I bought my Explorer at an abandoned vehicle auction. Per Alabama's abandoned vehicle law, the vehicles must be offered to the public, so I was able to bid on vehicles just by showing my driver's license. They can't restrict these sales to dealers only.
I found out about the Explorer two days before the auction from a friend and knew it was in really rough shape, but also knew it was 4WD figured at worst I'd have a pile of parts for my '94 Ranger if I won it. Since it was non-running/no keys and everyone was paying attention to the running Tahoe with police evidence tape all over it, I won it for $250 and had the towing company who ran the auction tow it to my house.
Now a couple months and another $1200 or so in work to get it into shape and I'm driving it. It still needs some odds and ends, but ironically drives as good/better than the Rangers now. It was abandoned at I think a Crazy Bill's fireworks store (paint marker said "abandoned @ Crazy Bill's" on back window) after the belt tensioner fell apart and the belt came off, but it had a long list of things that were way overdue...all four tires were bald, brakes shot all the way around, cracked radiator, etc. It was rough, but nothing that couldn't be replaced and it's 100% rust free.
Early December 2018:
Current:
Aside from the whole uncertainty of buying a non-running 25 year old truck, it was actually one of the smoothest purchases I have ever made as far as the transaction. The paperwork process was very efficient and straightforward. The tow yard just printed out a standardized bill of sale from the "Alabama Abandoned Vehicle Portal," and I submitted that with the title application, and a couple weeks later I had my title.