A Message from Copart Founder &
Chairman Willis J. Johnson

Dear Customer,

I'm writing to you to explain how our new Quick Auction opportunity came about and how it can benefit you and other people across this great country.

When I bought my first location back in the 1970s, I found I couldn't compete with the larger auto salvage and dismantling companies. So, I decided to purchase cars out of the newspaper. I couldn’t buy enough automobiles that way, so I started running ads to buy junk and salvage vehicles in newspapers like PennySavers and Wheels & Deals, on late night radio shows, and even cheap TV commercials. I could buy cars from $35 to $50 apiece, scrap them out, and put all the sellable parts on the shelf of my salvage yard.

I don't run the day-to-day operations of Copart anymore, but as the Chairman of the Board my mind never leaves the success of Copart and our customers. I built Copart to do three things: get as many automobiles as possible from the insurance industry and put them up for sale for our customers; supply our customers with as much salvage as they can handle at reasonable prices; and save them time & money.

Back when I was starting off, I had to be gone about 30% of the time to travel to a lot of different auctions around California to buy salvage. These auctions were done by sealed bid, so we put in our bids and hoped for the best. Sometimes we bought very few vehicles and other times way too many. The other thing I spent a lot of time doing was buying cars off the street. People didn’t have a way of disposing of their salvage cars, so I could buy them at a cheaper price.

All that came back to me last year when I was driving through the countryside and outside the major cities. I kept seeing a lot of automobiles behind people’s houses, out in the fields with grass growing through them. They had been abandoned for a long time, and the owners had no idea how to dispose of unwanted, nonrunning, damaged vehicles. As I thought about this problem, what came to mind was a sealed bid auction. That’s when I came up with QuickAuction.com.

If I could advertise on a national level and educate people about how to dispose of these automobiles in a quick and easy way, our buyers could sell the scrap iron at a high price and recycle the aluminum wheels, catalytic converters, and all the spare parts that they could sell to the public. You just have to think outside the box to understand the sheer volume of vehicles that would go through this process a year on a national level.

It would put money in the owners’ pockets, recycle some of the largest amount of scrap iron in America, and help clean up this nation’s beautiful countryside. It would benefit the sellers, recyclers, and the entire country. But it has to be quick and fast for the buyer and seller.

It's all about educating the seller, and we will also be educating them on how to be a customer of yours by buying recycled auto parts. I am willing to spend the time and money to make this education happen by advertising on radio, TV, billboards, and social media to bring these products to you. But we need to work as partners. I will find the automobiles and put them on Quick Auction so you will have the opportunity to buy a vehicle within 15 minutes.

I am making this process as easy as I can for the seller by asking for just five pictures, including in the engine compartment. You as a professional buyer can make up your mind what sellable parts and scrap iron value you can get from these vehicles.

Vehicles will be coming in at all hours of the night and through the weekend. So, when you wake up in the morning, you’ll know the auction starts at 8 AM in your area. You may wake up early and look through all the vehicles that have come in. Then you'll submit your sealed bids. At 8:15 a.m. the hammer drops, and you’ll know how many automobiles you've bought.

If you're willing to partner with me in this exciting new opportunity, please sign up at QuickAuction.com. I hope you all will participate and make a lot of money. Because you know, as a Copart customer, we love you.

Sincerely,

Willis J. Johnson

Founder & Chairman of the
Board

Copart Inc.