Well, I took a car to auction for the first time..

[southernfriedcj]

...and was taken to school.

I took a car to a recent auction and learned a thing or to to carry with me next time I go.

1. Don't wait until the last minute to register, all the good time slots will be taken. You need a good time slot.
2. Don't drive your own car across the block, let someone else drive the car so that you can see what's going on.
3. Don't drop your reserve too fast, you may get a quick gavel.
4. Apparently it's not a conflict of interest for an employee of the auction house to bid on and buy your car(without your prior knowledge), while another employee asks you to drop your reserve and another employee drops the gavel.
5. Guys bid on your car without checking the #'s, docs or speaking to you. The just look at the paint.
6. Your paint job doesn't look as good under auction lights as it did in your garage.
7. Don't worry about your crappy looking under carriage, nobody is going to jack up a car that sits 4" off the ground to look under there.
8. There are a lot of POS cars at an auction.
9. Of the cars at the auction only about 2% were REALLY nice.
10. Most cars only had a few lines of description and made no claims.
11. I think I left some money on the table.

Live and learn.

[Mr70]

Sounds like ThunderDome.

[mockingbird812]

Good debrief Jim! ....so that others may learn.

[BJCHEV396]

THANKS JIM.VERY INFORMATIVE AND INTERESTING.BILL.

[NovaMob03]

Add in the cost to transport, hotel, commission, employee/house shill bidding and it's easy to understand why the internet and car publications are still preferred by many of us.
Unfortunately, many buyers are already looking to see what happens at the Scottsdale auctions . I hate to think that the bidding on clones & rebody's may influence buyers on real cars.
Jim, sorry you had such a negitive experiance. You've had some nice cars, but it's hard to be patient when you/we need cash flow for family & business.

[southernfriedcj]

Jude cash is king right now.
The auction employee that purchased my Challenger T/A in December just ran the car through the auction today. He purchased the car for $46,000 in Kansas City, took it home to Iowa, and brought it down to Kissimmee. It bid to $48,000 and didn't sell. Sucks to be him.
They sure seemed to work the car harder for him than they did me. The car bidding stalled twice and they pressed and got it to $48,000. It didn't meet reserve.

[Vern B]

[ QUOTE ]
Jude cash is king right now.
The auction employee that purchased my Challenger T/A in December just ran the car through the auction today. He purchased the car for $46,000 in Kansas City, took it home to Iowa, and brought it down to Kissimmee. It bid to $48,000 and didn't sell. Sucks to be him.
They sure seemed to work the car harder for him than they did me. The car bidding stalled twice and they pressed and got it to $48,000. It didn't meet reserve.

[/ QUOTE ]

What it lot # 143? I was at the auction today and there were a lot of nice cars that did'nt meet reserve.

[southernfriedcj]

Lot 156. GoManGo Challenger T/A. I didn't see one car meet reserve. The only cars selling were the few no reserve cars and the cars where guys dropped their reserve. I watched te auction on the internet. I was going to take a '68 RS/SS ragger but decided to pass.

[Vern B]

There were about 10 or 11 cars between Lot # 110 and 150
that sold. Not sure how many of those the owners dropped their reserves on.

The Gulf One 63 Z06 Vette sold for $ 1,050,00.

The 65 Chevelle Z 16 was a NS at $ 150 with a reserve of $ 200K

The 71 Hemi Cuda (last one produced) was a NS at 525K with a reserve of $ 700K

Lot # 126 69 Z28 sold after it left the block and the next bid started at $ 95K