We admire the collector car auction site BringATrailer.com (more affectionately known as “BaT”) and respect all of the hard work Randy Nonnenburg and his partner Gentry Underwood put into their website to take it from a cool, car-classified aggregation blog with no followers in 2007 to what is now a full-blown curated vintage and classic car auction site. However, in the last five years since converting the site completely to auctions, BaT went from being a source of affordable, interesting vintage and classic cars between private sellers to becoming yet another mostly high-end auction outlet, 45% of which is dealer-based. Why? Supply and demand.
Over the past five years, BaT slowly raised their auction curating capacity to an average of nearly 40 lots per day, five days per week for a weekly total of 200. During a “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit.com April 23,2019, Randy Nonnenburg confirmed BaT only posts 40% of the auction requests the site receives. During the same session, Randy later admits BaT now receives an average of 100 auction requests per day, or roughly 600-700 weekly. Do the math and conservatively BringaTrailer currently turns down 400 auction requests each week. Factoring out 45% of these rejected requests assumed to be dealer-sourced (based on our research of BaT auction lots) means that conservatively Bringatrailer.com turns away 150 private seller auction requests each week. Thus, BringaTrailer.com now has the luxury of being very particular about the vehicles they offer at auction due to the sheer selection available at their disposal.
During aforementioned Reddit interview, Randy tries to point out those 60% get weeded out because sellers won’t budge on an unreasonably high reserve price or they seem shady based on their phone interviews. While we’re in agreement the curators deal with much of that, we also have no doubt over the past five years BaT quickly learned how to weed out potential bad apples. They also can now rely on their growing database of sold collector and vintage cars to recommend reserve prices to sellers. So, the question becomes this: in their effort to increase their sales rate (currently averaging just under 75% year-to-date), does BringaTrailer.com try to coerce some prospective sellers into accepting an artificially low reserve price in exchange for featuring a collectible car at auction?
If you are a private seller who has tried to list your collector or vintage vehicle on BringATrailer.com but were turned down, we’d like to hear from you! Please post your story below! If you can provide proof of your story, we’ll send you an exclusive GuysWithRides.com T-Shirt for taking the time to post!
I’m not a dealer and had several successful auctions with BaT. I research my cars and set what I believe is a reasonable reserve. The results have always bettered my reserve. Most people think their cars are more valuable than they are. I’m semi retired and am dispersing a 40 year collection and BaT is my go to resource for sales.
I’ve sold one car on BaT and I was pleased with the sale. I set my reserve at a realistic price and had no issues. I agree with Ben that most people think their cars are worth more, which ultimately hurts them because they tend not to sell their cars.
I do wish BaT had more private auctions. My guess is that there are more dealers because they are realistic about what their cars are worth.
I was turned down by BaT a couple of weeks ago and still haven’t recovered from the damage it caused to my psyche. LOL
I was attempting to list my brother’s one owner, really nice Volvo 245 wagon and, judging by their history of auctioning similar but not as nice cars I thought it would be a shoo-in. Not only was I not selected but I haven’t been able to get them to respond as to why.
I think its pretty obvious that its to their benefit to move upscale and only list cars that sell for higher prices. After all, part of their compensation is dependent on the selling price. I also think that they are simply not equipped to handle the volume of potential listings that they could be getting so they are a victim of their own success…”jumped the shark” as this site says.
I like the auction format and the more selective listing criteria of the “old” BaT. What a great opportunity for someone.
In general, I find BaT’s Volvo offering pretty weak. I don’t know if it’s because of a lack of submission or interest on BaT’s end, but there is a real lack of love for Volvos.
On the other hand, it seems like you can sell just about any kind of 911 in any condition on BaT.
Tried to sell a zb 50 honda with 90 miles on it and got turned down. I am crushed 🙂 what morons.
I submitted a quite clean 1989 Toyota Land Cruiser with 189k miles and a $15k reserve and was rejected today without explanation in what appears to be a form email. I followed all the BaT seller suggestions and included a Carfax report and over 130 photos. There aren’t a lot of FJ62s on the site and I’ve seen some that don’t measure up to mine. No idea why it was rejected.
Dan,
We’re sorry to hear BaT turned you away. With BaT’s current daily capacity limited to 60 vehicles per day, estimates indicate the site now turns away over double that per day as they continue to take the site upmarket and COVID-19 significantly increased their user base even more. That’s one of many reasons we created GuysWithRides.com and we have big news coming very soon! Without seeing any pictures of your FJ62 and researching Hagerty, your reserve seems to be in the ballpark depending on what’s been rebuilt mechanically with 189K miles. We would love to have a shot at finding a buyer for your FJ62, so if you’d like to give it a shot at no charge, you can start the process at the following easy-to-use link: https://www.guyswithrides.com/submit-a-vehicle/
Hello I got rejected for my 260z 2+2 in great condition when there has been a ton on their website not really sure why seemed like a good fit must just be over flooded right now. Would love a T-shirt though.
Ryan,
Sorry to hear that BaT rejected your car for auction. They are flooded with an estimated 150 requests daily yet they only have the capacity for about 55 auctions five days per week on average. That combined with the fact they try to keep the average daily sales price around $30K to keep the criticism about going upmarket at bay. Unfortunately, that’s why you’re seeing more motorcycles and boats auctioned on the site.
If you submit the story of you and your 260Z at https://www.guyswithrides.com/guys-with-their-rides/ we’ll be glad to send you out a T-Shirt and other free GWR swag.