I had a long conversation with a yard guy about this recently too. He had something like 30 123s in his yard, and about 20 126s, and then the next time I came out, he had a total of 2 123s and 15 126s.

The big thing that he said for his yard, is that a vehicle that was last sold in the mid 80s is actually not a profitable salvage yard parts vehicle from a bang for the buck perspective, depending on region. They take up the same space as a much newer vehicle, and all the parts are worth far less, plus he is catering mostly to a relatively small and obsessed DIY crowd who are generally well informed on what something should cost, and usually buy unprofitable pieces like trim, linkages, and bolts.

He crushed most of the 123 bodies that were there because he pointed out that he may see 1-4 123 owners in his yard a month, and each one of them spent something like 10 bucks. (most of his cars were really rusty, so body parts are not profitable) By getting rid of them, he filled the spaces with much newer mercedes models with more expensive parts for sale.

__________________
This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.