BringATrailer.com - has it gotten too big for its britches?

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FRUNKenstein
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BringATrailer.com - has it gotten too big for its britches?

Post by FRUNKenstein » Wed Oct 30, 2019 2:09 pm

I'm a huge fan of BringATrailer.com. I've sold 2 cars on it: a kit car in 2016 and a 2000 Jaguar XJR in 2017. Although good (not great) results pricewise, I really like the format, that the buyers are legit and that the car gets sold in 7 days. I did both of my previous auctions as "no reserve" because I was confident that BaT would get me market price - you just don't see cars go dirt cheap on there. The cars always bring right around what they should bring because they have a good base of knowledgeable buyers.

Last Friday, I submitted my '87 Bertone X1/9 for sale. They have sold several on there before and they currently had an X1/9 auction live. Although not perfect and with matte (rather than shiny) paint, my X1/9 is a nice little rust-free California car and I spent a lot of time over the summer sprucing it up. I submitted several pics and info on the recent maintenance and info on the car's history (accident free and owned by the same guy in California for 26 years). I told them it was nice enough to have been on display at the auto museum and it would come with a reader board from when it was on display at the museum. I said I'd list it as "no reserve". I pointed out that I had successfully sold twice previously on BaT, and that I have a dealer's license so that I'm licensed, bonded and insured. Easy, peasy - I'd get my spot in line and probably have a mid-November auction date.

About an hour later, I get a rejection notice. Hmm, I thinks to myself, that's odd. X1/9s may not be the hottest car on the block, but they have gotten pretty rare, and this one's pretty decent. So, it shouldn't be the car. I've sold twice before on there without incident, and was pretty easy to work with (I think), took good pics, was responsive to comments during the auction. My buyers were happy. I was fine with going no reserve.
So, what the heck?

I went online and did a search. I found this article: https://www.guyswithrides.com/2019/05/0 ... the-story/
According to that article, BaT turns down 400 submissions per week. Apparently, they have increased to running 200 auctions per week, but still get 600 to 700 submissions per week. Wowza! Seems to me that there's a business opportunity there. I know that another guy tried to start a similar auction website a few years ago, www.seconddaily.com , but it doesn't appear to have ever gained traction. But if there's another 400+ classic cars available each week, I'd think someone could start a competing website and skim off the best 100 or 150 of them.

Back to my little X1/9, I suspect that they simply have bigger fish to fry. I don't see a whole lot of sub-$10,000 cars on there anymore. The X1/9 that was live last week sold for $4,500. It had some needs and a dent in the passenger door, but I felt like it should have sold for around $6,00 or $7,000. Even at that price, however, why would they accept a $7,000 car for one of their 200 weekly slots when they've got 400 other cars that will all probably sell for more? It's too bad though because I think much of the fun and appeal in the non-snooty collector car market is finding an affordable classic. Those days may be gone at BringATrailer. As for me and the X1/9, I suppose I'll go the regular route of Craigslist, cars.com, ebay and various other internet classifieds. Frankly, it may not make any sense to even try selling it until March. We have Mecum coming to town in December, so maybe I'll give that a shot.
www.kansascityautomuseum.com
Current:
2002 996TT X50, Guards Red
1987 928S4, Guards Red
1987 951, Guards Red
1973 914 2.0 Bahia Red

2006 955S, Lapis Blue
Other toys:
1988 BMW 325i Cabriolet, Alpin Weiss
1987 Bertone X1/9, Verde Chiaro
Gone but not forgotten: 1975 914 2.0, Laguna Blue; 1999 996 C4 Aerokit Black; 1990 964 C2 Guards Red; 2006 955S Arctic Silver

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5chn3ll
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Re: BringATrailer.com - has it gotten too big for its britches?

Post by 5chn3ll » Wed Oct 30, 2019 2:42 pm

Interesting that they're not scaling up to meet demand and instead are being choosy.

Maybe there IS room for No-you-REALLY-need-a-trailer.com...

Understeer: You will hit the wall with the front end.
Oversteer: You will hit the wall with the rear end.
Horsepower: How hard you will hit the wall.
Torque: How far you will move the wall.

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Re: BringATrailer.com - has it gotten too big for its britches?

Post by gnat » Wed Oct 30, 2019 2:57 pm

While annoying for your case it does make some sense for them to keep the list down (more commentary to follow) so that auctions can get the best visibility and exclusivity as possible.

I happened to look the other night after not looking for a couple months and noticed the active auction list has gotten really long (I got bored and gave up before getting to the end!). That seems counter productive in the current format of everything together.

I've also never understood them having multiple cars up at the same time that will obviously compete with one another. I think when I looked the other night I counted 5 996s, 3 GT3s (997s), and 3 or 4 Aston Martins. And that's just what jumped out at me.

Seems like if they are going to curate and be picky about their list then they should be doing a better job of listing cars that aren't likely to compete with one another.

There was a time where I would have seriously bought a car there (and almost did 3 times), but any more I just pop on to see what's up and make sure that the crowd is still ragging on MkI 996 Aero cars like always :roll:

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FRUNKenstein
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Re: BringATrailer.com - has it gotten too big for its britches?

Post by FRUNKenstein » Wed Oct 30, 2019 3:01 pm

5chn3ll wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2019 2:42 pm Interesting that they're not scaling up to meet demand and instead are being choosy.

Maybe there IS room for No-you-REALLY-need-a-trailer.com...
I like it.

MPs8yV.gif
MPs8yV.gif (2.15 MiB) Viewed 7339 times
www.kansascityautomuseum.com
Current:
2002 996TT X50, Guards Red
1987 928S4, Guards Red
1987 951, Guards Red
1973 914 2.0 Bahia Red

2006 955S, Lapis Blue
Other toys:
1988 BMW 325i Cabriolet, Alpin Weiss
1987 Bertone X1/9, Verde Chiaro
Gone but not forgotten: 1975 914 2.0, Laguna Blue; 1999 996 C4 Aerokit Black; 1990 964 C2 Guards Red; 2006 955S Arctic Silver

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FRUNKenstein
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Re: BringATrailer.com - has it gotten too big for its britches?

Post by FRUNKenstein » Wed Oct 30, 2019 3:04 pm

gnat wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2019 2:57 pm While annoying for your case it does make some sense for them to keep the list down (more commentary to follow) so that auctions can get the best visibility and exclusivity as possible.

I happened to look the other night after not looking for a couple months and noticed the active auction list has gotten really long (I got bored and gave up before getting to the end!). That seems counter productive in the current format of everything together.

I've also never understood them having multiple cars up at the same time that will obviously compete with one another. I think when I looked the other night I counted 5 996s, 3 GT3s (997s), and 3 or 4 Aston Martins. And that's just what jumped out at me.

Seems like if they are going to curate and be picky about their list then they should be doing a better job of listing cars that aren't likely to compete with one another.

There was a time where I would have seriously bought a car there (and almost did 3 times), but any more I just pop on to see what's up and make sure that the crowd is still ragging on MkI 996 Aero cars like always :roll:
There is always a race in the comments section to see who can ask if the IMSB was replaced - even when the auction listing has detailed info on it. And even when it's a 996TT.
www.kansascityautomuseum.com
Current:
2002 996TT X50, Guards Red
1987 928S4, Guards Red
1987 951, Guards Red
1973 914 2.0 Bahia Red

2006 955S, Lapis Blue
Other toys:
1988 BMW 325i Cabriolet, Alpin Weiss
1987 Bertone X1/9, Verde Chiaro
Gone but not forgotten: 1975 914 2.0, Laguna Blue; 1999 996 C4 Aerokit Black; 1990 964 C2 Guards Red; 2006 955S Arctic Silver

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FRUNKenstein
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Re: BringATrailer.com - has it gotten too big for its britches?

Post by FRUNKenstein » Wed Oct 30, 2019 5:54 pm

OK, it's a bit emasculating when they reject your car but accept this for auction:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/delor ... overcraft/

2012_delorean_replica_dmc-12_replica_15680358647c0ffDelorean-lead-940x627.jpg
2012_delorean_replica_dmc-12_replica_15680358647c0ffDelorean-lead-940x627.jpg (118.22 KiB) Viewed 7332 times
www.kansascityautomuseum.com
Current:
2002 996TT X50, Guards Red
1987 928S4, Guards Red
1987 951, Guards Red
1973 914 2.0 Bahia Red

2006 955S, Lapis Blue
Other toys:
1988 BMW 325i Cabriolet, Alpin Weiss
1987 Bertone X1/9, Verde Chiaro
Gone but not forgotten: 1975 914 2.0, Laguna Blue; 1999 996 C4 Aerokit Black; 1990 964 C2 Guards Red; 2006 955S Arctic Silver

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Einsteiger
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Re: BringATrailer.com - has it gotten too big for its britches?

Post by Einsteiger » Wed Oct 30, 2019 6:08 pm

Unreal. I'm in agreement that BAT needs some competition....but probably not easy to do.
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Re: BringATrailer.com - has it gotten too big for its britches?

Post by Battery Guy » Wed Oct 30, 2019 6:31 pm

I keep getting a daily email from Hemmings auctions - have not really taken a look at it because all of my free time to waste is spent seeing how many people ask the same IMS question on BAT. But - maybe that is a viable option for the X1/9? If all Hemmings auctions is old ‘Murican iron, never mind...
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Re: BringATrailer.com - has it gotten too big for its britches?

Post by Cuda911 » Wed Oct 30, 2019 9:56 pm

Wow, hard to believe an x/19 would be rejected. Try again?

Curious, what do you hope to get for it?
Mike

'68 Ford Custom 500; '70 Plymouth Cuda; '71 Ford Econoline; 73 Porsche 914 1.7, '74 Porsche 914 1.8; '74 Suzuki TC185; '86 Suzuki GS450L; '88 Subaru GL104WD Turbo Ltd Edn;; '88 Subaru XT; '91 Lexus ES250; '93 Jeep Wrangler, '99 Porsche Boxster, '03 Turbo VW Beetle; '03 Porsche Boxster; '03 Porsche Carrera C2; '07 Porsche Cayman, '11 BMW 328i, '12 Porsche 991 S, '14 Porsche Cayman, & a mishmash of other vehicles.

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FRUNKenstein
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Re: BringATrailer.com - has it gotten too big for its britches?

Post by FRUNKenstein » Wed Oct 30, 2019 10:20 pm

Cuda911 wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2019 9:56 pm Wow, hard to believe an x/19 would be rejected. Try again?

Curious, what do you hope to get for it?
It ought to be worth $6,000 easy.

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=801

If I can't get that for it, I'll just keep it.
www.kansascityautomuseum.com
Current:
2002 996TT X50, Guards Red
1987 928S4, Guards Red
1987 951, Guards Red
1973 914 2.0 Bahia Red

2006 955S, Lapis Blue
Other toys:
1988 BMW 325i Cabriolet, Alpin Weiss
1987 Bertone X1/9, Verde Chiaro
Gone but not forgotten: 1975 914 2.0, Laguna Blue; 1999 996 C4 Aerokit Black; 1990 964 C2 Guards Red; 2006 955S Arctic Silver

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