I just sold my small IT business for ~$500k and now I want to move into the automotive world, but something offline, not SaaS or digital products. Looking for ideas.

Lmao that’s pretty funny because I have an automotive electronics manufacturing business with machines and everything and dream of moving into an IT related business.

Open a shop that has memberships and allows regular people to use the bays. Stock it with tools, scanners, etc. You “MAY” have to have employees to operate the lifts, depends on the state and your insurance.

I’ve been working with auto auctioneers for a long time and the store-and-sell model jumps out at me as something the market is ready for. A lot of collectors have more cars than space, and plenty of them sit for months because the owner isn’t quite ready to sell or doesn’t want to deal with the hassle. A setup where you give them secure storage plus a built-in path to sale feels like a natural fit.

The part that gets interesting is the auctions-on-demand idea. Instead of pushing everything into a fixed sale date, you treat each vehicle like its own event. The owner drops it off, you document it properly, store it in a clean warehouse, and add it to a virtual showroom that buyers can browse any time. Every vehicle has a starting price visible up front. Once a qualified bidder decides to test the waters by placing that first bid, the auction clock starts. At that exact moment you trigger the marketing blast. Dealers, collectors, and people on your interested-buyers list get a heads up that the auction is now live.

This gives the seller flexibility, since they aren’t rushed into a specific auction weekend. It also creates a bit of tension for buyers because they know the moment someone else bids, the countdown begins and the car goes into active promotion. You end up with something more dynamic than a simple classified listing, but without the overhead of constantly running full-scale auction events.

Operationally, it builds real momentum. You’d have a warehouse full of classic cars that are always “on deck.” Most will sit quietly until someone somewhere feels brave enough to place that first bid. When they do, you become the one running the announcement campaign, photography refresh, social push, email blast, whatever tools you already know auctioneers use. The cars that get traction will move quickly, and the ones that don’t still bring in storage revenue.

This is basically a hybrid of consignment, climate-controlled storage, and online auctions, but structured so the seller never feels like their car is stuck in limbo. Buyers get excitement and transparency. You get a business with real physical assets and day-to-day activity instead of a one-weekend-a-month rush. If I had the capital and wanted something hands-on in the automotive world, this is the model I’d be digging into.