I recently decided to attempt to sell my car via BAT. My experience was disappointing.
First off, they pick the reserve price, what?! That’s right, they pick the minimum amount YOU are willing to accept for your vehicle. Why you ask? Because even though they charge sellers anywhere from $99 to $350 to list your car, that’s not how they make money. They make money off of a buyer fee which is a percentage of the sell price, just like every auction house out there. And the reserve price is around trade in value of the car, ie: too low. And they have a weird clause where if the car doesn’t sell they get the right to purchase it at the reserve price. So it’s a win/win for them no matter what the outcome is, but for the seller its a big fat gamble.
And they have zero skin in the game, they’re out absolutely zero no matter the outcome, but you the seller could be forced to sell your car for way less than what it’s worth. So here’s an example of why they want your car to have a low reserve price; lets say you want your reserve price to be $45K, they counter with $41K.
To you that’s a $4,000 difference or loss you could potentially take, for them? Lets say their buyer fee is 4% of the sale price, if the car were to sell at the reserve price YOU want ($45k) their commission is $1800, now lets say you list it at their reserve price of $41K and that’s what it sells for, what’s their commission on that? $1640
So, you’re short $4,000 dollars, and they only had to sacrifice $160 of potential earning. So now do you see why they want to control your reserve price. They know the likely hood of your car selling is much higher if the price is around wholesale, so what, they make a little less money, but you as the seller may end up selling your car for way less than you wanted and loosing thousands. They have zero skin in the game, essentially they’re getting to gamble with your currency and they’re rigging the game to earn no matter the outcome. I told them to pound sand. But I see a lot of cars auctioned on there every week so there must be a bunch of people that are way more risk tolerant than I am.
First off, they pick the reserve price, what?! That’s right, they pick the minimum amount YOU are willing to accept for your vehicle. Why you ask? Because even though they charge sellers anywhere from $99 to $350 to list your car, that’s not how they make money. They make money off of a buyer fee which is a percentage of the sell price, just like every auction house out there. And the reserve price is around trade in value of the car, ie: too low. And they have a weird clause where if the car doesn’t sell they get the right to purchase it at the reserve price. So it’s a win/win for them no matter what the outcome is, but for the seller its a big fat gamble.
And they have zero skin in the game, they’re out absolutely zero no matter the outcome, but you the seller could be forced to sell your car for way less than what it’s worth. So here’s an example of why they want your car to have a low reserve price; lets say you want your reserve price to be $45K, they counter with $41K.
To you that’s a $4,000 difference or loss you could potentially take, for them? Lets say their buyer fee is 4% of the sale price, if the car were to sell at the reserve price YOU want ($45k) their commission is $1800, now lets say you list it at their reserve price of $41K and that’s what it sells for, what’s their commission on that? $1640
So, you’re short $4,000 dollars, and they only had to sacrifice $160 of potential earning. So now do you see why they want to control your reserve price. They know the likely hood of your car selling is much higher if the price is around wholesale, so what, they make a little less money, but you as the seller may end up selling your car for way less than you wanted and loosing thousands. They have zero skin in the game, essentially they’re getting to gamble with your currency and they’re rigging the game to earn no matter the outcome. I told them to pound sand. But I see a lot of cars auctioned on there every week so there must be a bunch of people that are way more risk tolerant than I am.