Copart

In nineteen eighty-two, Willis Johnson owned a junkyard in California. Insurance companies called with totaled cars. He resold them at physical auctions to local dealers. Johnson had inventory but no buyers. Then Copart moved auctions online and the entire model changed. A totaled car in Sacramento had zero bidders at a local auction. Post it online and suddenly a buyer in Mexico, Dubai, or Japan could bid. The global demand for salvage was always there. It just had no marketplace. Johnson then bought land near every major city. Over two hundred thousand acres. That land became the real moat. Insurance companies needed a yard within driving distance to drop off totaled vehicles.