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.