I passed by an old T-bird the other day, and while looking up what year it might be, I found this website. Never heard of it before, and their “Under $5k” list could get most people here in trouble.
https://classiccars.com/classic-cars/under-5000-dollars
I want that old Dodge ‘carryall’ so bad...
Maybe I should have called it A Better BAT for GRM?
This is what the original BaT was! Okay, maybe a little on the RacingJunk side, but still!
Interesting website but it looks like a lot of those cars are overpriced even if they are now only $4K
Racerfink said:
Maybe I should have called it A Better BAT for GRM?
Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:This is what the original BaT was! Okay, maybe a little on the RacingJunk side, but still!
Maybe RaD? Rent a Dolly? That's how we roll.
Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:This is what the original BaT was! Okay, maybe a little on the RacingJunk side, but still!
I, too remember when BaT stood for "bring a trailer... 'cause this jalopy might not make it home on its own!"
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:Racerfink said:
Maybe I should have called it A Better BAT for GRM?Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:This is what the original BaT was! Okay, maybe a little on the RacingJunk side, but still!
Maybe RaD? Rent a Dolly? That's how we roll.
One of the tech geeks ... er... dorks... on here ought to start that very site!
This is NOT far enough away.
In reply to Donebrokeit :
I purposely did not look at where that was... I was afraid it might be too close, and piss me off I can't afford it. Kinda funny that 20 years ago I would not have even looked at a 4 dr. Now I prefer one.
Just looked through the listings- some interesting stuff on there but also a whole lot of tetanus
Most of what I browsed is rusty junk on there and certainly overpriced.
As for the original BAT. I don't get the hate. I've spent time on there checking 986 and 996 Porsches, X100 and XJS Jags, Esprits etc. I'd say for those cars they are either selling for, or get bid too, realistic money. Often less than the advertising price on many other sites. I know it's got a reputation for overpriced, but in the $10-$40 k modern (ish) classics I think the site is very good.
Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:Most of what I browsed is rusty junk on there and certainly overpriced.
As for the original BAT. I don't get the hate. I've spent time on there checking 986 and 996 Porsches, X100 and XJS Jags, Esprits etc. I'd say for those cars they are either selling for, or get bid too, realistic money. Often less than the advertising price on many other sites. I know it's got a reputation for overpriced, but in the $10-$40 k modern (ish) classics I think the site is very good.
All part of what happens when a website becomes successful - they either adapt to make profit by following their audience, or they don't... and they don't.
I remember the first car I listed on ebay, a 91 Blazer. It was unheard of. In the entire US there were 7 cars on ebay. They didn't even have a category for it. The second car I listed on ebay was an El Camino and it was one of two El Caminos on ebay among about 400 cars total. Right now (just checked) there are 400 Ferraris on ebay. Now ebay is trying to be a weird Amazon. Trying to find an item on ebay that is actually being listed and sold by an individual is hard.
BaT changed so radically I wonder if someone bought the name. It was a "check out this cool car for sale on the internet!" site that gathered a good following, then turned into a curated auction site with almost no time in transition. It's very good at being an auction site but the evolution was just so abrupt.
If you read "the Everything Store" (pretty interesting read), Amazon defintely views eBay as a direct competitor for the retail business.
03Panther said:Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:This is what the original BaT was! Okay, maybe a little on the RacingJunk side, but still!
I, too remember when BaT stood for "bring a trailer... 'cause this jalopy might not make it home on its own!"
I believe the going term for BaT now is "Bring a Trustfund". I used to love bat. Now I loathe it.
Also; 
galaxy 500 for challenge change.
I will never accept the concept of a Ford Ranchero (stock) selling for $92k. It's just not reality. Ever.
Dailyturismo.com is similar to the old BAT and has more reasonable vehicles.
rustomatic said:I will never accept the concept of a Ford Ranchero (stock) selling for $92k. It's just not reality. Ever.
The big problem with sales like that isn't the one high priced sale happening, it's the people that see it and then figure they should all sell for a ton of money. Sometimes one sells that high because they happened to find the one guy that really wanted one just like that no matter what it cost to get it. Doesn't mean there's anyone else in the world willing to pay more than $10k (for example), however.
rustomatic said:I will never accept the concept of a Ford Ranchero (stock) selling for $92k. It's just not reality. Ever.
Having sold 73 cars on BAT so far, I would say the "BAT reality" is extremely profitable for sellers, and has been extremely lucrative
rustomatic said:I will never accept the concept of a Ford Ranchero (stock) selling for $92k. It's just not reality. Ever.
The sad part is, it is reality. It's spectacularly dumb. But it's reality.
Carsandbids.com seems pretty good for the GRM crowd from what I've seen.
Monza was the sport package for the Corvair
mr2s2000elise said:rustomatic said:I will never accept the concept of a Ford Ranchero (stock) selling for $92k. It's just not reality. Ever.
Having sold 73 cars on BAT so far, I would say the "BAT reality" is extremely profitable for sellers, and has been extremely lucrative
Do you think everything sells on there for inflated prices? Honestly, as I said, I've been looking at 04-06 4.2L XK8's, XJS's, Lotus Esprit's, Bentley Turbo R's, Porsche 996's, and Ferrari 348's and Mondial's. My opinion for them is that they tend to be (not always) way above average condition for the market, and over the last couple of years of completed auctions they either sell for a realistic price, or get bid to a realistic price and don't sell because the reserve was too high. Many of these cars are selling on there for less than advertised prices across other platforms where people seem to think because it says Jag, Lotus, Bentley, or Ferrari on back it's worth top $$ for their ragged out non maintained beater.
Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:mr2s2000elise said:rustomatic said:I will never accept the concept of a Ford Ranchero (stock) selling for $92k. It's just not reality. Ever.
Having sold 73 cars on BAT so far, I would say the "BAT reality" is extremely profitable for sellers, and has been extremely lucrative
Do you think everything sells on there for inflated prices? Honestly, as I said, I've been looking at 04-06 4.2L XK8's, XJS's, Lotus Esprit's, Bentley Turbo R's, Porsche 996's, and Ferrari 348's and Mondial's. My opinion for them is that they tend to be (not always) way above average condition for the market, and over the last couple of years of completed auctions they either sell for a realistic price, or get bid to a realistic price and don't sell because the reserve was too high. Many of these cars are selling on there for less than advertised prices across other platforms where people seem to think because it says Jag, Lotus, Bentley, or Ferrari on back it's worth top $$ for their ragged out non maintained beater.
I don't think everything there is inflated. However, my ROI on cars sold outside vs BAT are off the charts. I literally rented a warehouse last year during covid (pennies on the dollar here, almost free storage, locked in 36 month lease) - to literally increase inventory for BAT sales only and store all of them. I only put certain things on BAT - my demo is 25-40 year old caucasian man bun hipsters.
To give you an example, I sold 2 cars this week. One of them, a GRM member went and inspected for me in Denver. I paid $7,800 for the car. 800$transport to me. I spent $2600 on the car for repairs. It sold on BAT for $28,000. It is going back to Colorado. The $16,800 was one of my lowest profit margin on a BAT sale last 16 months.
The cars I buy on auction and sell on the side, ROI is so much lower, because most of that is the "real world prices."
BAT has been working out fantastic! So good, that I can buy a car high retail AND sell it at BAT and make a chunk. We can wax poetic about Caymans and Miata all day (have had 9 Miatas since my first 93LE), but that isn't the BAT money makers.
Last 9 cars I sold ($381,000) have ALL been to first time buyers. 8 of the 9 didn't even know anything about the specific car model. "It looked cool." "Your pics were great." "I was just surfing on line and came upon it." I don't pick the buyers, but that is what I am seeing from my POV on after sale.
So much of BAT is the story of the car, the photos, and the videos. A car sold on BAT yesterday for about 15K under what he could have gotten. He was unengaged, poor quality posts, not friendly. I could have bought the car, and resold it on BAT to make that 15K. Someone got heck of a deal, and I guarantee its back on BAT in 6 months. I was in middle of a property lease closing, and couldn't catch it, but was shocked once I got out. So I called my BAT auction guy, and chatted with him, and he said the same thing, looking at specs, it was their lowest sale in 20-21 for that model.
Even though I have had sales to Dubai, Saudi, Switzerland on BAT, most of my sales are to "bros" in Bozeman, Denver, Austin, Atlanta. None have been over 40 years old. Not a single person requested a PPI. Not a single person did an inspection. Every single person did a full covered transport to their home. Cars that I would NEVER transport enclosed, and I do a lot of enclosed horseless carriage and intercity.
Will this craze last? Probably not. I don't need it to. I am just taking advantage of the timing. The car I paid $7,800 in the example above. I have since bought 7 more of them. You see 4 a week on BAT of the same car, but they are selling at ridiculous prices.
What I do see during Covid economy, the potential BAT sellers advertise their cars elsewhere for ridiculous prices, and say "coming on BAT next week." It is just a sales strategy.
The brands you mentioned - I don't touch a single one of them (for resale), because as much as I love Hoovies garage, and need a OJ Simpson Turbo R, I don't have a "Wizard" to work on those. :)
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