Bidding
How it works
The short version: a refundable $500 hold gets you approved for a sale, proxy bidding means you do not have to sit at the screen, and if you win we invoice 5% of the hammer price, never more than $5,000.
At a glance
- Bidder deposit
- $500
- A refundable hold, taken per event. If you do not win, it is released the same day.
- Buyer premium
- 5%
- Minimum $250, capped at $5,000. Invoiced when you win, never held in advance.
- Soft close
- 2 minutes
- A bid in the final minutes adds time, as often as it takes. No sniping here.
Four steps
Register for the sale
Registration is per event, not once forever, and it is reviewed by a person. We ask for a $500 refundable deposit hold on a card before you are approved to bid.
Bid, or set a maximum
You can place a single bid at the next increment, or name the most you are willing to pay and let the system bid for you. It raises you one increment at a time and only as far as it needs to. Naming a maximum never means spending it.
Let the clock do its thing
Every lot has its own end time. A bid inside the final 2 minutes pushes the end out by the same amount, as many times as it takes. Last-second sniping does not work here, so you do not have to hover over the keyboard.
Win, or get your hold back
If you do not win, the deposit hold is released the same day. If you do win, we invoice the 5% buyer premium and introduce you to the seller to settle the car itself.
The buyer premium
5% of the hammer price, with a $250 minimum and a hard $5,000 cap. The cap is absolute. Above a hammer price of $100,000 the premium stops rising, so the fee on an expensive car is the same as the fee on a very expensive one.
| Hammer price | Buyer premium | How it was reached |
|---|---|---|
| $3,000 | $250 | 5% would be $150; the $250 minimum applies |
| $80,000 | $4,000 | A straight 5% |
| $250,000 | $5,000 | 5% would be $12,500; the $5,000 cap applies |
What we invoice is the buyer premium. The purchase price of the car itself settles directly between you and the seller, along with title and transport. We do not hold the vehicle funds in escrow and we do not transfer title.
The premium is invoiced when you win. It is not charged in advance and it is not kept if the sale falls through. The only money that touches your card before a sale is the refundable deposit hold.
Bid increments
The minimum raise steps up with the price. The band is chosen by the current price, the amount being raised from, so a bid that crosses a boundary uses the increment of the band it started in.
| Current price | Minimum raise |
|---|---|
| Under $10,000 | $250 |
| $10,000 to under $50,000 | $500 |
| $50,000 and above | $1,000 |
The house rules
Same clock, same rules, for everyone
Reserves, and what we will not do
Most lots carry a reserve. The lot page tells you whether it has been met. Never the figure itself, just whether the bidding has cleared it.
If the reserve is not met, the lot passes, and it is recorded that way publicly. We never quietly make up the difference to the seller so a pass can be reported as a sale. A sold price on this site is a price someone actually bid.
Comments are moderated, and when something is removed the removal carries a reason and is logged. Sellers get a right of reply on their own lot.
Consignors cannot bid on their own cars. The system checks that on every single bid.
What we do not handle
We would rather be clear about the edges than quiet about them.
We do not hold the purchase price in escrow, we do not transfer title, and we do not arrange transport. Those are settled directly between buyer and seller after the sale, and we introduce the two of you to make that possible.
We are not a dispute-resolution service. If a car is not as described, that gets settled between buyer and seller. We still want to hear about it, though, because it decides whether that seller ever consigns here again.
Thinking of selling instead? Consignment is here.