At Advantage Salvage & Auto Parts, every piece counts

When most people look at a wrecked car, they see something bound for the junkyard. Mark Coplin sees value. As owner of Advantage Salvage and Auto Parts, Coplin has 35 years’ experience turning what others see as having little value into a thriving business reusing and recycling the parts of damaged vehicles.
“I can see the value of it,” Coplin said. “I can see the worth of the parts on the vehicle.”
With experience, he and his staff dismantles, inventories, and shelves reusable parts. All the information about each part, including photos of most of the cars, are stored in a computer database, where it can be recalled in seconds.
“In the olden days, you had index cards to do inventory,” Coplin said. “Technology has alleviated the pain of that.”
Modernization has a flipside, too.
“Cars have gotten so much more complex now,” he said. “Everything is personalized.”
When once, a salvage yard only had to worry about whether a car had steel or aluminum wheels, most of today’s cars have four different steel wheels or 10 different aluminum wheels available for just one model. That’s just an example of the different options available on vehicles today. At least with his business’s system, Coplin can print an inventory sheet and get a full breakdown of options for any car.
“So we can inventory and sell the correct parts,” he continued.
Coplin’s goal is to get his customers just the right parts the first time.
“We don’t want to be a shotgun, where we fire off and try to hit something,” he said. “We want to be a rifle and hit the target with the right part. With the appropriate questions and the right information from the customer, we can get it right the first time.”
Just the right part is usually located in the 15,000-square-foot warehouse on a 10-acre property, where car parts are carefully catalogued and shelved waiting to be installed and put to work again. It’s all part of a process that starts when the car first comes into the yard.
“We go through several stages to ensure the best quality possible,” Coplin said.
Each car is taken into a tear-down area. If it can be started and driven, that is done to test out its parts. All the fluids are drained and hazardous materials pulled out. The car is inventoried complete before dismantling begins. Once the parts are removed and shelved and the hulls are stored on the lot, the crew does what Coplin calls a “shakedown.”
“We make sure the car’s parts listed as on the shelf are actually there and the parts left on the car are in the yard,” he said. “The doors, the fenders, quarter panels, those stay on the hull.”
Coplin got his start in the business when his aunt, who was left with a wrecking yard when her husband died, called him for help. A dedicated “car guy” already, he stayed in the industry, eventually owning his own company for the past 15 years. His son, Mark “M.J.” Coplin Jr., works right along with him.
Advantage Salvage and Auto Parts sells to dealerships, garages, and body shops as well as to the public and ships nationwide. Other sales come from emails, calls, or walk-in customers looking for parts for their own cars. What they find includes courteous, knowledgable employees and, quickly, the parts they need.
“We want return business,” Coplin said. “We’re not your one-hit wonders. We want you to come back when you see the value and ease of dealing with us.”
Return business is not the only goal, however. Coplin also strives to be a good steward of the earth’s resources.
“We run a clean yard,” he said of the 10-acre facility. “We recycle. All of our waste oil is recycled, everything is recycled. We do things right. We love the great state of Texas and want to keep it clean for our kids, our grandkids, and our great grandkids.”
Advantage Salvage and Auto Parts is located at 5330 Agnes St. Call (361) 289-5000 or email mark@advantagesalvage.com. Visit the website at advantagesalvage.com.