In a couple of months I will be selling my F Type and decided to use Cars & Bids as my main platform. Anybody out there with any experience with C&B care to offer advice/tips? Thanks!

 

Having just sold a car on BAT, the main advice I would give (for either site) to only do a no reserve auction if you are totally comfortable with all possible outcomes. I hired a top seller, had professional photos and video, and had car detailed to the max- only to have the auction end at about 1/2 of what we all (myself and consigner) thought was likely.

 

Thanks, but would you mind being a bit more specific? You received half of what you thought the car would bring based on what value? What exactly were the particulars of your car? Year, mileage, condition, etc? Selling with no reserve seems pretty risky in a down market as you might end up literally giving the car away, no?

 

I would not recommend BAT. F-Types get no love on BAT unless you have a Project 7. You can check past history selling prices to confirm.

I don't know anything about Cars & Bids, but it there is a way to check past selling prices I would investigate it prior to making any commitments.

 

I will echo 6MTFType's sentiment. I sold both a '91 Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo and a '93 Nissan 240SX on Bring a Trailer at no reserve, and both cars did sell and collectively enabled me to purchase my F-Type, but both of those sales brought in ~30% less than anyone "thought" they would. In hindsight, I attribute the pressure from Bat / CaB for no reserve auctions to be because they only really make money if the car sells, so they're guaranteeing a profit if you sell no reserve, while they're taking a risk if you use a reserve, so they're obviously going to pressure you to sell at no reserve. So, unless you really want to sell the vehicle at whatever you're offered, seriously consider setting a reserve.

Another thing to note is that there will be a bunch of time and $500+ for you on the front end for the listing prep work (detailing, photos, etc), and the buyer pays ~5% on top of their bid amount to BaT / CaB and then $1000+ for shipping. So, you'll end up out of pocket for the sale and (more importantly) the bid amounts will be less than the usual car values you'd expect to account for the buyer fees.

This may also come off as slightly sketchy, but another lesson learned was that it does not pay to be thorough and honest when describing the car's flaws. If something doesn't show up in the pictures, service history, or carfax and you choose to be a good, honest person and choose to disclose that thing in the listing anyway, the buyers and comments section will latch onto those things instead of the actually important things in the listing, and the bid amounts will suffer for it. I tried to describe a bunch of niggles that most other people wouldn't care about or notice, and it most definitely did not benefit me.

My cars were highly modified and worth basically nothing as trade-ins, so BaT afforded a great way to find an enthusiast to buy them, but if you have the option to just trade the car in or sell some other way, at least consider those options or potentially use the trade-in value as the reserve price. That way, if the auction doesn't meet the reserve, you can always just turn around and trade the car in for the higher value.

 

Did I see that BaT raised the buyers rate to 7 1/2%. I do check out both BaT and Cars & Bids mostly as my daily p@rn site.

 

Sure - to clarify this was not a F-Type that I sold but a Volvo, so some of the specifics are not directly translatable. The comparisons and basis for value were looking at the history of all auctions on both BAT and Cars & Bids for this car, of which there were a total of less than 20 (the car is 1 of 250, so not auctioned/sold frequently). The low for the car was ~$20K and the high was $37K (without buyers fee). My car was most comparable in milage, condition and maintenance to the $37K. My target was to get ~$30K at auction and after fees take home $25K. The car sold for $17.5. Lower than any of the similar models and "steal of the week" per comments. Not the best feeling. So, my advice is generally to just not go no reserve unless you are in a pinch. :-)

 

I think that selling at no reserve would signal desperation because why would you do this otherwise? No reserve is not going to get you a better price, only encourage lower bids.

Fortunately, my car is in near mint condition with 13k miles, but it does have a couple of modifications. It can be returned to "original" but I am not sure why anybody is going to desire 340hp instead of 416hp. It can also be raised with the original springs. To each his own.

I believe I'll check around for a "trade-in" price to use as a reserve [as suggested] and go from there. Thanks for the advice!

 

Sounds like you have a great plan! Regarding the no reserve rationale, I was shown several examples where the traffic to no reserve auctions was more than double that of reserve auctions. Then also saw a few examples of a car fail to meet a reserve but then exceed that same reserve when sold without (after being re-listed). In my case, it was just bad luck of the draw but as you mention - having a reasonable reserve assures you will not be let down.

 

I appreciate what shawmanz says about auction disclosure. I wish more sellers would be transparent. BaT and these other auction sites are built around the whole idea that everyone bid sight-unseen and take their chances. I understand from the seller's point of view, dealing with tire kickers and no-shows is a pain but it keeps me out of the market. I very seldom have bid because I still work for a living. I can't drop what I'm doing, postpone a dozen meetings, beg off a dozen deadlines and hop in a corporate jet to go see a car that pops up for auction within the seven days. If by some miracle, there's a weekend in there that I could get a cheap flight, or I know a fellow gearhead in that city who would lay eyes on it for me, nope, the seller is conveniently out of town and can't show the car. I've only bid on a few that were local. There's probably buyers out there who'd pay more for your car if only they could have a chance to come inspect it. But that means you have to have patience and give them that chance.

Mostly I lose these bidding wars because I am the only one to go see it and I know what all was wrong with it. A popular Youtuber (I won't say who) was auctioning a car I was interested in and posted glamorous photos and even narrated a video exclaiming how well it drove. Well, the photographs weren't good enough to show the orange peel on a repaired quarter panel. They said everything worked but didn't mention that the power window would wind completely up and out of the door (convertible) if you didn't let go of the button. And you couldn't feel the engine hesitate or the spongy brake pedal in the video. I really felt sorry for the winner because I knew they paid top dollar and still would have to spend as much again in repairs to make it worth what they'd already paid. Conversely, the only classic car I've won in an online auction was a local car that I spent a good two hours checking it out and it was perfect. The other bidders were all scattered all over the country and none had come to see it but me. They were all holding back because 68 Mustangs have a reputation for being amateur jobs, hiding lots of sins. But being local, I knew the guy who maintained all of the seller's collection and he told me that no expense had been spared on the cosmetics either. I felt like I stole it and indeed sold it five years on (through a consignment dealer) for a significant gain.

As a buyer, I much prefer to just inspect a car in person and negotiate while standing in front it. Near as I can tell, I paid a record price for my Lotus at a consignment dealer after little negotiation. It was a month before I could arrange to travel to see it but they were asking way too much so I figured it would still be available. I'll probably never get my money back, but it was spectacular, my favorite color, it was available right that moment, no more searching, no more waiting and no more auctions. "OK, done!"

 

All the vehicle purchases I've made over the years were done in person. Policy is/was that if I couldn't drive there, look at the car and drive home in a day, wasn't going to happen. I admire folks who buy through Carvana and the other vendors like that, as well as through auctions.
After working in a british car shop for a few years, saw many auction vehicles come in that were way worse than the new owner thought. "Pig with Lipstick" is the term. You can tell so much about a car by the way it starts, drives, shifts, steers and brakes. There may be issues, but hopefully you can become aware of what they are and make an offer accordingly. ALWAYS be willing to walk away. Attaching a photo of a car that was for sale on a forum. New owner is fellow club member, well versed in body repair. When he stripped off all the paint, what he found was sickening, even for him.

 

I sold my 2015 F-Type R on BAT last year. Just be sure you carefully read the ad they create prior to going live since there were some typos and wrong info about the car. Unfortunately it went live with the wrong info, but a reader saw it before I did and commented. BAT fixed the error right away. Other than that the sale went very well and smooth. Make sure you are proactive and provide comments and replies promptly on every day of auction. It sold for more than I expected. Very smooth transaction and prompt buyer.

 

Consider: cars.com

You will get a good idea of what they are advertised for across the country.

I have found it very helpful

 

You mean like this?:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/20...mpaign_2648441

I plan to start a GO FUND ME page soon.

 

classic.com will show you a dot plot for sales and no-sales across multiple sites (BaT, Hemmings, CaB, dealerships, etc) for your MY across a time frame of your choosing:

2018 Jaguar F-Type Market - CLASSIC.COM

Looks like you can create an account and add all the specs your car has to dial in a little more precision. Another tool to help you gauge what to expect, though of course the market speaks last.

Good luck!

 

Very cool. Thank you!

 

Correction: BaT still charges the buyer 5%—which used be capped at $5,000 but has since raised that cap to $7,500. Hence my earlier mistake thinking the buyers cost was 7 1/2%.

 

Hi


I was thinking of using C&B to sell my 2000 S Type 4.0 L 65,000 miles no mods, garage stored second owner but seeing this classic.com has piqued my interest, I'm located Vancouver Canada thanks in advance.