I've seen the Me*** and Barrett-Jackson auctions - hell, I watched the Scottsdale one on fast-forward. I saw a bunch of cars go for WAY less than I'd imagined. I even made a few comments like, "If this car goes for $X, I may as well sell all my stuff and get one of those!" Then I looked at the fees - they make you pay extra if you buy OR sell a car there. I figured I'd ask - has anyone here bought or sold a car at one of the big auctions? Is it worth it to do so, or do you get more money/less h***le just selling your car in the HAMB cl***ifieds? If so, why would anyone want to buy/sell at an auction in the first place? ~Jason I mean, this summer, this went for $39k. I couldn't build one for that, and it's about the price of a new car anyway - I could get a loan, and drive it, you know?
My father in law bought a 69 zl1 camaro clone for 66000, after the buyers premium, his check ended up being 74000. The sellers premium is 6 percent of sale price and a 500 to 1000 to list, depending if you want the car on tv. They call it star car. I've been there twice, to rich for my blood. If a car don't sell you are still out the 500 or 1000.
Its a **** shoot. I have seen junk go high and good stuff sell for way less than value. Just advertise in the cl***ifieds be honest about it and if someone needs a second pair of eyes I will come take a look for them.
I would consider it but would have to have a reserve. The fees are a **** shoot if it doesn't sell, gotta spend some money to make some money. A couple years ago a 1967 Corvette with tri-power came on the block at 10pm, no reserve, on a Thursday. There was hardly anyone in the stands and a car that should have sold for between 110,00 to 150,000 went for 50K. Smoken deal for the buyer.
I can't handle the stress involve, nor the expense, when selling at auction. I just don't like the uncertainty and the fact that my car is getting messed with. But I will buy at auction, and enjoy doing so, but I always pre-inspect and it needs to be the "smoken deal" mentioned in a previous post. It is important to keep in mind that all sales are final and "Let the Buyer Beware".
since you mention maybe getting a loan to maybe buy a super deal says " I can't afford to be a wheeler dealer". plus, all of the above warnings you do not get to go for a test drive at an auction. stick with cl***ifieds here and online. if you do find something always go to see it yourself, no matter how far away.
Hey remember at me*** how much that junk rod went for? I just couldn't believe that it would go for more than s**** price.
Buying at any auction is better than selling. As a buyer you can stop bidding, but as a seller you're stuck with whatever happens. Just keep in mind that the final check you write will be 10 - 15% higher than the last bid. .
I read a thread recently about a Hamber that tried to sell his 40 sedan here and no one even made a decent offer,,sent it to BJ and got a little more than he wanted. Some times it works. HRP
A little over a decade ago I worked for Deals On Wheels Publications in the feild servicing cl***ic car dealers etc.. Whenever I was in the office they dumped in-coming callers wondering what there cars were worth and so on. I also went to many auctions distributing publications. I also personally bought cars myself and sold them usually after driving them for a period of time. So I've seen it from a lot of different sides. Some people don't like the h***les of all the telephone calls they get from a cl***ified. They take their car to a auction not fully understanding the fees, then they set a reserve while auction people are trying to talk them out of it, the car goes thru the line and doesn't make reserve and again the auction is trying to talk them out of the reserve, finally he agrees and maybe the car bid goes up a bit. After the car doesn't bring what he felt it should he has to pay sellers fees. Then he finds out that he has to wait for his money, in Barrets case I think it's 90 dayes. It's not for me !
This is one of the reasons that prompted me to ask this questions in the first place. Apparently there are lots of crazy people there with money that will buy anything. It kind of makes me wonder what they WON'T buy. You could bring a 1947 Turdmobile Deluxe there and get 8X it's worth, all because people are ******* crazy. People with money who can afford to be. ~Jason
Sold 5 cars last week at B-J Auto Auction and bought 1 truck. The fee on the sellers side was 8 percent taken out of my check(s). The truck we purchased had an additional ten percent added on to the total cost. Some years we come out of there looking like heroes, other time we've looked like total looser chumps. It's a ****s shoot. We do it for the rush, the love for collector cars and yes, sometimes we make some money at it.
In the late 90s when my wife was going to school in southern USA, I was buying cars at dealer only auctions in Canada, taking them south and selling them at the same type of auction. Thats when the Canadian $$$ was only $0.67 US. It was like printing your own money til the US dealers got wise to it.
I think BJ and most of the other auctions are huge ripoffs to both the seller and the buyer. Stupid people spending stupid money.
an O/T car I sold in 2004 for $20k just sold at B-J last weekend, for $165k. No real changes to what I sold 9 years ago, new headliner, new alternator instead of the generator that was on it when I sold it, SOMEbody is sure smiling...
I've bought and sold at the collector's auctions (NOT Scottsdale!) a few times. I was happy with the process each time. Made money when I sold. Got great deals when I bought. Can't complain.
Was at BJ last week, definitely some smoking deals if you were not into "rare Shelbys"(I think there were 45 of those) did talk to guys that had bought cars there in previous years that turned out to be ****. Unless the owner is there, you can't open the hood or doors, hear it run, look under it etc. Kind of risky for the kind of money and fees involved. It was funny to see how many cars wouldn't start, or died on the way off of the stage. On the sale side, there were several fresh builds that went for pennies on the dollar spent, some of those guys would have been better off trying to sell privately.
That would be me. It took me quite awhile and a LOT of research before I committed to an auction but I'm glad I did. Sold now at the last 2 B-J and had great experiance both times. After doing the research I finally got the balls to do B-J with no reserve. I feel like they bring in more serious buyers and my research shows that on average the cars there bring better money. I looked at it like this, they have the buyers so I feel like your car will sell for what it is worth in today's market, if it don't the car just isn't worth as much as you think it is. Plus a lot of those cars you see on TV that look like bargains for the most part have reasons you can't see on TV why they don't bring the money, you got to be there. After looking into Me*** and Russle Steel I just don't like how it operates. I don't want to be there getting pressured to drop the reserve as soon as the bidding slows and if you don't they push it off and your out your fees and expences. At least when I go to B-J I know the car will not be coming back! Not sure anyone has noticed but at B-J last week they had just shy of 1400 cars auctioned in 6 days. Me*** is going on now, they say they have over 3000 cars but the same time frame, 6 days. Tells me each car spends half the time on the block at Me***, for that reason I'd never go there with no reserve! I was impressed on how long they worked my 40 on the block, it had stalled at 18K but they worked it up to twice that. I feel at one of the others the would of sold it at 18 (no reserve or I drop it) or would of been pushed off at that point. I know there are B-J haters on here (and big auctions in general) but I'm now a fan. After trying for months to sell my 40 and putting up with a bunch of stupid calls, fake promises, insulting offers for stupid lowball price or **** trades (seriously, a guy wanted to trade an unrestored, yellow with green interior 74 Monte Carlo straight across) I plan on going to Barrett anytime I'm selling a collector car, I not even going to deal with other methods. As a matter of fact I'm building a 40 PU and a 39 Tudor right now as flippers and plan to sell them in Scottsdale next year. FWIW I dought I'd ever buy a car there unless I win the lotto or something, but then I'm cheap and always look for the bargain and honestly, I don't see many bargains there.
I buy and sell all of my cars and cattle by private treaty. TOO MANY GHOST BIDDERS AT AUCTION. This is a common practice of all auctioneers.If the auctioneer is not careful he cold end up being the new owner. E-bay has a lot of ghost bidders and they end up buying their listed item. They usually list the item again and complain about a non paying high bidder. I do not have cattle- a local rancher sells his cows in the spring and does not use an auctioneer. He sells by private treaty according to his adverti*****ts on the radio.
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