Recent experiences/advice regarding brokers for Copart auctions?

So it's pretty widely accepted that the most cost-effective way to get parts for an electric conversion (like I'm working on for my DMC-12) is to buy a wrecked production EV and use the parts (especially batteries) from it. Unfortunately, they're not particularly common to find being sold wrecked on the open market- and these days there aren't any auto auctions nearby that aren't restricted to dealers (or brokers). So if I want to try and get one of the (surprisingly many) EVs that are being sold at nearby auctions, I'm going to have to use a broker and I'm curious is anyone has had any experience with them recently.

Copart (where I'm likely to be trying to get a car from) heavily pushes Auto Bid Master, which charges about $300 for each purchase (on top of Copart fees) and is a bit under $200/year for a membership that allows you to bid with no ceiling on the price (the basic $40 membership only lets you go up to $2200- which I figure isn't going to be enough for what I'm looking to get). And that would be on top of any Copart fees (which there doubtless will be). They also feature/recommend A Better Bid and Advance Motors (which to me looks to be a bit less polished than the other two- but also has reduced fees for lower-priced, under $2000, purchases).

Has anyone dealt with any of these and have any suggestions/advice? There's a car that looks to be a prime candidate and has a really low buy-it-now price that goes up in less than two days, so I'd be hoping to get signed up and go out and look it over in person before potentially buying it (mainly need to check that the battery pack doesn't look to have been damaged by the accident). Thanks!

I do IAA in a state that allows me to buy w/o a broker.  I have zero Copart experience.

But, just so you don't feel like you're being taken (more than you already are...)

When IAA allows for Private Party purchases, I still pay IAA $200 per year for a "buying pass" that in Ohio only allows me to buy 5 cars in a calander year.  Once I have bought 5, that account can not bid again until the "anniversary date" passes.  

Also, for Private Party sales, IAA charges a different fee structure to Private Party than it does Dealer.  This higher cost fee structure is really just the equivalent of IAA putting the broker fees in their own pocket.  

At most, IAA is a shady business.  At least, they are in this business more to benefit themselves and less to benefit the buyer.    
Buyer beware!  

Buying from either is a gamble but being a conservative gambler, I don't buy anything without seeing and smelling it first.  Of course, previewing cars for my Tuesday IAA auctions is only from 10a-2p on the Monday before.  Best I can tell, they don't really want you to see/smell the car before bidding.  

My best advice is to understand the fees.  Understand the daily charges for late payment and late pick-up.   Also, understand fees associated with how they want to be paid.  IE: Your bank might charge you $25 for a wire transfer.  IAA charges a $10 fee if you hand them a certified check.
Fees upon fee with fees if you miss the fees.  

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

Auto Bid Master was a big sponsor for the $2000 Challenge this year.  

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

Ok, with that out of the way, I just bought this wrecked Chevy Volt from the Indianapolis location IAAI auction.

It was available for purchase by the public. (And I got it pretty cheap 😉)

You're in Kentucky right?

There's a few Southern Indiana IAAI lots that you could by directly from.  Indiana is a lot more relaxed about letting the general public purchase these wrecks.  And yes, you as a resident of another state, have access to these vehicles too.  The only additional thing you have to work around is transporting back to your house.

Edit: also what John said: be Aware of the fees ! !

Yeah, the fees are something I'm all too aware of- the 2nd broker company I mentioned actually has a preview of the fees when you got to bid, and for the car I'm considering (dunno if this link will work or not: https://abetter.bid/en/1082968973-2022-tesla-model_3) the base bid of $275 ends up with like $980 in fees (with the free membership) and it would be like $3500 using the Buy-It-Now.

I've only really looked at the Copart auctions (since they're the closest to me- there is an Adessa one local but I don't see that there's any way for a non-dealer to even see the inventory)- I'll have to look at the IAAI ones as well. 

I don't know the first thing about Tesla and even less about wrecked Tesla but that's a hell of a hit!

Yes, the link to pictures works

IAA has a price calculator function.  It's a way to quickly see a total (before bidding goes live) that a $750 bid is really $1,215 all-in.

John Welsh said:

I don't know the first thing about Tesla and even less about wrecked Tesla but that's a hell of a hit!

Yes, the link to pictures works

IAA has a price calculator function.  It's a way to quickly see a total (before bidding goes live) that a $750 bid is really $1,215 all-in.

Yeah, the front end is definitely shot and clearly why it's so cheap for the Buy-It-Now- but I primarily want the battery pack (which is under the cabin) and possibly the motor/gearbox if it's easier to get to work with the battery than the Leaf unit I have now. Getting a 60kwh battery pack for <$3k would make everything else just a bonus. 

It sounds like the IAAI fees aren't quite as bad as the Copart ones (though I don't know what the membership/registration fees are). 

I think you said that the Copart buy-it-now price for this Tesla is $2,600 and that is $3,500 all-in after fees? 

Over at IAA, for me, without broker a $2,600 bid is $3,450 all-in after fees

Cost Breakdown

• Bid Amount$2,600.00
• Buyer Fee$610.00
• Internet Bid Fee$110.00
• Service Fee$95.00
• Environmental Fee$15.00

But, I do have to pay $200 annual membership BEFORE I can even enter a loosing bid or any buy-it-now.

So it sounds like the fees are about the same between the two different places. 

Ashyukun (Robert) said:

So it sounds like the fees are about the same between the two different places. 

 

They're the only two names in the business.  I see no reason why they wouldn't collude to their mutual benefit.   

Well, that's kind of annoying... you have to have either a Premium ($199/year) or Pro ($549/year) membership to be able to go out and inspect the vehicles up for auction in-person. I would have preferred to just get the Standard membership which is $49/year but drops the transaction fee by $50 so it's essentially free if you know you're going to buy something (the free membership has a $5k bid limit and you can only bid on 1 car). 

I also wish the auctions weren't at such annoying times... the one for that wrecked 3 is tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10am- so if I want to go and take a look at the car I'd have to either leave work early today and look at it before they close at 5pm or go out in the morning right before the auction. Thankfully my work is pretty flexible and that wouldn't be a problem, but it is inconvenient to say the least.

OK, so I decided against trying to get that Model 3. Digging into things more, it really sounds like as readily available as they are that the Tesla batteries would not be a good fit for the DMC without completely disassembling and rebuilding them- something I'd prefer to avoid if I can get away with it. So, I'm back to keeping an eye out for other potential donors. 

One that particularly caught my eye was this one: 2024 Volkwagen iD.4 It's clearly got a LOT of body/framge damage, but it also looks like a) the drivetrain may be pretty intact and b) the computer is still showing the batteries as good and (assuming my math is right) at pretty much full health with a fully charged range of 180 miles. Plus, the buy-it-now for it is just $4,250 and I would thus assume that it might be possible to get it for a bit less such that the final price would be around $5k (I've seen the battery packs alone go for well more than that).

The downsides: Auction is first-thing tomorrow morning, so pretty much no way I'm going to get a look at the thing in person. Shipping would also add to the price, but I think I've seen that they don't have any problems with people towing vehicles home themselves and I could probably rent a car hauler and go pick it up- though if it doesn't cost THAT much to have it shipped it may be worth it (fuel and the trailer rental would be at least $200).

EV West did one years ago

https://www.youtube 

ask him what a good base car to buy and if he has any brackets etc that you could use. he has converted a lot of interesting  cars :)

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

Would the battery pack from that 2014 Chevy Volt work for you?  I could remove it from the car and deliver it to your house for $1250 all in.  Or if you want the whole car, let me know.  I'm going to be picking it up today.

From the ID4 - "Secondary damage:  All over" made me LOL.  

Indy - Guy said:

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

Would the battery pack from that 2014 Chevy Volt work for you?  I could remove it from the car and deliver it to your house for $1250 all in.  Or if you want the whole car, let me know.  I'm going to be picking it up today.

Thanks, but the Volts had battery packs far smaller than newer full BEVs (owing to their hybrid nature). The 2014 Volt only has a 16.5kWh battery, and on a 10-year-old car it's likely to be running at 50-60% capacity which would translate to like 10-15 miles of range. It's part of why that iD.4 is so appealing: it's got a HUGE battery pack (built of a number of smaller modules that would be easier to reconfigure) and a pretty powerful motor. 

glueguy (Forum Supporter) said:

From the ID4 - "Secondary damage:  All over" made me LOL.  

Yeah- sometimes their notes on the cars can be pretty amusing. 

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

No worries.  It was a long shot, but could've saved you some $$ if it was the right one.

Indy - Guy said:

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

No worries.  It was a long shot, but could've saved you some $$ if it was the right one.

I appreciate it! It would have been nice, I'd love to be able to get away with spending that little for a battery pack that would work for the car! I'm probably going to be aiming for around 60kWh for the DMC's battery- I would love nothing more than to be able to pack 121kWh worth of batteries into it just to say that's what powers it, but that's a LOOOOT of battery- just shy of what a Rivian R1S SUV carries (at 135kWh)... and the R1S has a curb weight of over 7,000lb vs a stock DMC's 2,700lb curb weight. At about 1,800lbs on its own the Rivian's 135kWh battery weighs 2/3 as much as an entire DeLorean! 

In reply to John Welsh :

I'm curious, with your IAAI membership can you see what the pre-bids are in an auction? I'm still weighing whether I want to try bidding on the iD.4 or not and can see that there are a few others who have put in 'pre-bids' on it, but not what they are. 

My IAA account is currently not active because I have not yet renewed my annual membership.  

But, even without paying you should be able to set up a username and password type account at IAA and you should be able to see all this also

I can see that the current pre-bid is $100.  Bids are in $25 increments and it is a popular tactic of people to put on $25 onto the price because then when you do not win the car, IAA will still tell you how much the car sold for.  These $25 bids are also used by some to keep track of the cars they are interested in but just use the "Add to my Watchlist" function of IAA and you can easily keep track of multiple car, in multiple IAA cities, all in one place. 

Screenshot from seconds ago:

In this lower page screen shot we can see that Progressive stated this car has a $32k value (pre-accident.)  I'll take a guess that the reserve is at the bare minimum 10% of total value but could be even higher.

Without actually bidding on a car, it is hard to get historical info out of IAA like what cars sold for.  But, I have a work-around!!!!  
I often just google, via copy and paste, the 17 digit vin to see what info comes up.  I have found this site targeting international buyer actually lists sales history.   On 4-2-25 this car brought a bid of $2,925 but failed to meet Progressive's hidden reserve price.  Just last week it only brought a bid of $2.050.  

Link to https://bid.cars/en/ and then just paste in a VIN

IAA pre-bidding works like ebay (but not Bring a Trailer.)  

Lets say you are interested in this car and you think a bid of $3,300 is the absolute highest you want to go and you think that will beat the reserve.  

My method is that I will not bid at all on the car and just watch pre-bidding.  My logic is that I don't want to draw attention to the car.  i think cars that get a lot of pre-bidding makes people think there must be something good here.

Pre-bidding ends at 8:30am central the day of the auction.  I may find at 8:20am this car only has a Pre-bid of $750.  With just a minute or two to spare I will put in my pre-bid of $3,300...my max.  This may then trigger the result that the guy at $750 actually had in a max of $1,500 and now I am the high bidder at $1,525 (one $25 increment higher than him.)  I am now the high bidder at $1,525 and pre-bidding has ended.  

In an hour or two when the bidding goes live the bidding will start at my $1,525.  Moving in $25 increments if someone takes the price up to $2,500 I will be the auction winner at $2,525 as the auto bid takes over him by $25 increments.  The auction may then end at $2,525 and I do not get the car because I did not meet the hidden reserve, but...

My max was $3,300.  If that was greater than the reserve; lets say the reserve was $3,000 then I will win the car at $3,000 because I allowed a max bid of $3,300.  However, it doesn't take my entire $3,300...just the reserve amount of $3,000.  If the reserve was $3,500...$3,300 aint enough and I do not win the car.  

I really don't buy via true live bidding.  I just put in max number at the last minute and a few hours later, after the car has gone over the block, I get an email telling me if I won or not...and how much.   I once won 3 cars in the same day via this tactic with what I thought were 3 humorously low pre-bid prices expecting to not even get one of them.  Details of that 3 buy

MANY times, before pre-bidding has ended the price has already exceeded my intended pre-bid number and I just never place a bid.  It aint worth that price to me.  

In reply to John Welsh :

Thanks, that's great info! The 10% number makes sense for the Tesla at the Copart auction too, since they have a Buy-It-Now price of $2,600 on the car and list the estimated retail value at just over $26k. 

Which brings up another question: is the 'Buy-It-Now' price usually higher than what the Reserve is set at, or at are they usually about the same? For the iD.4 the reserve was at $4,250, about 1/3 more than the (presumed) $3,200 reserve. 

Its been my feeling and my experience that Buy-it-now on the first week is a car that looks better in pictures than it does in reality.  They have put a high price on it in hopes that it is bought with little research.  

Mostly, not always but mostly, buy-it now is a second week thing where the car does not meet reserve on week one so the day after they post a buy it now on the car.  This is probably the reserve.  Certainly it is the immediate reserve because if you pay that...you can have it now.    The goal here of the 2nd week buy-it-now seems to just be signaling to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place bidders who were very interested in the car; just how much its gonna take.  However, I have seen many cars ride out a week of buy-it-now and go across on a 3rd week of bidding where the insurance company takes less for the car.  I take this to mean that buy-now was the reserve price for the past week and if there were no biters during that week, the day of the next auction the insurance co drops the reserve price again  

If you have a car in your IAA watchlist, even a car you didn't bid on, overnight you will get an email announcing that the car is now available as buy-now.  

In reply to John Welsh :

Thank you! That site for looking up the sales/bid history on the cars is going to be really useful!

Interestingly, for the Model 3 through Copart that started all of this, the site seems to show both the buy-it-now price and the final actual bid on the car: 

The auctions at the location it's at happen on Wednesdays, so the $1,350 on 3/26 looks to have been the first week they had it up for auction. That wasn't high enough, so it went up for sale the next 2 weeks (4/2 & 4/9) and got high bids of $2,100 & $1,400 (I initially thought that the $2,100 was the BIN for that week) and they still didn't think that was enough. So on 4/10 (the day after the last auction) they added the BIN of $2,600 for the car. So it seems it would take at least more than the $2,100 that was bid 2 weeks ago to actually get the car.

I'm still slightly considering bidding on the Tesla since I can do so at no up-front cost on one car through the broker- I wouldn't likely be able to use the battery modules without tearing them down to the individual (essentially AAA-sized) cells that make up the packs and building my own completely custom packs from the ground (no pun intended) up since the modules they're packaged into are like 6 FEET long and there's no good place for them in the DMC, but the drive unit from the Model 3/Y's seems to be one of the more commonly used in conversions and there is as you'd expect a fair amount of information and support for them and it seems to work best when you have a number of other things from the car the drive unit came from (like the accelerator pedal). But even assuming the reserve is set to $2,100 it would still mean the whole thing would cost over $3k after fees and transportation, and you can get the drive units for about a third of that. 

The iD.4 is ironically kind of the opposite case- the battery modules it uses are much more reasonably-sized and can be reconfigured to fit into the DMC, but the drive unit (and much of the rest of the car) is more of a mystery as they're just not been as popular so there haven't been as many available for the DIY community to work with (and to an extent the drive unit may be TOO powerful- and possibly too large- to work well in the DMC). Honestly, if I could bid on it without having to pay the $200 registration fee I probably would put in a bid of 10% of the retail, because just getting the battery packs at that price would be worth it even if I had to part out/scrap most of the rest of the car.

Finally- another interesting (and useful) thing about that site you linked for looking up the past bids: while I cannot see the current bids on the IAA site the Bidcars site does show what it is.