I was going to list it for sale on here, but to my surprise BaT accepted my listing! I'd gotten a few messages when I mentioned I was going to be selling it, so I thought I'd mention it here as well. And offer some context that I'm a real human and fellow GRM enthusiast sellling it...
Berck said:And offer some context that I'm a real human and fellow GRM enthusiast sellling it...
Sounds like something a not-real-human would say...
Good luck with the sale!
Looks like a good "driver" example. Good luck!
GLWS
No Reserve but what is the number you hope to hit?
In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :
1 million dollars.
A dealer offered me $21.5k for it as a trade-in which tells me they think it's worth around $25k. If it goes for less than I could have gotten with the hassle-free trade-in, I'm going to be seriously annoyed. I didn't realize just how much work it was going to take to prepare a decent BaT listing...
KBB seems to be in the neighborhood- don't need a car but I like this one. Hope all goes well - I'll be watching.
Wait....a Focus RS is 25k now?
That's the mental random budget I'd set aside for a new car if the nissan is totalled....
This one has 97k miles which is a lot. Most of them seem to be modded-out toys with 30k miles, or collectors items with no miles. $25k is definitely on the low end, but it has a lot of miles. That's about where I'd have priced it, but I'm putting my trust in the BaT market being fair. If anything, BaT seems to favor sellers... But I'll admit I'm pretty nervous about it being no reserve!
In reply to Berck :
Don't forget sometimes the action is the last 8 minutes. I've been fooled into thinking a car is reasonably priced only to see it go way up the last 30 minutes.
GLWA! I'm always partial to a well-loved, higher-mileage car than low-mile, modded-out one!
it seems the BAT sellers really need to be on the ball ,
check it a few times a day , answer questions , get more photos etc ,
the BAT "peanut gallery" can be vicious , and most of them are not even in the market for your car :(
Good Luck
I'm trying, but it's started.
Yeah, taking part in the comment sections helps a lot.
Man, this looks like the spiritual successor to my GTX. I loved that car. Sigh. I don't need another car, I don't need another car...
Yes, you definitely need to work the BaT comments. Ask me how I know....
Well, that was terrible. A lot of work, stress, and misery for me to get $300 less than the trade-in offer. Plus the $99 seller's fee. Not to mention losing the tax advantage of a trade-in. I apparently did everything wrong as a seller and ruined the car by installing slightly newer tires on the front than the rear. Lesson learned: just take the hassle-free trade-in and let the next guy deal with the dealer. It seems like sellers are doing great on BaT, but those must be sellers more capable than me. There's certainly never a deal when I'm looking as a buyer.
I've found that the Bring a Trailer crowd seems to overvalue collector-quality cars, and undervalue everything else. Seems like relatively high mileage and that accident history pushed this one out of their comfort zone.
And yeah, the comments seem to trend rude/stupid/counterproductive no matter how good the car is.
Berck said:Well, that was terrible..........
Sorry to hear it did not do well , BAT is a tough nut to crack , but then so are other auctions , I just do not have the balls to have a no reserve auction !
I dunno, we've had good luck in the comment section when we're selling cars (or helping customers sell theirs). It probably helps that we're the actual builders and people generally love our cars - but even when selling a driver-quality first-gen RX7 they've been good.
I agree that the BaT market is biased towards exceptional cars and not driver-quality ones. It's where you go if you want a standout car to sell well, and because of this people start thinking that every car sells over market there. I've got a turbo 1990 Miata that I'm thinking of selling, and I don't think the BaT crowd would appreciate it so I likely won't list it there.
Honestly, the reserve would have been $21,500 since that's what the trade-in offer was. I'm a big believer in no-reserve auctions--with a large enough market that should be what the car's worth. With BaT, I just didn't count on how negative they were going to be about stuff like *new tires*. I was actually going to trade it in with the corded tires, but figured I'd replace them for a BaT auction. Another $750 I wasted. Hell, corded tires would have given them something reasonable to complain about. My car had better documentation and fewer modifications than most of the previous Focus RSs. The accident history is what it is, and I provided photos of the accident as well as how it was repaired.
I think Keith is probably right--it's best suited for exceptional cars. Still, as a buyer, I've been watching for driver-quality RX-7s or early 70s MGBs and they all seem to go for crazy money.
Other things I was surprised about included the mediocre quality of the auction writers. Just trying to get them to correct the blatant factual errors in the description was like pulling teeth. There were a ton of duplicate photos because I went and took better photos after they accepted the car (I actually didn't think they would), but they just dumped all of them rather than using the best ones. They're completely opaque about timing and you get very little say about when the car actually gets listed. I declined their first schedule because they wanted it to end on July 4 and I just wasn't going to be available then.
I'm less annoyed about the low selling price than the way it happened--making it seem like it's all my fault when I worked really hard to present the car as honestly as possible. Since I'm never going to own an exceptional car, I now know that selling on BaT is not for me.
You're definitely right about the quality of their copy. We got lucky with our last sale and got a good editor. But the two before that were awful. They also have terms that cannot be used, like "stroker". Makes it hard to sell a car that has an FM Stroker Kit installed. We almost always find out an auction has begun from other sources.
I think they concentrate a bit too much on sheer volume to spend the time on individual sales. The premium listings (a new thing, I think) may get a little more attention.
I didn't read all the comments on the RS, but the write up sounded like a car I'd be interested in owning. At least you know it went to someone who wanted it, knows exactly what they're buying and won't end up sitting on some dealer lot somewhere.
I don't know how many editors they have, but when they have around 700 auctions running at the same time, my WAG is either the limited number of editors don't have much time to process each auction and/or they are using some sort of AI to generate the text.
The only one of my current cars that I "might" consider listing on BaT is my '72 Triumph GT6. It's a basically stock, all-original car in good condition with one well-done, original color repaint back in the 80s. Sometimes that makes me hesitant to install the T9 conversion kit I have for it in place of the currently non-functional 4 spd. But at the same time, I buy my cars to drive, not as collector's items. But I can keep the original parts in case someone wants to convert it back to stock.
Bummer your listing didn't end as well as you hoped, but at least it wasn't too expensive of a learning experience.
The no reserve is a huge leap. It sounds like it was a pain but it did go to an enthusiasts.
I've listed two cars on there (some years ago, so things have probably changed) but one sold and one didn't.
The one that didn't sell, BAT gave me no hassle over the reserve. The comments focused on mileage (weird discussion for an 86 951 with something like 140k on the clock) and whether Guard's red was single stage or base/clear.
The other car sold for well over the reserve but BAT was really insistent on a low reserve (which I didn't take). They even tried you get me to lower it on the last day of the auction. Not much substantive commenting but it got sold.
On the flip side, I sold a car for my dad on Hemming's auctions and it was a great experience from a selling/interfacing with Hemming's experience. After the car was listed, some problems were uncovered and they worked to keep everything disclosed and basically reset the auction for me. Lower realized price than BAT might have brought but a nicer experience
In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
It's not AI, their editors have been so-so since before LMMs hit the scene. AI might actually improve the writing unless they train it on their own listings.
The fact that my most recent auction had a better write up than earlier ones felt like someone had actually taken a personal interest in the car. It was a build that was well documented on YouTube and they may have actually been watching it.
I have intentionally *not* replaced tires on my last two cars sold, both auctioned on Cars and Bids. With sporty-but-not-sports cars, you run a very real risk of putting the wrong tire on the car and raising the value $0. For instance, I had ECS on my E91 wagon, and I would've replaced them with ECS. However, if it sold to a colder climate, that owner might want an all-season like the DWS. Conversely, I had DWSs on my JCW when I lived near DC and would've gone with ECS to replace them. Instead, I sold both cars with the tires as-is and ended up being happy with the prices I got for each. Given that new tires would've narrowed my potential buyer pool, I think I netted more than if I had gone with new tires.
The big caveat specific to online auctions is that you MUST be engaged. The lack of tread cannot be a reflection of poor maintenance. If the sharks smell that particular blood, they'll circle. Good maintenance history, presentation, and engagement more than made up for the tires, especially with my last auction. First auction had weirdly little interest but was also much older, so Cars and Bids didn't have quite the reach yet.
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