So... You Wanna Go To a Car Auction?

[Stumpuller6.5]

hmmm, cool job!

 

[Bowtie2Sierra]

You have an awesome job, Jim. I would love it.

 

[Bigredmariner]

Still some cool pics.

 

[dietz4ibanez]

Looked like there was a nice trailblazer in the mix...

There are loads of sweet cars there.

When you drive by your local car dealership, this is where they get 90% of their cars. People mistakenly believe that the cars on the New Car dealership are all trade ins but that is far from the truth. Almost all cars traded in go to the auction. Then they buy the cars there that they want up front on their lot. Lots of car swapping. Crewcab trucks traded at the Honda store end up being sold at the auction to another dealer that deals in those vehicles and they buy a Honda or other import to put on their lot to replace it. There is a lot of science involved here.

There are LOTS of perfectly nice cars to be had. The auction inspects and grades each and every one of them (by the thousands) and publishes their report on their website prior to the car being sold at auction. If it has ever been wrecked, repainted, etc, they will catch it. They will even note it if the oil is half a quart low or looks dirty. It's a very well run organization that has auctions all over the country.

Sadly there aren't many "deals" to be had. Most everything sells well within NADA guidelines.

Yeah when I was in College I had a business partner and we were just a couple feet short of opening out own lot... We had bought and sold a couple cars and pulled a pretty good profit!
This was when I was in West Virginia and we had the lot, the office and everything that we needed for our dealers license... Then he and his wife had a kid so he needed time for the family and said that we would go for it in a couple of months.. Just never happened...