Bring A Trailer auctions

[wally509]

Sorry to re-hash a very old thread here but it seemed to be the only one that was about BaT auctions in general and not about a specific car.

Does anyone know how the commenting works? Obviously someone sensors them. Will they limit them to "blowing sunshine" about how great it would be to drive around in the auctioned car?

My friend registered to bid and threw some bids in on the 944S that is currently on there. Meanwhile he asked specific questions about when the timing belt was done last and how exactly the 134a conversion was done. I think very legitimate questions, but the comments never appeared so he said screw it and dropped out.

Then I thought back and I remember putting in a comment about a 4 cylinder Healey that was on there for auction, although I was not bidding on it. I got a response from the website saying something along the lines of "your comments are being reviewed for appropriateness and will be posted shortly" and they also never posted. The comments were far from rips on the car up for auction, just general comments about correctness on a couple items on it.

[omnivore]

I follow and post often on BaT. They have been accused by posters of aggressive removal of negative comments. Appears you have to walk a fine line between fan-boy enthusiasm and meaningful analysis for posts to be welcomed. Very little tolerance for free-swinging repartee seen here and other forums--politeness is key. There are knowledgeable posters on varied marques and models so I learn a lot. The site seems to be gathering steam with interesting lots and strong sale results. If so inclined, Pelicans should get on and chime in.

[jturbo3.6]

I tried to post a pretty special 911 on BAT, and they reply to me they consider my reserve was too high and want I lower my price before I can list it there.
in the end, I sold my car for much more than the reserve I was putting on BAT, let's say this, they would made around $3,000 if they let me list my car in the beginning and it sold for the price I sold for, ($250 from me/seller, and 5% of close to 50k from buyer, not a bad deal for them.).
well, it is what it is. their site, their rules, I got that.

and from what the price 911's sold for on BAT, I think here/pelican is better place to buy.

[SilberUrS6]

I don't plan to ever list a car there. I doubt very much I'll ever buy a car there, either.

[Nachtfalter]

Great place to read about people's anger over Porsche prices. Although I saw one go cheap a few weeks back.

[SilberUrS6]

Originally Posted by Nachtfalter

Great place to read about people's anger over Porsche prices.

100% truth.

[CountD]

There is some pretty serious Stalinesque censorship going on over there regarding their postings, which to me is a serious flaw of and very detrimental to their overall business model. It seems a little sophomore to me. Don't get me wrong, those guys went for it and have had good ideas but they need to be schooled in basic business, not just from an auction standpoint but by a internet standpoint as well.

[wally509]

I think this could have been the issue...the 944S was being listed by a dealer who just bought the car off ebay a few months ago. My friend's question about the r134a conversion was something along the lines of "I noticed in the ebay listing from when you acquired the car in August the pictures show R12 fittings but now it has r134a fittings, so obviously you did the conversion and would know the details. What exactly was done?..."

Perhaps they didn't like the inference about this car being a dealer flip?

[NYNick]

That's some strong money for that 944S.

[pu911]

The comments are generally pure drivel and have very little to do with what is being offered for sale.

Phil

[maninblack]

Originally Posted by Nachtfalter

Great place to read about people's anger over Porsche prices.

Plenty of that here, truth be told.

[Flynt]

I thought the censorship was via peers? Does BAT really delete comments or are you guys talking about comments being "marked as not constructive" and taken down? Maybe some here have had their uh.. acerbic comments removed?

I sold a car through that site, after having it listed here and RL for about a month and dealing with all the typical car selling BS.. Strangely enough, it sold there at exactly my asking price, to an awesome Pelican who had missed it on here. I love this site and I'm very thankful for it, but I'm a happy BAT user, too.

[wally509]

No they were not flagged as not constructive. They were submitted just like hitting the "Post Quick Reply" here on Pelican, but one gets a response from the website saying something like "moderators are reviewing your comments, they will be posted shortly". In both my and my friends case they never went up at all.

Now here's one thing I did notice, it seems when enough people hit them with the same question they let one or two of the comments finally go up. They must wait until they get an appropriately crafted response from the seller. As you can imagine, with a 944 auction, they got inundated with 'WHEN WAS THE TIMING BELT DONE LAST?", which was my friends question which never got posted so he dropped out of the bidding. Eventually they did let one or two go up and to their credit they did let the "if that belt hasn't been done since then, I would trailer, not drive the car to a shop and have it done immediately" comments go up afterward.

This is sort of backed by my experience, which was calling BS about a Healey 100 that was on there. The seller claimed the engine was built up and made 200 hp. Well everybody knows that even if you spend $20-30-40K in the Denis Welch catalog, you ain't gonna make no 200 hp with one of those engines, let alone be streetable. They're pretty much grenades anything over 150. With all the mods he had I estimated 125-135 if it was tuned really well. It was the same deal, they got sooo many similar comments, they eventually let a few of them go up and the seller responded "sorry for the confusion, I talked to xxx at Denis Welch and he estimated this engine makes ~130hp". But once again my comment never went up.

Sorry for the rambling,
Wally

[Flynt]

Thanks for sharing, Wally. That's exactly what I wanted to know.