If you didn’t catch it on Saturday, March 11, 2023, Bring a Trailer had two auctions end with ridiculously high bids on two extremely low-mileage examples.  While the high bids themselves are new records for these cars, even more surprising is the fact the same person spent nearly $309K to win both of them. Let that sink in for a moment: the winning bidder agreed to pay over $300,000 for two cars that, on a good day, might fetch a total of $30,000. That’s ten times the average market value for these cars combined before last Saturday.

Since the end of these auctions, the Internet has been ablaze with people pondering whether the buyer uses Bring a Trailer to launder money.  In fact, many of Bat’s community members commented on their money laundering opinions on each car’s listings. While it continues to make us shake our heads at why someone would be willing to pay a 10x premium on not one but two cars, we genuinely hope the buyer is legitimate.  The last thing we want to see happen is that the money laundering conspiracy theory proves to be true, as that will only ruin buyers’ trust in using all online collector car auctions, not just BaT’s. The other reason we are doubting the theory is that someone doing that likely is smart enough to keep a low profile by bidding and winning with market-correct values.

When prompted by some nasty comments on the Mercedes listing, the buyer (whose BaT user name is “daddylongstick”) wrote, “…speak for yourself. I am self-made. I have my reasons, and it is none of your business.”

Conspiracy theory aside, we are concerned about who and why the other bidders (BaT user names LeftCoast7 and Tonyford1 ) drove up the bids on the Mercedes and Jaguar, respectively.  While they are long-time Bat members, their bidding history proves neither has ever bid on any other lot, even close to approaching the six figures of these auctions.

After thinking about it, Jeff Lavery’s blog post, “what if the money on BaT is really…real? on his new website, The Common Gear puts an interesting, non-conspiracy theory spin on the fact that someone may be willing to spend ample cash on something they really want.

What do you think happened with these two cars last Saturday? Please comment below and let us know!