Anyone have information on Collectible Classics in Bryn Mawr, PA?

I had a similar experience on BAT. Title skipping included. Provided everything to NJ, including their DMV, no one cared. Crickets…

 

Just curious, which model car and what issues did you have with it?

 

BaT is in bed with this guy, who has screwed over so many people. I have completely lost faith in BaT, they are run by immoral bean counters that cater to high volume sellers, no matter how crooked those sellers are. Unfortunately Cars and Bids is even worse.

BaT won't institute seller ratings and censors posts that are critical of their best customers - i.e. high volume sellers like this guy. Cars and Bids blocks anything even mildly critical of one of their offerings. It's all about collecting that commission ....

 

They know NOTHING about cars. They’re clueless. They lie about the models condition, ownership history, everything.

I collect classic cars. I recently bought one listed for sale on CL. The owner almost didn’t sell me the car. Why is that? Because this clown tried to trick an older gentleman into thinking I was an unethical person who would cause them many problems. This guy lied and lied to try and steal a car out of my hands using fear tactics on an elderly person.

Yet they post videos on social media rambling cluelessly about cars they own that they don’t understand. I’m not sure how they haven’t been banned from BaT. I will tell you one thing - the experiences I’ve read here line up with others I’ve heard. Disgusting

 

How much longer can these auction platforms continue to host sellers like this without some exposure? They are not stupid, they have full knowledge of what sellers like Collectible Classics are doing. Yet sites like BaT not only continue to offer up their buyers to be slaughtered by these rip off sellers, they refuse to allow any kind of buyer feedback or seller ratings on their site.

So it's not just allowing the fraud to happen on their platform, it's actively restricting information that would expose these sellers and protect buyers. BaT is 100% complicit.

 

Hi everyone. I'm new here. I was brought here while searching for info on Collectible Classics. I have used BaT to waste a lot of time online. I say waste a lot of time because there are zero good deals on that site. Just too many people with stupid money, and stupid people with too much money. I'm an auto enthusiast. I like cars. That said, I was looking at an auction Joey was running on PCar Market and wanted to know more about him. Thank you all for saving me from him and from buying a car that may not have been as represented. Now about BaT. Many of your comments are spot on. They have diligent censors that will not allow any comment that paints one of their income streams (Sellers) in a bad light. How much income you ask? I calculated how much BaT would make, guaranteed, in the next seven days on JUST the No-Reserve auctions; Listing fees, Buyers fee just to date keeping in mind many of the listings still had days to go which will only increase BaT's take, and the staggering total is $370,000.00. That's 1 week earnings not counting the Reserve auctions seller fees and buyers fees from those that actually sell. This is why they coddle the sellers and don't give a rosey red rats pituttie about the buyers. For every seller there are hundreds , if not thousands of buyers. There are currently 775 active listings on BaT. With just the sellers fees, that's $77,000.

 

I agree it seems like there’s a lot of stupid money on BAT, but one can argue the auction sites are the only true market assessment of cars’ value, even if some are propped up by shill bidding. Some sucker has to be willing to pay the final price. Even if someone had access to dealer sales prices, they wouldn’t take into account other factors like trade-in deals, tax credits, favorable pricing due to financing.

 

BaT is a near-perfect platform for dishonest dealers like Collectible Classics. Why? With every new listing, the seller comes as a clean slate, with basically zero history. He could have just ripped off 100 people in row, and in Auction #101, he's just some undefined person selling a car. Sure, you can click on past listings and spend dozens of hours reading hundreds or thousands of postings, 99% of which are not relevant to the seller's honesty or integrity. But (1) once an auction is over, the page is basically dead, so buyer's post-sale experiences' just don't exist on BaT, and (2) BaT has steadfastly refused any kind of seller rating system. They have a cash cow in large part due to volume sellers like Collectible Classics, and they seem happy to sacrifice their one-off buyers for the almighty dollar.

I wish somebody would do a class action against them. Profiting from fraud while turning a blind to those whom you help commit the fraud has to be actionable.

BaT had an opportunity to help clean up a sometimes very dirty industry. Instead they opted for the short-cash.

 

Let me tell you something as a very very big seller on BAT. The crappy sellers hurt the platform and hurt the other sellers. Believe me, I am NOT defending the guys from CC, and they're not the only offenders.

It also cuts both ways. I could tell you dozens and dozens of stories about the sleazy buyers too. The kind of people who try to extort sellers with threats of sullying their reputation, the kind of buyers who force law suits on sellers which have no merit and then after fighting for a year just walk away after the seller dumps many many thousands in attorneys fees. Or the crappy buyers who buy 20, 30 or 40 year old cars that are not particularly expensive and then hound you for months over nickel and dime stuff. Or the buyer who sends you an email 6 months after they buy the car and expect you to fix something they broke.

I do about 60/40 my own cars / consignments. I have had people bring me cars they bought from CC and asked me just to sell it and get their money back. In nearly every case I pass on the car. I work hard to keep my reputation and the cost to take those cars to the level where I could represent them is always more than the new owners want to spend.

The problem with a "seller rating" is that there are even more crappy buyers than there are sellers. Stands to reason since there are more individual buyers than sellers.

In 500 or so auctions, I have had 7 or 8 deadbeat buyers too. Guys who bid up the car and win. Then you speak with them and they're gung hoe, and you never hear from them again. Now the car is tainted and sure I have sold some for more in the next auction, but who wants to even go through that again.

When Covid first his I sold a stunning 612 Scag and the buyer backed out. It cost $4500 in his buyer fee to BAT. He was flipping out of the stock market falling. I ran the car again the following week, it sold for more. The car is still worth more than he paid and even with the market sell off recently, the market is much higher than it was in those days. If you're going to bid then be a stand up bidder too.

 

A listing is only as good as the info the seller provides. So if a listing is removed and rewritten because the BaT community points out errors, isn't that a good thing? Then, as a bidder people can decide whether it was an intentional coverup or the seller doesn't know as much as they should about that car, or that year, make model. Plenty of clueless sellers. Plenty of sellers who want to sell their car and think it's it's very easy to sell on BaT.

BaT is a business, just like every other business, and it's a for profit business. They disrupted the market and created this sort of on line auction platform. All of the others who have come along since BaT started tells you it's a business that the market place uses.

I'm not trying to change your mind. I know, as we all do, that changing someone's mind on social media is not happening. All I'm doing is presenting a different prospective. BaT is not the platform for some buyers, and I totally understand that, and take no issue with that.

In the early days of BaT it was a whole lot easier selling cars. We used to snap 30 or so pics and call it a day. There were 20 auctions a day and it was a lot of fun. These days doing a proper listing is a ton of work and a ton of expense. From the time a car I find and buy for resale on BaT hits my place its weeks of work and prep. I don't sell garbage. No matter what the product is, I unless you're selling a commodity, then the seller matters. Despite all the work that goes into presenting a good car, you always have unsubstantiated inflammatory comments which you have to respond to and live with. Even after the sale there is always a problem buyer somewhere. For some of the buyers it's a sport, they try to see how much they can get back out of you. Sell a vintage car and 6 months later get a letter from an attorney about something that happened with the car months after you sold it, where the buyer never even contacted you. I can tell you many ridiculous stories that have been thrown out by the courts but cost seller many thousands in legal fees. Plus the ever present threat of trashing your businesses reputation. Which by the way is also done as sport by buyers.

I'm not saying the system or the platform is perfect. There is no such thing. You're looking at it from your perspective and I'm just giving a perspective from the other side. Clearly, it's the wrong platform for some buyers. It's a big market place and I take no issue with those buyers. It's a huge market place and I hope they find cars they enjoy owning.

 

Just so people know there are still issues here. Made the mistake of buying a Boxster S that showed up with serious issues that were not disclosed.

 

As I said earlier, no one is changing anyone's opinions via posts on social media or a forum like this. I certainly respect your opinion and I appreciate the polite dialog. As we both agree there are bad actors on both sides of every market. 20 plus years of standing in the pits on various options exchanges and I never even had a foul language violation or a dress code violation, let alone anything serious. I watched a lot of crap go down in those years, just kept my integrity intact. An "as is & where is" doc is nice but its merely a speed bump for a crappy buyer and in the end can be easily defeated by any competent buyers attorney.

In the end, BAT and the other platforms are not the best place for some buyers, and some buyers are not the right people any seller wants buying their cars. No market is perfect. Thanks again for the polite conversation.