To BaT or not to BaT

So now that I made the decision to sell the S2000, the question is "where". I think it might be nice enough for BaT, being low mileage and all that. OTOH it is not pristine either and has had a fair number of owners. Plus I know a few on here had bad experiences trying to sell on BaT.

WWGRMD?

Try Doug DeMuro's new site. BaT has jumped the shark (1-time BaT seller here).

I do 2-3 cars on BAT a year 

I sold one last week and have another coming up end of this month. 
 

For a seller it's fantastic. Highly recommended if you have the right cars. I get the perfect deep pocketed emotional buyers I am after 

everything I sell is either 1 owner or 2 owners (me being second) .

 Mint condition low mileage are what I sell. 

I do 3 videos and about 200 pics. Never had any issues getting top dollar 

my s2000 will go on BAT but I have been going back and forth on selling since 08, so who know what happens. At least in 2020 it got driven 52 miles. Better than last 4 years 

yea try Cars and Bids like Javelin says.

Cars and Bids is like BaT but $50 cheaper for the seller and slightly better for the buyer.

Either way, give it a shot!

In reply to Javelin (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, I vaguely remembered you had some issue with them in the past, which is where my question came from.

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

Unfortunately this car has more than 1-2 owners. I can't remember exactly how many, but more or less enough to make me wonder if BaT is the right place. With the mileage on the car it would otherwise be a no brainer.

Cars and Bids looks pretty reasonable. It looks like they've had two S2ks so far, both AP1s but with much lower mileage than mine. I guess I'll put the OEM seat back in, get snapping and see what they have to say.

BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

Unfortunately this car has more than 1-2 owners. I can't remember exactly how many, but more or less enough to make me wonder if BaT is the right place. With the mileage on the car it would otherwise be a no brainer.

 

I wasn't saying that ownership history necessarily precludes your stook from a BAT listing. Apologize, if I didn't word it correctly. 
 

I was just saying I had excellent luck as a seller and I will continue to sell there, as my ROI has been fantastic. For me the websites don't matter, I am not beholden to anything. Only colour matters is green, I go where I get paid. Good luck ! 

mr2s2000elise said:

BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

Unfortunately this car has more than 1-2 owners. I can't remember exactly how many, but more or less enough to make me wonder if BaT is the right place. With the mileage on the car it would otherwise be a no brainer.

 

I wasn't saying that ownership history necessarily precludes your stook from a BAT listing. Apologize, if I didn't word it correctly. 

Sorry, that was probably me wording things badly. I didn't take it like that, it was more of a reflection of my thinking. Compared to most cars that I see on BaT, I tend to discount my S2k because it has had more owners than seems to be typical for cars listed on the site, not to mention that it probably wants the replacement front bumper cover re-sprayed to be "nice enough". And at that point I'm looking at being in a financial hole.
 

I was just saying I had excellent luck as a seller and I will continue to sell there, as my ROI has been fantastic. For me the websites don't matter, I am not beholden to anything. Only colour matters is green, I go where I get paid. Good luck ! 

Thanks! And yes, green rules in this particular case, especially when it provides for the next toy.

BaT is fine as long as you make them accept the reserve pricing you want.  In my case they wanted me to accept a reserve pricing thousands below what I was willing to take, then declined to list my car when I refused.

Bumping an old thread...there was a New York Times article about carsandbids.com today that I thought was interesting:

----

YouTuber finds success with car auction website

A net-famous car reviewer redesigns the online market, adding discussions and fun into the mix.

Making the most important pitch of his career, Doug DeMuro stood in cargo shorts in front of a camera, unwavering in his giddy demeanor. He was about to unveil his new car auction website to his 3.7 million YouTube subscribers. The site would feature cars “that I like most,” he said.

DeMuro had dreamed up his perfect car auction website during a flight without Wi-Fi in spring last year. It would feature cars from the 1980s on up, like a pristine 1984 Honda CRX or a manual-transmission 1991 BMW 325i. And it would have integrated chat.

Leading up to the introduction in June, DeMuro, 32, from San Diego, was hoping for 100 submissions from sellers in the first week. He played down his optimism, telling his team that they might see around 30 cars.

Cars & Bids received 720 submissions on the first day.

“There’s two bad things that can happen when you launch a business,” DeMuro said. “The first is that no one cares and it fails. But the other one that people don’t think about all that much is that it’s more successful than you expected, because you’re not prepared.”

DeMuro’s career had taken a number of turns before reaching this point. While working a corporate job at Porsche Cars North America in Atlanta, he discovered that writing snarky car columns was more compelling. In 2013, DeMuro left Porsche to pursue his passion, finding bylines at Jalopnik and GQ. He also started creating supplemental YouTube videos. Three years later, he became editor of Autotrader’s blog, Oversteer, before stepping away to pursue Cars & Bids.

“Anyone who is a YouTuber who is smart is thinking, ‘How can I leverage this platform for something that’s a little bit more permanent?’ ” he said.

DeMuro’s deep knowledge and genuine enthusiasm have made him one of the most popular car reviewers on the platform. He’s edging out channels like Jay Leno’s Garage by a good 700,000 subscribers.

That audience helped propel the introduction of Cars & Bids.

With the sudden flood of submissions, DeMuro quickly got to work on his backyard patio with his co-founder, Blake Machado, and the four other members of the team, dealing with the onslaught while trying to socially distance.

On one of the top car auction sites, eBay Motors, the sellers submit pictures and write a description. Cars & Bids wanted all its listings to have the same information. This required editorial oversight. Sellers must fill out a detailed questionnaire and submit upward of 100 photos. It takes time.

“To me it felt exhaustive, but they held my hand through it the whole time,” said Nick Szabo, 33, a St. Louis marketing product manager who recently listed his Porsche 944 Turbo.

Even with the team working frantically, as soon as it would decide on a reserve price for one car, five other submissions would arrive.

DeMuro has built this audience with a personal touch. He comes off like a buddy telling you about a cool car. He rarely advertises products, and avoids gimmicks. For a half-hour at a time, he’s digging deep on all of a car’s quirks and features.

Bring a Trailer is Cars & Bids’ closest competition. Both sites mix online auctioning with a Facebook comments section. Sellers, potential buyers and onlookers will often have vibrant discussions for each car, which adds to the fun of seeing bids scuttle upward.

“Transparency really has value when you’re stuck behind a screen during this horrible pandemic,” said Jeremy Anspach, chief executive of PureCars, a digital advertising company for dealerships. “And when I’m on Bring a Trailer, it’s almost soothing for me in the evenings to just see what was listed and what the comments are.”

That community, transparency and dialogue around cars helped push Bring a Trailer’s sales to $230 million in 2019. And of the roughly 275 cars listed weekly, 70% sell. Since its introduction in June, Cars & Bids has sold 450 cars, bringing in $8.5 million in sales, with a 75% sell-through pace.

I knew DeMuro when he was a punkass teenager and I was an administrator on www.gtplanet.net.  He was a nearly pathological liar but he was pretty funny.  I'm kind of surprised he's made such a success of himself, but he does work pretty hard at it.

Once the whole transaction has wrapped up completely, I'll post a summary here.

BaT wouldn't accept this car with a reserve, so I decided to risk listing it without one. Seems to have worked out OK and the car is now on its way to the new owner, where it should arrive in the next few days.

So other than not allowing reserves taht people want and either making them go no reserve or a lower reserve, how has BaT jumped the shark?  I still love the place for browsing cool stuff to blow lotto winnings on.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :

I remember my friend tried to list a spotless very early build 1990 Miata in Mariner Blue with 30k original miles and he basically got told "That's not special enough for our site." He sent them links to 4 or 5 mid-2000s 5-speed Tacomas that were currently listed on the site and told them to get bent.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :

Their car selection process has gone off the rails, along with their reserve agreements. Back in the day I listed and sold my L98-swapped XJS with a reserve just fine, now they won't even list it. I tried to sell a 64 Rambler convertible with them but was told that it wasn't "special enough". I haven't looked at their site since.

they wanted me to accept a $15k reserve for my LSx swapped 951.  I wanted a reserve of $20k.  When I refused, they declined to list my car.  I wasn't interested in taking the risk and sold it privately for more than my reserve, keeping my recaro seats, bases, sliders and schroth harnesses.