[Roundabout]

With a traditional listing, the buyer will assume that the seller is willing to negotiate a 10% reduction in price.
So if you want $45,000, you would list the vehicle for $50,000. You see this a lot on autotrader, etc. for private sales.

In this case, the $41k reserve that BaT recommended is only 9% different from the seller's desired sales price.

BaT doesn't set the reserve, the seller does, but Bat reserves the right to not list the vehicle. If the seller doesn't like the suggestion, they negotiate or just go elsewhere. This is true of all auction houses. One way to negotiate a higher reserve is to pay for professional photographs and detailing.

BaT writes up the vehicle listing, so they have skin in the game in the form of labor hours. The write-ups are quite thorough. The objective write-ups combined with the pre-sales data from previous sales leads to BaT buyers being better informed than eBay buyers. I have found eBay listings to be highly suspect. Craigslist listings are just silly bad. When I have seen comments in BaT auctions that the seller takes exception to, it's typically the case that the comment is accurate but inconvenient for the seller (read undisclosed). I have seen BaT dispell bad comment information using additional photos or documentation, but the reality is that most of the comments are actually correct or easily corrected by the seller in the comments. The seller that is offended easily or emotionally invested is probably better selling on eBay where such communication is private.

I have sold cars on BaT, eBay, Craigslist, and private listings.

 

[Dus10]

With a traditional listing, the buyer will assume that the seller is willing to negotiate a 10% reduction in price.
So if you want $45,000, you would list the vehicle for $50,000. You see this a lot on autotrader, etc. for private sales.

In this case, the $41k reserve that BaT recommended is only 9% different from the seller's desired sales price.

BaT doesn't set the reserve, the seller does, but Bat reserves the right to not list the vehicle. If the seller doesn't like the suggestion, they negotiate or just go elsewhere. This is true of all auction houses. One way to negotiate a higher reserve is to pay for professional photographs and detailing.

BaT writes up the vehicle listing, so they have skin in the game in the form of labor hours. The write-ups are quite thorough. The objective write-ups combined with the pre-sales data from previous sales leads to BaT buyers being better informed than eBay buyers. I have found eBay listings to be highly suspect. Craigslist listings are just silly bad. When I have seen comments in BaT auctions that the seller takes exception to, it's typically the case that the comment is accurate but inconvenient for the seller (read undisclosed). I have seen BaT dispell bad comment information using additional photos or documentation, but the reality is that most of the comments are actually correct or easily corrected by the seller in the comments. The seller that is offended easily or emotionally invested is probably better selling on eBay where such communication is private.

I have sold cars on BaT, eBay, Craigslist, and private listings.

BAT dictated to me what the reserve price would be, I countered and they bumped it a grand but said that was all they would do. If their “skin in the game” is the time it takes to write the ad then its more than covered with the $99 listing fee, so that puts them back to a zero loss of money if your car doesn’t sell, so...no skin in the game. But hey, I get it, great business model. Just not a smart move for some sellers. If you have a highly sought after, highly collectible car then the odds are in your favor, but if you don’t the odds are against you walking away happy. Tons of posts out there of not so smart consumers posting their cars on BAT and going with the suggested reserve only for the car to sell way cheaper than they wanted. BAT gets their fees regardless, seller gets less than what makes them happy, NEXT sucker into the chute...

 

[robert.mcdaniels]

I was no longer a fan when they told me my car was too ****ty for their fancy web site:
https://spark.adobe.com/page/kDdqB/

 

[Roundabout]

Check out the comments. The seller didn’t know that the car had sold because it was $2k below his reserve. BaT still sold the car and gave the seller $2k out of their commission.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1987-ferrari-328-gts-28/

 

[Poorichard]

Never knew BAT did that, awesome.

 

[Viperguy324]

I'm glad BaT does this.... It's bring a trailer... not autotrader. Ebay if you want to sell maybe... BaT if you want it GONE!

 

[Chhirowolf]

I thought BaT only sold Porsche and BMW. I have watched and commented on many BaT Evora auctions. Try to give some positive input. Seems like they do not fetch a good price there.
People just don't seem to get the Evora on BaT

 

[carloverjoe]

I have used ACC Auctions after not having success with BaT. They even gave me free entry to sell my car with them because i was a previous BaT customer. the site is auctions.allcollectorcars.com they are part of allcollectorcars.com which is currently my favorite classified website to find classic cars on. For their auctions I was able to set my own reserve price and they were amazing to work with. I ended up reducing my reserve with 1 hour left in the auction because we were within $1500 of my price and we ended up selling the car.

 

[MyFemurHurts]

Years ago I tried to sell my BMW E9 on BaT. I couldn't get them to agree on a reserve that was anywhere near reasonable. I've worked in the car business for 15 years, and am a former General Manager, so I know how to determine the value of a car. While I wouldn't call their offer insulting, it was just super conservative which in car speak means "I don't know how to set a value so I'll just set a low one to limit my risk."

I said no, put it on Fleabay, and sold it for $500 more than my reserve.

I have a lot of friends who have done quite well on BaT, but my experience wasn't the best.

 

[SuHong Kim]

I have totally different take on this, as a seller, you have a lot of different channels of selling your car. If you want to set your own reserve, why not sell your car at Ebay? Facebook Market? These sources allow you to set your own price.

There are only two people who look at BaT - collectors, car enthusiasts without intention of buying cars and people who want to score a deal. Therefore, there is more merit to buyers unless you own a car that is in high demand or in a good condition with desirable mods.

As a seller, unless you are in a time frame there is no significant merit to sell a car like Lotus Evora, which requires time for you to find a specific buyer who are willing to pay. In that case, you should be OK with taking some hit to sell off the car as quickly as possible.



HOWEVER, if you are a BUYER, YOU PROBABLY WANT TO AVOID BaT. The following is my experience with BaT as a Buyer:

Last August, I bought my Lotus Evora from BaT and honestly, it was a good deal. 2010' N/A 6spd with 17k miles for $36.5k + $2k (38.5k). Despite some cosmetic and window regular issues, since car is low miled, I didn't really mind.

However, I believe that the seller was deceptive.

When I bought the car, I intend to do the road trip back home. In fact, I told that to the seller. For some reason, despite making that clear several times, sellers repeatedly asked me whether I wanted to hire a truck to deliver my car and I kept reminding him that I was driving my car back home. Reflecting back, I should have noticed the seller's worrying tone.

Now, the road trip back home was about 1000 miles and thirteen hours and the seller lived in Texas and it was in the middle of August. Temperature was really high and many Lotus owners can guess what happened... CLUTCH DROPPED in the middle of 8 lane highway.

After a short stop, the clutch worked again, until it didn't. During the lunch stop, when I checked the brake/clutch fluid, it was TOPPED OFF, and the fluid seemed to be added. (At least I should be thankful to seller about that?)

Now, since I wanted to buy M3/M4, Z/28, ZL1 1LE or GT350, Evora was at least $5k under-budget and I knew that clutch master-cylinder would fail, especially for Texas cars, and I was financially prepared. However, my issue was that I was not prepared to lose gear on the middle of the 8 lane highway with my family member on board the car.

At the half-way point, I decided to call a tow company and tow the car to a Lotus dealer in St.Louis which I won't mention, but they had no idea what was wrong with the car and honestly felt like they had no experience with the Lotus.

Now, after that I moved the car to @GatorMotorsport where they were highly confident that the issue was related to clutch master cylinder and installed the new clutch master cylinder that I purchased from @BOE Fabrication. (If you are in Mid-west, I HIGHLY recommend Gator).

So, here are problems with BaT as a buyer:

1) There is no way of telling what kind of car you are buying. Yes, most owners do allow inspections (in fact if they don't, no one would bet); however, for cars like Lotus Evora, you might have a hard time getting an inspection done. My car was sold at Amarillo, Texas and the nearest Lotus dealer was 4 hours away.... and issues like clutch master cylinder might not even be able to replicate in test-drive or mechanic inspection.

2) Lack of escrow service. I do not know what kind of process BaT takes to insure that cars are real, however, BaT recommends wire transfer for the money after receiving a picture of title and registration of the car - which can easily be forged. However, once you wire-transfer the money, the money is gone. Yes, you could go check your car before you wire transfer money if the seller is okay with that, however, in most cases sellers live on the other side of the continent. Also, since it takes 1~2 days for wire-transfer to arrive, and sellers do need to confirm this, you have this limbo period.

I point this out because my bank warned me about issues of the wire-transfer and they advised me against sending money to the seller (and the seller did not accept the cashier's check). Without escrow service, I honestly don't know the real advantage of BaT... it's basically the worst side of eBay and craigslist combined.

So yeah, that's my 10 cents rant.

 

[Viperguy324]

I have totally different take on this, as a seller, you have a lot of different channels of selling your car. If you want to set your own reserve, why not sell your car at Ebay? Facebook Market? These sources allow you to set your own price.

There are only two people who look at BaT - collectors, car enthusiasts without intention of buying cars and people who want to score a deal. Therefore, there is more merit to buyers unless you own a car that is in high demand or in a good condition with desirable mods.

As a seller, unless you are in a time frame there is no significant merit to sell a car like Lotus Evora, which requires time for you to find a specific buyer who are willing to pay. In that case, you should be OK with taking some hit to sell off the car as quickly as possible.



HOWEVER, if you are a BUYER, YOU PROBABLY WANT TO AVOID BaT. The following is my experience with BaT as a Buyer:

Last August, I bought my Lotus Evora from BaT and honestly, it was a good deal. 2010' N/A 6spd with 17k miles for $36.5k + $2k (38.5k). Despite some cosmetic and window regular issues, since car is low miled, I didn't really mind.

However, I believe that the seller was deceptive.

When I bought the car, I intend to do the road trip back home. In fact, I told that to the seller. For some reason, despite making that clear several times, sellers repeatedly asked me whether I wanted to hire a truck to deliver my car and I kept reminding him that I was driving my car back home. Reflecting back, I should have noticed the seller's worrying tone.

Now, the road trip back home was about 1000 miles and thirteen hours and the seller lived in Texas and it was in the middle of August. Temperature was really high and many Lotus owners can guess what happened... CLUTCH DROPPED in the middle of 8 lane highway.

After a short stop, the clutch worked again, until it didn't. During the lunch stop, when I checked the brake/clutch fluid, it was TOPPED OFF, and the fluid seemed to be added. (At least I should be thankful to seller about that?)

Now, since I wanted to buy M3/M4, Z/28, ZL1 1LE or GT350, Evora was at least $5k under-budget and I knew that clutch master-cylinder would fail, especially for Texas cars, and I was financially prepared. However, my issue was that I was not prepared to lose gear on the middle of the 8 lane highway with my family member on board the car.

At the half-way point, I decided to call a tow company and tow the car to a Lotus dealer in St.Louis which I won't mention, but they had no idea what was wrong with the car and honestly felt like they had no experience with the Lotus.

Now, after that I moved the car to @GatorMotorsport where they were highly confident that the issue was related to clutch master cylinder and installed the new clutch master cylinder that I purchased from @BOE Fabrication. (If you are in Mid-west, I HIGHLY recommend Gator).

So, here are problems with BaT as a buyer:

1) There is no way of telling what kind of car you are buying. Yes, most owners do allow inspections (in fact if they don't, no one would bet); however, for cars like Lotus Evora, you might have a hard time getting an inspection done. My car was sold at Amarillo, Texas and the nearest Lotus dealer was 4 hours away.... and issues like clutch master cylinder might not even be able to replicate in test-drive or mechanic inspection.

2) Lack of escrow service. I do not know what kind of process BaT takes to insure that cars are real, however, BaT recommends wire transfer for the money after receiving a picture of title and registration of the car - which can easily be forged. However, once you wire-transfer the money, the money is gone. Yes, you could go check your car before you wire transfer money if the seller is okay with that, however, in most cases sellers live on the other side of the continent. Also, since it takes 1~2 days for wire-transfer to arrive, and sellers do need to confirm this, you have this limbo period.

I point this out because my bank warned me about issues of the wire-transfer and they advised me against sending money to the seller (and the seller did not accept the cashier's check). Without escrow service, I honestly don't know the real advantage of BaT... it's basically the worst side of eBay and craigslist combined.

So yeah, that's my 10 cents rant.

Doesn't this pretty much apply to EVERY used car sale. With the exception being a brick and mortar dealership. Where even inspections mean zip... all this really applies to most all sight unseen car sales. Ebay, autotrader..etc.

 

[SuHong Kim]

Doesn't this pretty much apply to EVERY used car sale. With the exception being a brick and mortar dealership. Where even inspections mean zip... all this really applies to most all sight unseen car sales. Ebay, autotrader..etc.

That may be true, but we see people hyping over BaT and I just wanted to tell people about it - some people just put too much faith in BaT's honor system.

Also, it does not do much for service that takes $100 commission from seller and 5% from buyer.

 

[4reboxerguy]

All these auction sites are the same - the seller needs to take risk with a low reserve if he wants the car to be accepted and listed by the auction house. This brings an element of uncertainty into the sale --- the only way a seller can control the final price is to sell the asset in the more traditional sense via a private sale / negotiation process.

 

[NorCalGT]

I thought BaT only sold Porsche and BMW. I have watched and commented on many BaT Evora auctions. Try to give some positive input. Seems like they do not fetch a good price there.
People just don't seem to get the Evora on BaT

I don't see how Porsches draw the money they do with SO many up for auction ALL THE TIME.

 

[M.U.L.E.]

WTF is this? No.

 

[M.U.L.E.]

It is exactly what it says. I was just trying to give you an alternative.

And this alternative will be cleaned up shortly. Don't advertise this way, gross.

 

[Tengai650]

It is exactly what it says. I was just trying to give you an alternative.

Dude, do you even own a Lotus? Or are you at least looking to buy one??
If not, make like Michael Jackson and “Beat it.”