Turning clunkers into cash

Red Ballard pull parts from a Salvaged car outside his shop on Evelyn Street. (KAREN WINK / AMERICAN PRESS)

By Rachel Warren / AMERICAN PRESS

Nearly every time Red Ballard’s phone rings, it’s a chance for him to make money.

He’s not a telemarketer, nor does he work for tech support — Ballard buys and sells junk vehicles.

Ballard is not alone. Classified sections are filled with ads placed by people who buy vehicles that no longer run. In a time of economic uncertainty, many say the business is profitable.

Joe Henry, owner of Buy-U-Junk, said he’s been buying junk cars for about a year.

Henry said he pays owners for their broken-down vehicles based on the cars’ weight and then sells them to a recycler.

Henry gets five to 15 phone calls each day in response to his ads and buys 30-40 vehicles each month, he said.

Henry stumbled on the junk-car industry when he had trouble finding a job in the area.

“I had some friends who were doing it, so I went out and got my license,” he said. “It’s been very prosperous.”

John Landry said he began hauling scrap cars as a side job years ago, but that it eventually became the main source of his income.

Unfortunately, the industry hasn’t been as lucrative for Landry in recent years. He said he sometimes goes days without receiving a call.

Ballard, owner of White Trash Productions, has been a mechanic, welder and pipefitter, so he’s spent nearly a lifetime preparing for his current occupation.

Unlike Henry, Ballard doesn’t sell his vehicles directly to a recycler.

First he retrieves motor oils, tires, batteries and whatever else he can.

He then sells the shells of the vehicles to Southern Scrap, where junkyard employees crush them and transport them to a facility in Texas.

The shells are ground into square-inch chunks and sorted based on what material each is made of.

Ballard said the amount of money he pays for a car depends on several factors, including model year and size.

Ballard receives one to five phone calls each day, and said people would be surprised to know how many residents own a junk car.

“A lot of people have these in their yard or under their carport,” he said. “They just walk by it every day and eventually it becomes a piece of furniture.”

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