not even be aware, some hops are so slight they are undetectable to the naked eye.
- Shops will have a machine to test the trueness of the rims, so be sure to ask to see the wheels being spun.
For any questions or inquiries, feel free to contact Santa Ana Wheel on our policies and selling procedure. Happy Selling!
