Screwed over by BAT

[techweenie]

I'm pissed.

BAT suffered an outage from approximately 11:00AM to 12:20PM yesterday, and we had an auction closing at 12:40PM.

Apparently the Peanut Gallery tuned in to watch a Gullwing Mercedes auction close and then peppered BAT with fanboi comments. Probably hundreds, not thousands. But it was enough to bring down the site.

The home page was unresponsive for around 80 minutes before our auction wrapped up, and the pattern at BAT recently has been a big (up to 50%) bid runup in the last hour.

I complained to BAT during the outage and they basically said to suck it up.

But an auction closing an hour *later* got a postponement from BAT. (they also fell short of market)



So now we have a car that didn't meet reserve and for a very good reason... but it's "tainted."

We'll live; it's not a crisis, but it goes to show you're at the mercy of the venue when you list with BAT.

The car in question:

[Cajundaddy]

Auctions are fluky and there are no guarantees. Stuff happens. If it did not meet your reserve then it was not sold at rock bottom so it sounds like you get another turn at bat. Time this one so it closes at the best hour for a top selling price and give it a go. You could add that the last auction was during the outage so you are giving BaT a second chance to get this done.

I just had a boat sell at auction for much lower than I expected but the market has spoken and I wanted it gone. C'est la vie!

[1968SWTs]

I tried to bid on this one, as the grass is always greener, or at least this one is greener than my targa.

but only got all kinds of random error pages.

Pretty funny that just a few thousand users can expose all of the spaghetti code. I can understand a few million perhaps reaching a scaling up limit where they have not yet scaled out, but a few hundred or thousand..

I can understand the frustration. But at least the buyer can save on that outrageously high buyer's premium.

I need to sell a car or two or three so I can bid on this one!

[techweenie]

Yeah, this was what greeted people tuning in when they got the "ends in one hour" notification (timestamp 12:09):



The 'auctions' link at the top was dead.

[Matt Monson]

I looked at your auction this morning and couldn’t believe it closed so low. Now I know why. That sucks.

[plexiform]

Doesn't seem that complicated. Ask BAT to relist at no charge and write the same explanation you mentioned above. People buying Porsches aren't stupid. They will understand it was a technical error and does not represent that the car is in anyway 'tainted.'

[msort81]

Its staggering how the BAT crowd respond so forcefully to average stuff and yet some good cars get passed over.

That said your car is a great and rare color, which i think would really benefit from better presentation in terms of pictures and time of day which they are taken. I think with some better pics the car would become more appealing to the crowd there. I for one would love to know the median buyers age at BAT, of course it won't happen but considering we live in such an Image centric era, every car that seems to do well (excusing the really rare / special ones) need to be sold as part of the Instagram dream.

More of this

Less of this, the shots way to busy.


Sad to say but a black leather interior though even not original would probably pull in more buyers. GLWTS,

[Macroni]

Originally Posted by plexiform

Doesn't seem that complicated. Ask BAT to relist at no charge and write the same explanation you mentioned above. People buying Porsches aren't stupid. They will understand it was a technical error and does not represent that the car is in anyway 'tainted.'

I agree. I think you should push your concerns up the tree to a higher branch.

[specialtyoneinc]

I was trying to log in and watch the Gullwing but couldn't yesterday. They should of gave your car the 2 hour bump in time. Hopefully someone reaches out outside of BAT.

I don't think it would hurt to relist it though. Just make sure to have a professional shoot the vehicle next time around and make a clean edited driving video. You can mention the site crashed due to the Gullwing right before the auction ended etc...

As I always say, follow this format on BAT and you will do better than most.

https://bringatrailer.com/member/911r/

[pmax]

Originally Posted by techweenie

... but it's "tainted."

Really.

If that's the case, the p-car market is broken.

[amg463]

I think you were just selling an undesireable car, not many people after a targa.

[Macroni]

This auction got under my skin. Dealers bidding up their buddies cars....

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1985-porsche-911-carrera-40/

[specialtyoneinc]

Originally Posted by Macroni

This auction got under my skin. Dealers bidding up their buddies cars....

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1985-porsche-911-carrera-40/

Welcome to the auction world. Happens way more than you think across all types of auction houses. Bet you any money the no reserve Gullwing owned by the founder of BAT was protected with shill bids.

[Cobalt]

If you're talking the 90 C2 it was given an additional couple of hours and if $77.5k + 5% is falling short for a car that has extensive body work and repairs I guess the market is helter skelter and anything is possible. I'm not saying the seller knew but it should be obvious that the car had either the cross member or rear clip replaced at one time. That is huge money for a car that is not original with unknown structural repairs.

[ficke]

Buyers do not care about facts. These cars are bought on emotion and feelings and perceptions and unfortunately many purchases are done that way by many people.
So yeah no matter how justified the relist is it will be tainted to many buyers.
Just like a dead beat buyer on ebay or a car that has been listed for awhile, people start thinking the worst and the more you explain or try to justify what happened, hurts the sale more.
BAT hurt techweeine sale.

[Mocker]

Originally Posted by amg463

I think you were just selling an undesireable car, not many people after a targa.

Do you know anything about longhoods? You're entitled to your opinions, but don't try to pass those off as facts.

[speednme1]

BAT should relisted for free with an explanation as to why they are relisting it and as a bonus they should refund you the original listing fee. It's not much but it's the principal. I doubt that it's tainted. if a buyer really wants it, he or she will bid.

[Locker537]

Originally Posted by Macroni

This auction got under my skin. Dealers bidding up their buddies cars....

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1985-porsche-911-carrera-40/

The bidding behavior was off putting from the start of the auction.

The reserve price surprises me. In my opinion, BaT brings the high side of market value and sometimes over market value, for a well represented vehicle. In this scenario, I'm not sure if BaT should have agreed to such a high reserve.

Though I'm biases towards more original cars.

[Vaive]

Originally Posted by Macroni

This auction got under my skin. Dealers bidding up their buddies cars....

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1985-porsche-911-carrera-40/

Whaaaa? You mean to tell me the used car business is populated by unscrupulous people? The devil you say!!!!

[Locker537]

Originally Posted by specialtyoneinc

Welcome to the auction world. Happens way more than you think across all types of auction houses. Bet you any money the no reserve Gullwing owned by the founder of BAT was protected with shill bids.

Chandelier bidding!

You combine all these different tactics and they start to turn you off the hobby. I've been hunting for a 911 for quite awhile and I'm at the point where I really only want to deal with passionate owners selling privately.