Trust & Transparency

I think that stringent requirements of the sellers to provide honest, thorough and even entertaining quality content might actually be it's most attractive feature and a big draw.
For various reasons, people do appreciate being part of something special and exclusive.

 

You are right, it does take a LOT of work to do a writeup and document the car and tech info. A lot of sellers can't do it. Many are just lazy and want the car to be gone so they can be done with it. On the flip side, many BUYERS are lazy. They don't want to see how the sausage is made. They are purchasing on an emotional level. Better to hit BUY NOW and come to the Internet later and bitch that it isn't what you were expecting than to do YOUR due diligence as a buyer in the first place. We have seen many threads like that, even recently.

A couple personal examples. I sold my old 54 Chevy locally, to a young dude from our local Hot Rod School. He had no interest in what was done to it, what the spare parts were etc..............just get in on the trailer and go. When I sold my Touring to George, I had a 2 page list of all the work done with as many specs as I could write down, I faxed it to him before we even made the deal. The next guy? He didn't really care for all the details and put it up here in the classifieds for sale. In my opinion, the listing could have been so much more complete with the data and updates to what George had done with it during his tenure.

 

Good. Make it difficult enough to weed out those who don't care about the details.

 

Everything you said is correct. I would add that the sellers need to be more proactively involved in the auction. They need to pay attention to the discussion comments and questions and respond fairly promptly. When they dont respond, the buyer only can assume they are hiding something.

I am not sure where it is posted, but you also need to tell potential buyers that the car has a clear title (or not) and maybe tell a little more about your vetting process.

Also, pictures of the undercarriage tell more than words most of the time. A seller that is being forthright, should go to the trouble of posting some undercarriage pictures. All you need do is put the car on a lift, lie on your back on a creeper and snap a few shots with your phone.

 

The perception of people on condition of cars vary greatly, I don’t think you can fix that. There are some really great home car builders and then the ones who aren’t but think they are. I’ve seen total POS cars where the owners think they are Ridler quality cars. Unless someone can go and assess the cars it is always Buyer Beware.

 

Hey Ryan, I've kept up with the auction since it went live, I'm not a buyer, but for the sake of curiosity and wanting it to be successful for you and the hot rod community as a whole. To quote Forrest Gump, I'm not a smart man, but you know that sellers are looking for top dollar and buyers are seeking a steal. It'll go, I told a buddy that's in the market about the auction, and he's been watching for "that car" to be listed. There are an untold number of members here that never interact, they just sell cars, and it makes me wonder if they are aware of the auction? If there was a way to throw a big advertisement that they had to get past before they could list their car for sell? But I'm sure it's gonna work out, most are still circling it and poking it with a stick. Once they realize that it's a good thing they'll climb on board. Have a great day man

 

Would some "lower end" projects help? I'd be willing to list a few if you thought it would help.

 

Ryan, I don't think you have any trust issues with Hamber's, we know how you put your heart and soul into every site that falls under the Atomic Industries banner and know your words are golden, people that are not failure with any of the sites are the people your friend is talking about.

I have been following the auction site as I am sure most everyone here has, I also know throwing money out the window doesn't come easy especially considering the success you have had with your web sites.

I would like to have bid on a couple of cars but to be honest I just don't have much disposable cash right now but who knows what the future holds.

I hope things with take of and the sells will start coming in soon HRP

 

Rockable wrote:
"am not sure where it is posted, but you also need to tell potential buyers that the car has a clear title (or not) and maybe tell a little more about your vetting process."

Just saying title is clear could be deceptive to Buyer. It should also state if the title is in the Seller's name.

 

I hope it's no secret which one is mine. Ask me anything, and I guess I'll look at the discussion part of this closer. I had hoped to drop it on and let it eat. My insticts to push it in places must be right. So I'll ask in the open, do we as owner/sellers put up a post "...look at my auction..."? I think yes. Some kinda follow each other, none of us are the only enthusiasts we know, spreading the word has to help beyond a banner and simple topical discussions. Opinions welcome...

 

At the risk of getting bashed, I have a few comments. I'm a BAT user. I sold my truck last year there. I had 214 pics, multiple videos including a project video that showed the complete construction of the truck. I had quick replies to all of the questions asked. The buyer has to have complete confidence in something 2000 miles away to bid serious money. It helps if you have realistic expectations and not the "if I can't get my price, than I won't sell it" attitude. We all know the time and money it takes to build things. That has little to do with what the market will dictate. One thing that I believe Ryan is up against is the current user base of his auction site. It took BAT a long time to become well known. The outsiders that come in as newbies is where I think the sales will come from. The watchers on BAT come from every faucet of the auto world. If only HAMB members are watching the auctions and many build their own stuff, I don't see that this will improve much. There are a lot of flippers on BAT, if that bothers you, then I don't think you will be happy with an auction. BAT supervises the titles and vins pretty closely. Once again, the level of trust is of extreme importance. I'm just one person and have one opinion like everybody else. The world doesn't revolve around anything I do. I just added my observation to the conversation. Thank you.

 

Most of my projects have rust and transparency issues as well

 

Yeah, but you’d drive them. He he .

 

My car is listed and I appreciate the input Ryan gave regarding the listing. Quite frankly, I would invite anyone to critique the listing and post their comments here. It won’t hurt my feelings and might aid Ryan going forward.

 

Doesn't that just turn the main board into a classified section?

 

I was just thinking about listing my project 34 sedan, what do you think? $18,000?

 

All good things take time.

 

I tend to think in very simple terms.

I would attribute the slow results in the Auction as being basic cause-and-effect. Every person visiting the site asks (and answers) the same basic question (in his own mind) about each car offered for auction during his visit to the site:

Question: "Do I want that car (whichever one he's looking at) enough to pay for it if I win the bidding?"

Answer: "No."

End of discussion, so he doesn't bid.

So...even if the site gets plenty of traffic, if none of the cars being auctioned appeal to the individual potential bidders enough to motivate him to bid on it, there will be no sales.

But even more important than that, there is already a mechanism by which a potential bidder can ask questions and have them answered, so difficulty in asking the seller questions about any listing deficiencies isn't a factor.

So...to dwell on shortcomings of the listings isn't really productive. To be blunt: If none of the cars being offered appeals to potential buyers there will be little SERIOUS auction activity. If the car doesn't motivate a potential buyer to SEEK MORE INFORMATION the sale will not take place.

It's not Ryan's job to be sure there's enough lipstick on the pig to make buyers interested, nor to overcome the reluctance of a buyer to cast a bid. It is Ryan's job to PROVIDE TRAFFIC to the site, and he is doing that extremely well by all accounts.

If there's a match to be made, it will be made...regardless of all other factors. If there is no match to be made, it won't.

If I was asked to make a suggestion (which I wasn't) I would suggest that, by whatever means, the number of cars offered for auction be increased.

As has already been mentioned in this thread, I agree that some potential sellers are not sufficiently motivated to take quality photos (or they may be incapable) or are not able to provide a sufficiently entertaining description of their car. For these reasons they may be intimidated enough to not list their cars, preferring instead the less-demanding "Cars For Sale" section.

Being a participant in the HAMB Auction myself, I think it has all the makings to be a huge success, but I would like to see more cars offered, even if the listings are not as clean and entertaining as Ryan has made them so far.
.

 

One thing @Ryan and @wfo guy mentioned is video. A SUPER important selling tool.

It reminded me of helping a local purchase his 32 5w many years ago. Since the car was in Canada and a long way away, the seller included a dvd/video of all stages of the build. We sat down at the shop and went through the video with the customer and the 3 of us decided it was worth buying . This was the single most compelling reason he picked this car over many others he looked at all over the country.

 

Just went and looked at your listing. I think you nailed it. Lots of details and pictures. Maybe the only thing I would add is an action video of it under power on some of those great roads you have down there!

 

With an auction, a seller needs to take some risk. By risk I mean lowering the reserve to an almost uncomfortable level. Otherwise you should just put it in the classifieds. When auctioning items of significant value, you have to trust the auctioneer, or auction facilitator, to generate the right advertisement and attention and let the chips fall where they may.

 

Built and sold in the vicinity of around 45 cars finished and unfinished over the last 50+ years and I have found that no matter how honest I am there still remains a degree of doubt in a prospective buyers mind. After them either seeing the car in person some are still suspicious. I've sold cars in England. Portugal, Germany, and several to Japan I have found those buyers seem to have more of a degree of trust than US buyers. I am usually guilty of underselling the condition of what I am selling.

 

BaT evolved, was sold/bought, restructured, had massive capital invested, to get where it is today.

To paraphrase Sun Tzu, "Never attack an enemy at his point of greatest strength. Study to determine his areas of weakness and concentrate your efforts there."

It might be instructive to get some opinions here about allowing reserves. If it has a reserve, JMHO, but it's not an auction, it's a BIN listing, no different than Hemmings.

jack vines

 

I'll disagree. Why should a seller risk a loss that's of no consequence to the venue or buyer? Absolute auctions aren't for everything. What if it's a bad week in general and the highest bid is a 3rd of the value? Sux to be you, gotta sell it. Sucker's play, except maybe a flat out liquidation, or wholesale disposal. Reserves are not unlimited, collector cars aren't usually liquidation items, they're an opportunity for a specific and quick deal.

 

Looking at the general discussion page I can see no obvious link to the auctions. I know there are no ads for registered hamb users, but isn't this kinda different? Im sure most of us waste time browsing ad and auction sites, often with no intention or indeed means of buying but when you are in that position or something comes up that is irresistible then who knows what'll happen. But if the place isn't on your list of haunts then there's no chance. But traffic is stated as being good, but in games where volume counts more is better no?

Chris