The Rise of Vintage Car Auction Sites: A Seller's Perspective

In recent years, we've seen a surge in the popularity of vintage car auction sites, where enthusiasts can buy and sell classic vehicles like 70s Porsches and 80s and 90s cars. However, I've always wondered what it would be like to experience these sites from the seller's point of view.

To satisfy my curiosity, I reached out to Rad For Sale, a reputable online marketplace for buying and selling vintage cars. I asked if they'd walk me through their auction approval process using Max's BMW as an example.

Max kindly provided detailed information about his car, including over 40 high-quality photos. Many websites like Rad For Sale have a specific list of angles that they want sellers to capture, ensuring consistency and a complete view of the vehicle for potential buyers.

After submitting our listing, a representative from Rad For Sale responded promptly, saying that the listing was well done but suggesting additional photos of the undercarriage to verify its condition. They also offered recommendations on reserve pricing, suggested areas of interest for buyers, and provided guidance on how best to market the car.

This experience highlighted the importance of these auction sites in providing a positive experience for both sellers and buyers. The representatives at Rad For Sale, like those at other reputable websites we've discussed, are real people who care about facilitating transactions with integrity.

So, why are there so many vintage car auction sites popping up now? I believe it's because people wanted a better private seller-buyer experience than what Craigslist or Facebook could offer. They sought a platform where enthusiasts of classic cars could buy and sell vehicles with respect for the unique aspects of each vehicle.

Bring A Trailer might be the big dog, but smaller niche sites like Rad For Sale, Cars And Bids, and Hemmings Auctions are valuable alternatives. As a buyer, having fewer people competing in an auction increases your chances of getting a good deal.

This brings me back to my earlier conspiracy theory about M3 prices rising. Another factor contributing to this phenomenon is the user base – the more people participating in an auction, the higher the likelihood that multiple buyers will drive up prices through bidding wars.

When those four E30 M3s sold on Bring A Trailer, the site had around half a million users. In contrast, when the first one sold in early 2018, the user count was much lower. Is this an elaborate conspiracy or simply the growth of an audience?

If you've ever bought or sold a car at an auction, I'd love to hear about your experience in the comments. Was it a positive transaction? Would you do it again?

If you enjoyed this video, be sure to like and subscribe – your support means a lot to us! And if you want to see more of Max's car, check him out on Instagram at @35mm_cars.

Follow Donut Media on Instagram and all social media platforms for the latest automotive content. I'm posting more photography lately, so be sure to give it a follow!

Remember to stay safe and take care of each other – I'll see you next time!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Seems like everyone intheir dear old Daddy DougdAdDy dOuGhas an online car auction site these days.They've got names like Bring A Trailer,Rad For Sale, cars & bids,and more where you can literally bidon your car nerd, dreamcar from your phone.But with it being so easyto drop your hard earnedDogecoin on a car you haven'tdriven or seen in person,are these sites the newhunting ground for scammers?Some people seem to think so.How safe is it to buya car from these sites?And why more of these auctionsites popping up every day?Today, we're going to look at the adventof these new auction sites, how they workand what to look out foras a buyer or seller.- Big, thanks to Omaze forsponsoring this episode.- Nolan and I have had agreat time working with Omazeat James' private Island offthe coast of Costa Rica tobring one of you the chanceto win this Ram 1500 TRX taxesand shipping included.- And you'll be taking home $20,000 cash.- Quick, everyone in the TRX!Come Nolan.Let's go, quicker!- Go faster Nolan!- Nobody panic, I justforgot to tell you guysabout my T-Rex.- Oh, how it has a reinforced frame,specialized BILSTEIN suspensionand 35 inch tires,that means we can roll over anything?- No, I mean the literal dinosaur chasingafter us right now.- What?- Don't worry. Thanks to the TRX's6.2 liter Hemi Hellcat V8that pumps up 702 horsepower.There's no way that big dumbdino is going to catch us.(engine revving)I'm sorry about that you guys,I got so excited about givingaway this truck that I totally forgotabout my extensivemenagerie of real dinosaurs.- I get it James, it's exciting.Especially when every donationhelps support Team Rubicon,a nonprofit organizationthat utilizes the skillsand experience of military veteransto help people prepare, respond,and recover to disasters.- So, for your chance towin this Ram 1500 TRX,head on over to omaze.com/donutmediause code RAM150 and receive150 additional entries,again that is omaze.com/donutmedia.- Uh, James?- Oh I forgot about the flying ones.- We should have had ahelicopter next time.- I have a helicopter.- Come on Nolan, there'sscientifically accuratereal looking dinosaurs out here.- Oh, oh.- I fell out Nolan, I fell out!- So to understand what makesthese new sites so different,we first got to look at how buying a carat auction used to work.On the low end, there were estate sales,police auctions, and public auctions.These are auctions where the cars wereeither owned by theentity holding the auctionor they were at leastresponsible for them.On the day of the auctionyou could physicallyinspect the car at the auction lotand even start them up.If they started, that is.This was a place totry to get a good deal.Maybe you could find diamondin the rough that no oneat the auction that particularday was interested in,or at the very least you'd find somethingsimple and reliablethat might be worth moreif you got your knucks a little greasy.These types of auctions arerelatively safe for the buyer.Auctions sometimes evenoffer an auction guarantee:a warranty on the drivetrain of the car.And if something isn'tquite what was promisedthey might even havean arbitrator onsite toreconcile any disputebetween buyer and seller.So while there are a few systemsin place that might put yourmind at ease, the inventoryisn't exactly a bunch of rare sports carsand you have to go all theway down to the actual auctionand stand all day in a buildingthat doesn't have AC to keepup with this many peopleand you're not guaranteedto leave with anything good.Unlike my dad who scored aCherry 93 Dodge Spirit backin 2000, we hit a lot of baseballpractices in that bad boy.Kinda ugly though.On the whole other sideof auctions, though,there are the classic car auctionsand you've probably seen theseon TV before.I'm talking Barrett-Jackson,Mecum, Bonham's, Gooding & Company,anything during Monterey car week.These auctions are high end events whereevery car is likely tosell for six, seven,or even eight figure prices.These auctions rarelyhave something as trivialas a drivetrain warranty,but you know what theydo have? An appraiser.someone whose job itis to inspect the car,verify its authenticity,and set its valuation.These companies put their reputationon the line to sell a car.So they make surethat anything that crossestheir auction blockis exactly what it says it is.Or at least as close as they can verify.But that's what buying a carin auction was for a long time.Either super high-end collector carsor bottom of the barrel.For most people buying acar without test driving itor being able to talk to theseller is a bit unnerving.But if you knew how to play the gameand were smart with your moneyand confident in yourability to assess a caran auction was a goodplace to find a deal.But there was a gap in the auction world.A space somewhere betweenthe six-figure classicsand high mileage clunkersthat needed to be filled.This is where our newauction sites come in.And the biggest by far is Bring A Trailer.When Bring A Trailer started in 2007,it wasn't even an auction site.It was just a blog thatsent out a weekly emailnoting interesting listings on eBay.But as more and morepeople started subscribing,sellers realize that having their carin the Bring A Traileremail was great exposureand wanting to start payingfor placement in the blog.Now there's over 400,000 usersand only half of themare lurkers like myselfscrolling during Zoom meetings.- Well, if we take a lookat views for last monthwe can see from the trendline that it's headedtowards negative infinity.I think it probably has something to dowith Nolan's haircut.- Scrolling Bring A Trailer is likescrolling through Instagram.It's a curated assembly ofcars that are interesting,unique, and have a story.With each listing you get apretty detailed descriptionof the car along with dozensof professionally taken photos.And it really draws you in,especially when you compare itto scrolling used car listingswith a price listed as $1234.And if that's not enough for youthey have a public comment section whereinterested buyers ask questionsabout the cars and specsand the seller willusually posts extra linkslike a walk-around video or idlingand shifting all the stuff you might checkif you went to see the car in person.But they're not the only site.In 2020 alone, the 80'sand 90's era car showRadwood started their ownauction site Rad For Saleand YouTube legend Doug DeMurolaunched cars and bids.Real quick, let's talkabout how these sitesactually make money becausethey're not just websites.They are businesses.Auction sites generally keepthe doors open one of two ways.Charging the seller a small listing feea tactic even Craigslist employs.And the more lucrative methodof taking a small percentof the final sale.Bring A Trailer does capthis amount at $5,000.But as a rule, the more carsells for all the betterfor the site, which hassome worrying implicationsI'll talk about later.Now you might think that awebsite full of desirable carsthat are being honestlyrepresented is too good to be true.And you wouldn't be alone.Plenty of people can see the potentialfor buyers to get scammedwhen you look at how these websites work.As I mentioned, Bring ATrailer didn't start outas an auction site.It was just a curated listof cool things you can buy on eBay.Kind of like thisiswhyimbroke.com.It was in no wayaffiliated with the sellerand couldn't vouch forthe legitimacy of the car.Today, the site works ina kind of similar way.Yes, they vet the car a bit and provideas much info as possible, butthere's no auction guarantee.All sales are as is.There's no official arbitratoror appraiser to talk toyou just see other users.And as far as the actualtransaction is concerned,you're on your own.Sites like Bring A Trailer,Rad For Sale, and cars and bidsare in no way responsible for the securityof the actual transactionor its legitimacy.So you'd go from scrollinga Pinterest boardof nice cars to all of asudden having to wire moneyto a dude in Michigan, just like you wouldif you had bought the car in Craigslist.Now I want to be clear here.I don't think these sites haveresponsibility to do any morethan they're currently doing.I do think it's abuyer's responsibility totreat a purchase seriously and not assumethat things will be takencare of for you, justbecause the site has a betterUI than Facebook Marketplace.But I get that peoplestart to feel uneasy whenthe pretty, well presented site turnsout to be very similar tothe normal buying processonce you've actually won an auction.It feels a bit like abait and switch, I guess.So much so that they think there'ssome kind of scam going on.Like the '55 Desoto they just paid for isactually going to be a Geo Metro.But to that I say, it'stime for a reality check.Thing about reality,it always gets checked.Life's not fair!(futuristic music playing)Look, to get a car listedon any of these sites,the seller has to gothrough the listing process.Extensive photos are required,as well as the records of the car.And it's not just acheckbox list of questions.These sites are run byenthusiasts like you and meand a scam happening ontheir site would be as bigof an issue for them asit would be for the buyer.So if a seller is uncommunicativeor just a little shadythey're not likely to gettheir listing approved.You've just been checked!The truth is that theseauction sites benefitfrom the engagement of bidders.Because people ask questionsabout the listed cars publicly.If a user asks something, notdisclosed, let's say a recallthe seller's answer is thenvisible to anyone else bidding.It may not have been aquestion you thought to ask.And now you know the answer.And at the end of theday the winning bid isjust a promise to buy the car.If you show up, and the carisn't what was advertised.You're not legally obligated to buy it.There is no bank lien on your houseif you backed out.Sure, the seller might be mad.And if you backed out without good reasonyou would probably getbanned from the sitebut it's not like the fedsare coming to your door.So don't worry, there's no scam.At least not the kind you're thinking of.In July of 2020 an E30 M3sold on Bring A Trailerfor a quarter of a million dollars.Even though this particularone only had 8,000 miles on it,many people agreed that that was aninsane price for this car.After the auction hadclosed a few users wanted toknow more about this Richie Rich buyer.And decided to run the VIN of the carthrough services like Carfaxuntil they saw it change hands.Six months later, the car still showedthe same number of owners.Why would someone buy a carfor 250k and then nevertake ownership of it?Well to answer that, weneed to make a journeyto the speculation zone.That's right, two bits this episode.(mysterious music playing)What if our BMW seller never intended tosell their ultra low mileage M3?But they had a second M3he wanted to get rid of.They listed the 8,000 mile oneand either created a second account orhad a friend bid to make sure they won itat a stupidly high price.Then riding the artificial hype createdby this high pricedauction, sold their other M3for 20 to 40k more than whatthey would have gotten before.Before the 250k M3 sold,only one E30 M3 had ever soldfor over a hundred thousand dollarsin the history of Bring ATrailer in the nine monthssince that sale, four morehave sold for over a 100k.Sounds a little likesomeone's gaming the system.Now, admittedly, this soundsless like the speculation zoneand more like the conspiracycorner on my part.And what's more likely is thatthe registration got delayedbecause of COVID or thesite wasn't up to date.But it does illustrate a phenomenonthat many buyers are frustrated with.In the normal world, this isknown as the rising tide effectbut in the car world, it's now knownas the Bring A Trailer effect.In ultra rare supercars,the rising tide effect was easy to see.One selling an auction changedthe valuation of all the others.If a Ferrari 250 GTO sellsan auction for 8.6 millionand you've got one ofthe other 36 in the worldyou now know yours isworth about 8.6 million.As they sell for more and more,the others increase in value as well.And today that same 250GTO is expected to fetchover $50 million in auction.But now because the popularityof these auction sitespeople are seeing moreentry-level collector cars sellfor $10,000 and $20,000.The same cars that werelisted on Craigslistfor 4k, four years ago.Does the car similar to yoursselling an auction for a highprice affect your car's value?Some people think it does.In fact, some people areusing auction results toshow their insurance companiesthat their car is worth moreand should therefore payoutmore if it got totaled.But I don't think thatcollector's auctionsand used car sales arereally in the same market.Many people will tryand compare some usedlisting to an auctionthey saw completelyignore spec, condition,or maintenance records.All things that would be checkedin the approval process by those sites.Now you might not care about those things.Things like mileage or maintenancerecords and that's fairbut there's a differencebetween it mattering to you,the individual buyer, and itaffecting the value of the car.Like I said, these auctionsites are run by enthusiastsand it's a place for uniquecars to be appreciated.So naturally, that meanspeople are more investedin investing.But I will admit that highprices on auction sites have ledto a few optimistic usedcar posts on social media.Nolow ballers,I knowwhat I got.Ha!(fart sound effect)I think the fear of the risingtide effect is legitimate.But it can't be blamedon auction sites because it's happenedwith every generation ofcar that has come before.As someone who is super into muscle cars,it was heartbreaking as ateenager to see the rising pricesof Kudos and GTOs and Chevelles,because it felt like evenif I one day made more money by thenthey would have gotten even more expensiveand I could never catch up.And that's still true,it's still true to this day.Why does a rusty chargerhave to be 30 grand?You're out of your mindthey drive like boats.I want to drive the rusty boat, okay?All cars appreciate and depreciateat a different rate and scale.But for the most part, theyfollow a similar parabola.From the day they leave the lotand go from new card used car.They go down in value,the miles and years stackon until eventually theybegin to plateau out.But then as there are lessand less of them on the road,the value begins to go up.Sometimes it's because of nostalgia,sometimes it's because thecar becomes ironically cool.And sometimes it's because thethings that made the car goodin the first place arenow desirable again.But whatever it is, the caris only going to get rarerbecause it's not going to get made again.We saw this with the 60's muscle cars,we saw it again with the 70's Porsches.And now we're seeing itwith 80's and 90's cars.We just happened to be seeing itthrough the sites like these.What I really wanted to see was oneof these sites from theseller's point of view.So I called up my friendsat Rad For Sale to seeif they'd run us through theauction approval process.Now, since none of my cars arefrom the Rad era, we used Max's BMW.We had Max give us all the info he wouldas if he was actually selling the car.He submitted over 40 Max quality photos,a lot of sites like Rad For Sale,actually have a list of anglesthey want you to get.So, you know, thepostings gonna be uniformand the customer gets acomplete view of the car.After submitting our listing,a rep from Rad For Sale respondedin just a few hours saying thatthe listing was really goodbut they actually wanted somepictures of the undercarriageof the car, just so they can make sure itwasn't rusting away frombeneath the driver's seat.That's kind of important.They also came back withsome recommendationson what the reserve priceshould be, info on what partsof the car were goingto be the most desired,and how to best market the car overall.You know, these are real people lookingat these listings and making both sellersand buyers have a positive experience.And that goes across the boardwith all these sites thatwe've talked about todaySo I think I figured outwhy there are so manyof these auction sites popping up now.People wanted a better privateseller-buyer experiencethan Craigslist or Facebook.A place where people who are actuallyinto cars could sell cars.And a place where peoplerespected the factthat we like to askquestions, know our specskick tires, and know a lotabout what we're gettingbefore we get it.While Bring A Trailermight be the big dog.I like that we have smallerand more niche siteslike Rad For Sale and cars andbids and Hemmings auctions.Because as a buyerthat means there's less peoplewatching a single auctionand more chance you might get a good deal.Seriously, check out those smaller ones.Don't sleep on them.That actually brings me backto the point I made earlier.Remember that conspiracy theory I hadabout the M3 prices rising?Well, what also makes thoseprices rise is the user base.Regardless of how a carappreciates or depreciates,the more people you havebidding on an auctionthe more likely it isthat someone will be willingto spend a lot more money.But an auction onlysells for slightly higherthan the second highestbidder is willing to pay.So even with one highroller in the auction,the price might notactually get that high.With an even larger user base, though,it's more likely that two or more peoplewith money to burn willget into a bidding war.When those four E30 M3sold, the user counton Bring A Trailer wasabout half a million.When that first one sold in early 2018,the user count was way, way lower.So is that an elaborate conspiracyor just the growth of an audience?If you've ever bought orsold a car at an auction,let me know in the comments,was it a good experience?Would you do it again?If you liked this video,hit that like buttonand it actually really does help us out.You know, you know how the algorithm is.Just it's magic.If you want to see more ofMax's car, check him outon Instagram at @35mm_carsAlso follow Donut onInstagram 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