Questionable Practices at Bring A Trailer ( BAT )

[SalParadise]

Originally Posted by wgwollet

This BaT topic is older then the hills.
This has been discussed many time.


Never buy any car on the internet based on pictures and comments from people you do not know..for Pete’s Sake.

BaT intentionality withholds information that in anyway hurts selling the car for their profit. Is this wrong? no, they control the sale, END OF STORY.

Lastly most comments or posts are screened so never to hurt the sale, everyone knows this..

Yup.

[Macroni]

I was under the impression that the fees BaT collects are capped to $5,000 and the posting fee.... correct? How is that $5,000 calculated?

[Rick Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by Macroni

I was under the impression that the fees BaT collects are capped to $5,000 and the posting fee.... correct? How is that $5,000 calculated?

5% of hammer price up to a max of $5k

[juanbenae]

im simply thrilled deez is getting another early bronco.... this is why we are here, right?

[MrBonus]

Originally Posted by wgwollet

This BaT topic is older then the hills.
This has been discussed many time.

Buyer Beware applies to BaT, the system is not in the buyers favor, first most bidders never actually see the car live in person....BIG MISTAKE

Never buy any car on the internet based on pictures and comments from people you do not know..for Pete’s Sake.

BaT intentionality withholds information that in anyway hurts selling the car for their profit. Is this wrong? no, they control the sale, END OF STORY.

Lastly most comments or posts are screened so never to hurt the sale, everyone knows this..

How do you know they withhold information?

During the process of submitting an auction, they stress being up front about any and all issues and in my experience, they posted every single problem with my truck in the description that I disclosed.

[MrBonus]

I'm not trying to be Captain Save-a-BaT here, there are plenty of issues/gripes with the process, and a lot of it centers around a perception of the buyers that the cars there are magically vetted before listing but for all the people accusing them of withholding information, I'm curious where you are getting your proof and how many cars have you attempted to sell there?

[1979-930]

Originally Posted by juanbenae

im simply thrilled deez is getting another early bronco.... this is why we are here, right?

No... Looking and dreaming. I just wanted to make sure they guy disclosed some needed work.
I've realized owning old cars is like getting a night job that you pay to work at.
Plus it would just set there. I'd pick the 930 99% of the time to take out.

[Matt Monson]

Originally Posted by 1979-930

No... Looking and dreaming. I just wanted to make sure they guy disclosed some needed work.
I've realized owning old cars is like getting a night job that you pay to work at.
Plus it would just set there. I'd pick the 930 99% of the time to take out.

You just need to do the 75 in a dirt worthy form. So many good forest service roads to rip near you.

[Mocker]

I think some of the criticisms are valid, but it's pretty silly to believe that BAT is conspiring with sellers to withhold important information from potential buyers. What's the possible motivation for that?

It's far more likely the owners are in over their heads, and are simply scrambling to keep up. I agree that they need to either scale back the volume of listings or invest a lot more money into their operation. I say this having bought a car from BAT and getting a peek inside the sausage factory--and it ain't pretty.

It's a good concept, but could be run so much better...

[wgwollet]

How do I know they withhold information?

Because I use to comment about things misrepresented in the auction, and guess what? BaT never posted it, my comments was to just inform the buyer of some issues with the car, it was general information, to help the buyer, again Buyer Beware...it’s not setup to help the buyer, it’s a business to make money....Bingo

But, not say it’s ok, because if buyer is happy so be it. But do not be naive to think they do not screen all comments.

[MrBonus]

Originally Posted by wgwollet

How do I know they withhold information?

Because I use to comment about things misrepresented in the auction, and guess what? BaT never posted it, my comments was to just inform the buyer of some issues with the car, it was general information, to help the buyer, again Buyer Beware...it’s not setup to help the buyer, it’s a business to make money....Bingo

But, not say it’s ok, because if buyer is happy so be it. But do not be naive to think they do not screen all comments.

Of course they screen comments. If they deem comments unproductive, they will delete them. Furthermore, the community can flag comments as non-constructive.

That said, numerous auctions receive negative comments or criticisms and those comments are allowed.

[1979-930]

Originally Posted by Matt Monson

You just need to do the 75 in a dirt worthy form. So many good forest service roads to rip near you.

That is an awesome idea!

[wgwollet]

Yep, your right...somewhat....you have no knowledge what BaT does or not does...

But again, what’s the beef, it’s a place to sell cars, that’s it, nothing more.....so again the burden is always on the buyer...so do your home work..

[specialtyoneinc]

Wait a minute. All this time, I thought BAT made buying a used car online (sight unseen) a perfected seamless process with no issues what so ever.

[dwelle]

Originally Posted by 1979-930

That is an awesome idea!

i've contemplated the same many times on the '74...

[Mike964_61]

Its a shame what BAT has turned into. When it first started all the cars they were selling seem to very nice and clean examples. This was when they were selling like 20 cars a week. Whatever this greed volume selling has turned into is nothing more than a bunch of misfit cars people don't want anymore. I would never buy a car on there regardless of how much money I had to blow. Initial concept was great, what it is now? -crap on a stick.

[Rick Brooklyn]

At this point they should just show the financials at a few private equity honchos and ask for carvana multiples or whichever yesterday's new new thing in used car buying and they could get out with a 9 digit paycheck.

[JMS935]

Originally Posted by Mike964_61

Its a shame what BAT has turned into. When it first started all the cars they were selling seem to very nice and clean examples. This was when they were selling like 20 cars a week. Whatever this greed volume selling has turned into is nothing more than a bunch of misfit cars people don't want anymore. I would never buy a car on there regardless of how much money I had to blow. Initial concept was great, what it is now? -crap on a stick.

And now it sure seems like they actually prefer the questionable cars since they come with a lower price point and thus a lower reserve which means a larger group of bidders which means it’s much more likely to sell which means BaT gets PAID. IT IS ALL BASED ON GREED, nothing more nothing less.

I submitted a turbo cab recently that they wanted nothing to do with while they coincidentally had the biggest turd of turbo cab (in the same year and color combo as mine) live at the very same time. The live one had a low reserve since it was a total POS, while I wanted more for mine since it was in very near concours condition. So there was no way to agree upon a reserve, as I could’ve gotten the reserve they wanted for mine by just selling it locally to a dealer at wholesale. So this whole notion that they “bring” the best examples to market for their members is complete and total bunk. It’s simply not the case. They “bring” the cars to market that are most likely to make them money, which much of the time means intentionally bringing a train wreck to market with a lower reserve while passing on the cream puffs, since those cream puffs cost more and have a much smaller buyer’s pool, which means less likely to sell and make BaT money.

And they do monitor posts and scrub the ones that don’t benefit the seller and BaT, this might be only occasionally, but I know it happens. Their practices are clearly questionable as far as I’m concerned.

[nathanbs]

Originally Posted by JMS935

And now it sure seems like they actually prefer the questionable cars since they come with a lower price point and thus a lower reserve which means a larger group of bidders which means it’s much more likely to sell which means BaT gets PAID. IT IS ALL BASED ON GREED, nothing more nothing less.

I submitted a turbo cab recently that they wanted nothing to do with while they coincidentally had the biggest turd of turbo cab (in the same year and color combo as mine) live at the very same time. The live one had a low reserve since it was a total POS, while I wanted more for mine since it was in very near concours condition. So there was no way to agree upon a reserve, as I could’ve gotten the reserve they wanted for mine by just selling it locally to a dealer at wholesale. So this whole notion that they “bring” the best examples to market for their members is complete and total bunk. It’s simply not the case. They “bring” the cars to market that are most likely to make them money, which much of the time means intentionally bringing a train wreck to market with a lower reserve while passing on the cream puffs, since those cream puffs cost more and have a much smaller buyer’s pool, which means less likely to sell and make BaT money.

And they do monitor posts and scrub the ones that don’t benefit the seller and BaT, this might be only occasionally, but I know it happens. Their practices are clearly questionable as far as I’m concerned.

I have a '75 25th anniversary 911S that is a bit of a turd and they said it does not fit their target crowd

[JMS935]

Originally Posted by nathanbs

I have a '75 25th anniversary 911S that is a bit of a turd and they said it does not fit their target crowd

Maybe they’ve just got too many turds to list. I think it’s also a crap shoot as to the auction manager you get, as they dictate the reserve, so one guy might be ok with your requested reserve while the next guy isn’t.