Whether you are a backyard mechanic looking for inexpensive car parts to fill your customers' orders, or you own a body shop, or even a chain of body shops, you need to find car parts. However, car parts can be very expensive and can really bring down your profit margin. Especially, as a backyard mechanic, if you are fixing cars for family and friends with a pre-set expectation of a price range, expensive car parts can steal the few dollars you might expect to make for your trouble.

EBay can help you find inexpensive car parts. Using eBay, or some other online auction, you will likely be able to find most of the parts you're looking for at a reasonable cost. And it's a lot of fun. Here's how it works:

You'll need to sign up with eBay and with Paypal, since many people who post on eBay require payment through Paypal. It doesn't cost anything to sign up with either one of these.

Go onto eBay and search for the parts you're looking for. You might be able to find them on the main site at eBay.com (or eBay.ca if you live in Canada) or you can go directly to eBay motors, which is an automotive-specific sister site to eBay.

You can browse by the make and model of vehicle, and you may even find an entire vehicle that you can use for parts if need be.

Once you have found the kind of vehicle parts you're looking for, you'll want to make sure that you are purchasing the auto parts from a reputable seller. You can do this by looking at their feedback, which eBay posts from previous buyers. You'll also want to make sure that they ship to your area. For example, if you are buying auto parts from the US, but you live in Canada, you'll need to make sure that they ship to Canada.

Once you are satisfied that you are purchasing from a reputable buyer and that they will deliver the parts to you, you can place a bid by clicking on the "bid" button.

Part of the fun of purchasing on eBay is to watch the auction draw to a close. If someone bids higher than you, you will need to re-bid on it again if you want another chance to own it.

When the auction closes and you find that you have won, you will need to make arrangements with the seller for payment and shipping. Payment is easy with Paypal, all you need is the seller's e-mail address. Once your payment has been processed, the seller will send you the car part you bought.

The main advantage of using eBay is that it is a fun way to get parts affordably. The main disadvantage is the time factor: For example, you could bid on a part and lose it moments before the auction closes. Still, for the amount of money you could save, this might be a worthwhile option.

Jeff Lakie is the founder of Car Parts Information a website providing information on Car Parts