I am sure we have all seen an auction before. Most people have seen them in movies or T.V shows with some guy yelling out bids at a million words a second and the fierce bidding battles people can get into. The loud “Sold!” you hear after someone bids may be too much for what was being auctioned off.
But are car auctions actually like this? Well, if you’re doing a live auction, you might find the fast-talking auctioneer and for the most part, there are sometimes some fierce bidding wars. But is it worth it more than just taking your car to a dealership or selling to a private owner? If your car is damaged or totaled and you’re looking to auction it off you can always sell it too.
Making A Game Plan
When you get into auctioning cars you need to decide how you are going to do it. Should you find an auctioning business to have a real-life, in-person event or just set it up online on an auctioning website.
Regardless of what you choose there are important questions to consider. For instance, “How am I going to get the most from my car?”
The first way to ensure that you don’t lose money on an auction is to make sure you have a fair reserve price. Not having a reserve price means you can end up giving your away for basically free if someone spends the minimum to bid. So, you want to do research on how much your car is worth to price it accordingly. Do not put down less than what you think your car is worth.
You are also going to want to make your car as appealing as possible to those that see it. Invest some time into cleaning your car if it’s dirty and take some nice pictures. Create an enticing, but honest description of your vehicle so that buyers could feel good about bidding high amounts of money for your vehicle. Salesmanship has a lot to do with auctions.
Live Vs. Online Auctions
In live auctions, you would also have to contend with finding the best auctioning company to bid off your car. If you are wanting to auction a classic or vintage vehicle then look for an auction with similar cars to attract the kind of customers you want. Damaged cars are also better auctioned off live because scrappers would be attracted to taking a car in-person rather than bidding on one online.
In online auctions, you also have to find where you’re going to auction your vehicle. Different websites will specialize in different areas like damaged cars, Dealer-only auctions, or insurance auctions. Online auctions will have the benefit of being able to reach thousands more people interested in buying a car than at a live auction.
Now you know how to go about auctioning off cars but is the trouble worth it? Well, it depends on how much a little extra money would mean to you.
Should You Auction?
Of course, you can get lucky and find someone willing to pay more than the value of the vehicle to have it but you also risk the car going for the minimum as well. Car auctions can really go both ways and it is a risk you are going to take if you venture this path.
There is also the hassle of having to set up your car to be auctioned. Cleaning it, making sure it runs well if you’ve advertised it as running, and going through much more trouble than in other ways of selling a vehicle.
There are many more hassle-free ways to get rid of a car. You can go to a dealer and sell or trade in your car. You can tow it to an automotive scrapyard and get some money from it. You can even go online and sell your car easily, even if it is damaged or totaled. There are more ways than just auctioning.
So, is auctioning the way to go? Well, yes and no. You can make a ton of money on a lucky streak, but you will have to go through some extra effort that you might want to avoid. If you are willing to go through the auctioning process then go ahead but there are easier ways to make, albeit less money, selling your car. The decision is ultimately up to you
