You too, can buy a "scratch and dent" RV

A brand-new 2015 Heartland Sundance 5th wheel, retail price, $38,000 – sold, $20,000. The rig's front end was scraped in delivery, the dealer refused it, and Heartland didn't want it back. So Bob Ethan snapped the unit up for pennies on the dollar and turned it around at auction for the $20,000 price. Now that's one whale of a "scratch and dent" sale.

It's all in a day's work for a St. Joseph, Minnesota, auction house called Asset Management Inc. The company has been in business for a decade, largely selling repossessions. But a happy twist brought RVs into AMI's arena. They got a call from a trucking company that had a few damaged RVs that they wanted to get rid of. AMI looked into it, and in 2014 sold over 100 different RVs – not all of them "scratch and dent," but there are plenty of them. The outfit anticipates more and more of these rigs.

Not all the damaged RVs are sold at auction – the company website shows quite a list of both "for sale," and "sold" units sitting on the floor with a clear asking price. The prices can be eye-opening. Here's a typical listing:

NEW 2015 SUNDANCE TRAVEL TRAILER 25' CAMPER, MODEL 255MK, 1 SLIDE OUT, SLEEPS 7, FRIG/FREEZER, STOVE/OVEN, WATER HEATER, FURNACE, MICROWAVE, ROOF AIR, POWER AWNING, TOILET/SHOWER, BUNK OVER THE DINETTE, GENESIS STEREO SYSTEM, LED TV, POWER JACK, THIS UNIT HAS MINOR DAMAGE, GVW 8,900 ASKING $19,995 CALL BOB @ 320-267-3949

amiauction.com

Minor damage? AMI included several photos of the unit, both inside and out. We're including the photo of the damage. You'd have to be able to do the fix yourself, or count in the cost of repairs, but all in all it could be a deal. A Florida dealer is asking $29,000 for this model -- sans the damage.

Some units that the outfit gets its hands on are so badly damaged they're sold for parts; however, there's quite a selection of lesser damaged RVs. If nothing else, its an easy job to "kick a few tires" on the Internet by visiting their site.