Questionable Practices at Bring A Trailer ( BAT )

[JMS935]

Originally Posted by trader220

The seller was the same seller I mentioned the other day with regard to questionable practices. It does seem really fishy.

On the 2008 997 base coupe he no sale'd and then "sold" outside BAT to one of the bidders..... I know exactly what he paid for that car and I cannot imagine he made anything on it knowing his rough costs after purchasing the car at Manheim. I suspect it will show up on his site or another again at a high price.

Maybe BaT knew he sold that car outside of BaT, and this was their payback to him. LoL. They cut their commish and possibly got paid for a no sale now. That’s what you call karma.

[trader220]

BAT has you sign off when you list to allow them to cut their commission by paying you the difference between the high bid and the reserve.

If you have a 100k reserve and the bidding only makes it to 98 or there about they'll sell the car at 98 and make up the difference to 100 out of their cut.

They did it with one of my auctions a while back. It's good business on their part.


Since the BAT only places a "hold" on your buyer fee during the auction the high bidder has a chance to call their CC company and void the transaction before the money is paid from your CC and screw BAT. That's pretty scummy if you asked me but I can see it being done. Once you put your bid out there you'd better be prepared to own em on your bid.

[JMS935]

Originally Posted by trader220

BAT has you sign off when you list to allow them to cut their commission by paying you the difference between the high bid and the reserve.

If you have a 100k reserve and the bidding only makes it to 98 or there about they'll sell the car at 98 and make up the difference to 100 out of their cut.

They did it with one of my auctions a while back. It's good business on their part.


Since the BAT only places a "hold" on your buyer fee during the auction the high bidder has a chance to call their CC company and void the transaction before the money is paid from your CC and screw BAT. That's pretty scummy if you asked me but I can see it being done. Once you put your bid out there you'd better be prepared to own em on your bid.

Wouldn’t BaT charge the card as soon as the auction ends? If so, the buyer (assuming the seller as well here) would have a hard time fighting it, as BaT has the auction as proof.

[trader220]

Originally Posted by JMS935

Wouldn’t BaT charge the card as soon as the auction ends? If so, the buyer (assuming the seller as well here) would have a hard time fighting it, as BaT has the auction as proof.

They place a hold on the amount you owe them via credit card. Its been my experience they don't take it immediately after auctions end.

Either way it's a pretty dirty move on any bidder, shill or not.

The seller of the Mercedes followed up all the speculation that this was a case of shill bidding...

"Enjoying the speculation on this one. Story goes like this. Guy wanted car, bid accordingly and guy wins car. Guy is happy. Dealer is happy."

There was considerable speculation from the posters about the legitimacy of the bid, given the buyer had no history on BAT and just joined.

Really hard to say.... my guess is this car pops back up on line somewhere again.

[JMS935]

Well if we take the dealer at their word, then it’s just a completely obtuse buyer. Meaning the BaT kool aid is still mesmerizing people into paying more than they need to, just to buy a car on that website.

And if we don’t, I wouldn’t even think it pops up somewhere else, it’ll be at the same dealership. Anyone that inquires about it, they'd just say the buyer flaked.

While we can continue to speculate what the real answer is here, it solidifies my perspective on being a buyer on BaT - that it’s a loser’s game. You’re either bidding against the seller shill bidding it, or you’re bidding against people that are willing to pay above market value or even asking price somewhere else, just to buy it on BaT. I’d bet most BaT auctions have one of these at play, some might even have both.

On a slightly separate note, I commented on the shady nature of that winning bid, but wouldn’t you know it, BaT didn’t post it. It’s funny, most comments that get flagged, are flagged by other members, mine just get scrubbed by BaT before they get posted. Maybe I’ve referred to them as Bring a TrainWreck one too many times. LoL

[specialtyoneinc]

Originally Posted by JMS935

Here is another prime example of either BaT blinders, or some shady sh|t again. And I’m not so sure it’s the BaT blinders here, since the ‘buyer’ is brand new to BaT.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2008-mercedes-benz-clk63-amg-black-series-4/

Did someone really choose to pay thousands more than they needed to? Or did the seller just get caught holding the bag shill bidding their own auction? I’m wondering if maybe they shill bid it under their reserve yet still up too high, thinking it would just be RNM, but instead BaT cut their commission - took less - and sold it anyways. LMAO

Either way it’s pretty funny. The only two options are a completely obtuse buyer, or, a seller that just paid BaT a lot of money for nothing.

Have feeling this will be back up for sale in no time.

https://dallasmotorclub.com/offerings/32/2008-mercedes-benz-clk-class-2dr-cpe-6-3l-amg-black-series

[dallasmotorclub]

Joey from Dallas Motor Club here.
Seeing as we have been apart of some discussion here, I wanted to set the record straight...

I cant imagine there is much if any shill bidding or shady stuff going on at BAT. BAT has some of the better system in place to protect both the buyer and seller from "shady" stuff" ....... but, believe what you want.

In terms of the couple cars we sold on BAT that were mentioned here. I do not understand why so much speculation?

Black 997: Did not meet our reserve on BAT. BAT sends an email connecting the high bidder and the seller automatically for the purpose of seeing if they can make a deal happen. They do not expect any fee if a deal happens. This is a service they have always provided. With this particular car ... The guys wife wanted it and the husband made a deal with us. We sold this car for essentially what we had into it, but we were happy to move it and make her Christmas wish come true. We just shipped that car off to TN this morning with a big red bow on it. We may have not made money on this one, but we made one lucky lady very happy for the Holidays.

CLK63 Black Series: A very wealthy car collector in SoCal wanted it for his son. End of story. The transporter is picking up the car tomorrow.

Happy Holidays

[Matt Monson]

Seems legit.

[JMS935]

Well that answers that, just an obtuse buyer willing to pay over asking price for it.

[trader220]

Originally Posted by dallasmotorclub

Joey from Dallas Motor Club here.
Seeing as we have been apart of some discussion here, I wanted to set the record straight...

I cant imagine there is much if any shill bidding or shady stuff going on at BAT. BAT has some of the better system in place to protect both the buyer and seller from "shady" stuff" ....... but, believe what you want.

In terms of the couple cars we sold on BAT that were mentioned here. I do not understand why so much speculation?

Black 997: Did not meet our reserve on BAT. BAT sends an email connecting the high bidder and the seller automatically for the purpose of seeing if they can make a deal happen. They do not expect any fee if a deal happens. This is a service they have always provided. With this particular car ... The guys wife wanted it and the husband made a deal with us. We sold this car for essentially what we had into it, but we were happy to move it and make her Christmas wish come true. We just shipped that car off to TN this morning with a big red bow on it. We may have not made money on this one, but we made one lucky lady very happy for the Holidays.

CLK63 Black Series: A very wealthy car collector in SoCal wanted it for his son. End of story. The transporter is picking up the car tomorrow.

Happy Holidays

Well my apologies.... The Benz is a really interesting car, thanks for bringing it to the market. Hope it works out for you. Your sales style is not mine but I guess I will just keep that to myself. Sorry if I offended you. Congratz on both sales.

[Cobalt]

Funny it seems that BaT has blocked my posts. I post the facts and correct the false info posted and they seem not to like that. IMO the days are numbered if this is the kind of actions they take.

[JMS935]

Originally Posted by Cobalt

Funny it seems that BaT has blocked my posts. I post the facts and correct the false info posted and they seem not to like that. IMO the days are numbered if this is the kind of actions they take.

Welcome to the club. I don’t even bother trying to post anymore due to that.

Rejecting curated collector vehicles in place of auctioning off spare wheels and service manuals is another joke.

[shlobeck]

Funny I’ve had the same experience with a few 930s I attempted post info on. They found my comments “non-constructive.” Scary.

[SalParadise]

Originally Posted by Cobalt

Funny it seems that BaT has blocked my posts. I post the facts and correct the false info posted and they seem not to like that. IMO the days are numbered if this is the kind of actions they take.

I haven't posted on there for probably more than a year because of this. I actually worked on two of the Ferraris that were offered (yes, with my hands in a shop and knew the car) and corrected people. BaT became a waste of my time because I was either censored or I realized I was actually adding real value to the auctions with my own specialized knowledge which became a waste of my time as I got nothing from it. I no longer am on there.

In the end, BaT themselves, buyers, sellers, and the peanut gallery do not want to accept or know the truth. But it's like life, isn't it?

[Cobalt]

It would appear they decided to post it after the fact. LOL

[JMS935]

Originally Posted by Cobalt

It would appear they decided to post it after the fact. LOL

They’ll screen everyone one of them going forward. Your posts will never be live anymore, at least that’s the way it is with me. We’re spam to them, they filter us out.

[specialtyoneinc]

Originally Posted by Cobalt

It would appear they decided to post it after the fact. LOL

Be careful the BAT Mafia has you on their radar.

[pmax]

^^^
For those who feel rejected and jilted by BAT after all that, feel free to start your own thread like this and post away ...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-marketplace-discussion/1016320-car-has-been-hammered.html

No censorship here, hope it stays that way.

[MrZee]

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..

So why should ANYONE buy from YOU, Wollett?

[porschenut]

Has this been discussed yet? According to the info on the site, it sounds like it'll be a "P-car BAT"

https://www.pcarmarket.com/