My (miserable) experience with Bring A Trailer

BaT long ago stopped being about the community. It's just another auction site now but with the benefit of some useful analysis tools for the historical pricing.

 

BaT’s platform serves as a crowd-sourced PPI of sorts and is its chief differentiator.

The bidding mechanism, however...

 

OK I need a sanity check here. Just sold a car on BAT, contacted the buyer about arrangements for pickup and payment and the guy says he wants to fly in, pay me $27,000 cash and drive it home on 24 year old tires. Am I right in thinking this is nuts? Every car I have bought I have either sent a cashiers check ahead of time so it could clear before delivery or sent a wire.

BTW my experience with BAT has been very good. Very responsive and were fair on the reserve. Just my experience.

 

Erm - was $27K the final agreed (winning bid) price?

When I bought mine, I basically did that. I flew in, took an Uber to the seller, inspected and test-drove the car. Had a cashier's check with me. Ultimately gave it to them, and drove the car home.

It didn't have 24 yr old tires, though. That one's weird. Maybe they aren't aware that ancient tires are actually a safety hazard.

 

Yes it is the full sale price. Cashier’s checks are dead easy to fake and can actually be dishonored by the issuing bank. Rare but possible.

 

And he wants to pay me in $100 bills not a cashier’s check.

 

Cashiers check or cash... in both cases take it to the bank to have them check it, then if all good, sign over the title at the bank.


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I think you're legally obligated to take cash. It says so right on the bills: "For all debts public and private". Besides, why wouldn't you want cash? It's very hard to fake

 

In my situation... now that I think about it , it might have been some other kind of check. Certified? Not sure. I know they called the bank and verified funds before proceeding.

You're not obligated to take cash, btw. It's legal tender, but doesn't mean you're legally obligated to accept it.

 

Is it hard to fake? I would have thought some similar grade paper and a color photocopier would fool most people on the street. Certainly you can photocopy a photograph and get a pretty darn good reproduction of the photo with a quality copier and paper.

Just trying to find out if this is common. I have never heard of it before for a purchase of this value.

 

There is a new economy in California, Colorado, and a few other states... one in which the federally regulated banks refuse to participate in (and probably can't from a legal perspective). That leaves a fair number of individuals working with bag-loads of legal tender. It's not as unusual to see large legitimate cash transactions, especially for big individual purchases, where these people are concerned. And then there are the people, as in the past, that have crossed the line.

 

^interesting, never thought of that!

 

So counterfeiting bills to the trained eye is very difficult but for mere mortals not so much. Going to the bank to ask them to verify the bills seems smart or at least get one of those pens with the ink that changes color if the bill is obviously fake.

 

If you don't feel good about it tell him up front the transaction will be done at the bank. Have your bank officer receive the money and it is his job to verify no counterfeit currency. If the guy is on the "up and up" he will show up. If he can't answer the bank's questions that is his problem not yours. Don't give the title until the money is in your account. All the risk is his.

 

I bought a car with cash once.

It was a Saturday in Atlanta and I gave the guy about $4000 in $100's in his driveway. It was my idea.

 

Not hard at all. In fact, pretty common and I have seen it happen several times. Also cashier's checks, money orders, bank checks, certified, etc. take longer to turn around if depositied. Calling the issueing bank with the serial # is a pretty reliable safeguard though.

 

Have you considered a wire transfer?

 

That's how I bought the Jag, purchased on eBay, showed up with $12 k in cash.

 

Yes of course asked for a wire but buyer insisted on paying in $100 bills. Talked to him today for the first time and I think it will work out. E-mail is a terrible way to gain trust in another party. Will go to the bank and deposit cash before handing over the title.

 

I always meet at my/their bank when on either side of the transaction—virtually eliminates all kinds of funny business.

 

Yea meet at the bank if there’s a robbery on the way it’s still his money.

 

I seriously doubt they wanted your minimal listing fee. My buyer paid them the $5,000 max on a car I sold for $300,000 and they didn't charge me anything. We had a go around about the reserve which they were wrong. My understanding now is they sold BaT months ago.

 

Interesting I just read the first post and saw it was several years ago now. I just had a similar experience with BaT. They wanted a lower reserve and I basically told them to pound sand.

Aside from some server traffic I don't know what the cost would be for them to list a car with a higher reserve and it doesn't sell. I'll never use them certainly after reading the first post.

 

I remember the BaT site of many years ago. Half a dozen listings and all of them literally required that you bring a trailer if you wanted to take it home.