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Agreed on that. I've had a Manheim license for years and have bought many cars there over the years.
The prices are not great, and can be easily duplicated (or beat) by shopping private party sales on Craigslist.
For dealerships, shopping Craigslist really isn't feasible, because they need consistent inventory and volume.
Sometimes I'd find a minor bargain, but more often than not (like, 98% of the time) I'd be shocked at how high the cars would get bid up. For popular models and colors, often bid up past what I'd consider retail.
The problem, IMO, is that there's just too many retail car dealers. You have the big franchise dealers that just need stock to fill their lot. They send buyers who just bid basically whatever it takes. They need a lot of cars.
Then you have the small, medium, large and gigantic independent (non-factory franchise) dealers. There are a TON of those. Mostly because it's a fairly low barrier to entry business. Yeah, you need a license, but it's not hard or expensive to get. I got one just as a hobbiest.
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