I am curious to know what everybody's thoughts are on the best strategy for bidding on a car on Bring a trailer? I know to set a budget/limit for the example i'm interested in and to wait until near the end of the auction to place a bid.
Is it better to throw in a hail-mary bid that is 90~95% of my limit, battle it out until I get to 100% of my limit and hope for the best or is it best to do some combo of the two?
Walk away because BAT is for sellers not buyers.
Stampie said:Walk away because BAT is for sellers not buyers.
while im not sure i buy that, your opinion of BaT isnt helpful at this moment...
Put a bid in at the start as a place saver ,
set your alarm for an hour or so before the end which gives you time to read the comments and maybe ask a question ,
When the auction "ends" the first time you have the 2 minutes to decide if you want to start bidding ,
You do not gain anything bidding early ,
PS: If it's close to you and you are a serious buyer , I would try to inspect it ,
Good luck
californiamilleghia said:Put a bid in at the start as a place saver ,
set your alarm for an hour or so before the end which gives you time to read the comments and maybe ask a question ,
When the auction "ends" the first time you have the 2 minutes to decide if you want to start bidding ,
You do not gain anything bidding early ,
PS: If it's close to you and you are a serious buyer , I would try to inspect it ,
Good luck
thanks, the car is close and i went to look at it and spent quite a bit of time with the owner already...
i plan to place a bid, I have a limit of what i'm willing to spend, my question is do I throw a single strong bid in which would nearly double the current price (with about 1 day to go) or do I just keep bidding it up with 2 minutes left and hope i'm the last one standing.
I think the strategy depends on a bunch of variables; the popularity/desirability of the car and your budget relative to the actual value of the car being the primary two. If you're willing to pay serious money and it's not something incredibly popular/desirable, then dropping basically your max bid early will probably do a good job of dissuading less serious bidders. On the other hand, if you're trying to get a decent deal, your best bet is to wait til the last minute and hope that nobody notices it. And if it's something actually popular and/or you're trying to get it *cheap*...neither of those strategies is going to work very well so just do whatever seems most entertaining to you.
ClearWaterMS said:californiamilleghia said:Put a bid in at the start as a place saver ,
set your alarm for an hour or so before the end which gives you time to read the comments and maybe ask a question ,
When the auction "ends" the first time you have the 2 minutes to decide if you want to start bidding ,
You do not gain anything bidding early ,
PS: If it's close to you and you are a serious buyer , I would try to inspect it ,
Good luck
thanks, the car is close and i went to look at it and spent quite a bit of time with the owner already...
i plan to place a bid, I have a limit of what i'm willing to spend, my question is do I throw a single strong bid in which would nearly double the current price (with about 1 day to go) or do I just keep bidding it up with 2 minutes left and hope i'm the last one standing.
I would wait ,you are not going to scare anyone to not bid if they want it,
It might work at an in person auction where you can look like a high roller that would bid anything to get it , not sure how you do that with a blind auction ,
is there a reserve on it ?
On some our auctions, the big jump in the final minutes has been successful. Two/three people fight it out, one new person lays down the big bid.
Since I never have bid on BAT ,
If it's at $10k and you bid $15k , does it just go up to say $10.5 k or does it eat all your higher bid up all at once ?
Ebay would just jump the bid a small amount but not your complete bid,
thanks for the info
dps214 said:I think the strategy depends on a bunch of variables; the popularity/desirability of the car and your budget relative to the actual value of the car being the primary two. If you're willing to pay serious money and it's not something incredibly popular/desirable, then dropping basically your max bid early will probably do a good job of dissuading less serious bidders. On the other hand, if you're trying to get a decent deal, your best bet is to wait til the last minute and hope that nobody notices it. And if it's something actually popular and/or you're trying to get it *cheap*...neither of those strategies is going to work very well so just do whatever seems most entertaining to you.
I would say it's a popular model which will have some pros/cons that may raise the value to some but distract others.
that being said it sounds like it doesn't matter, just go for it. I could also wait until the last hour; if the bidding is still soft throw in a strong bid that still leaves some upward mobility and see what happens.
californiamilleghia said:Since I never have bid on BAT ,
If it's at $10k and you bid $15k , does it just go up to say $10.5 k or does it eat all your higher bid up all at once ?
Ebay would just jump the bid a small amount but not your complete bid,
thanks for the info
bidding on BaT works like a live auction in the real world (not like Ebay) where you pay a small amount over the next highest bidder...
so if you bid $15k then the bid is $15k. if you place a bid within the last 2 minutes of an auction the timer goes back up to 2 minutes ensuring that nobody can snipe a bid at the last minute.
The site is in alot of ways alot like Meccum or other auction houses in that way.
californiamilleghia said:ClearWaterMS said:californiamilleghia said:Put a bid in at the start as a place saver ,
set your alarm for an hour or so before the end which gives you time to read the comments and maybe ask a question ,
When the auction "ends" the first time you have the 2 minutes to decide if you want to start bidding ,
You do not gain anything bidding early ,
PS: If it's close to you and you are a serious buyer , I would try to inspect it ,
Good luck
thanks, the car is close and i went to look at it and spent quite a bit of time with the owner already...
i plan to place a bid, I have a limit of what i'm willing to spend, my question is do I throw a single strong bid in which would nearly double the current price (with about 1 day to go) or do I just keep bidding it up with 2 minutes left and hope i'm the last one standing.
I would wait ,you are not going to scare anyone to not bid if they want it,
It might work at an in person auction where you can look like a high roller that would bid anything to get it , not sure how you do that with a blind auction ,
is there a reserve on it ?
yes it has a reserve, BaT doesn't allow sellers to state what it is.
These auctions are 10 days of watching and 10 minutes of bidding. Every time you bid you give the other guy time to think about it. That may be time to convince himself or convince his wife that it's a good or feasible purchase. Last minute bidding takes away his ability to contemplate or gain spousal approval for going forward to a higher price level.
I would bid only last minutes and only in tiny increments. You don't need to make $5k jumps at the end (but some bidders might.)
Since you've seen the car I would comment something like, "thanks for taking the time to show me the car." Then, don't bid. No disparaging remarks. Just make it clear to other bidders that you have touched the car.
This might get into the heads of the other bidders who have not touched the car. What do you know that they dont??? Is the car a wreck???
There is no advantage to going high early. I'll toss in a bid just so it reminds me when it's ending, then bid at the end, unless it's already over what I'm willing to spend.
No high early bids for sure. You'll most likely be bidding against people with practically infinite money so you need to approach it as an underdog. You need to accept that if one of the "alumni" as they call themselves (BaT regulars whose net worth is exceeded only by their sense of self-importance) wants the car more than you, you're not going to get it. Wait until fairly late in the game, when the bids slow down put in a slightly higher one and the bidding war will commence. If you're bidding against mere mortals you may come out on top without going beyond a price you're comfortable with. If you're up against one of "the alumni," you'll need to quit when you inevitably run into your cap, and then accept that no matter how high your bid was they would've outbid you anyway.
ClearWaterMS said:Stampie said:Walk away because BAT is for sellers not buyers.
while im not sure i buy that, your opinion of BaT isnt helpful at this moment...
It may not be helpful but its true. Look I broker cars for people there have been maybe 6-7 cars that have popped up on BAT that really truly are one of a kind. You want a F40 and you are willing to pay top of the market pricing, give me a few days and a few phone calls and you will have one. You want a 330 GTC same thing, SVJ same thing.
If it truly is a car you cannot find anywhere else, and somebody on there wants it they are going to get it. No amount of game theory is going to give you an edge. The people who buy on that site, expecillay for their own collections do not give a flying berkeley about the final cost. I deal with people like this a lot, 100K is a rounding error for some of them on their monthly credit card charges.
Now if it truly is rare and it has a very small following y0u can kill a bidding war with a 10% jump in price in the last say 2 minutes but you better want that car and if a bigger fish is biting your going to get smoked.
Please throw all this out the window for modified cars, BAT is actually a decent place to get older racecars for semi decent pricing with actual proper documentation if you are willing to wait.
ClearWaterMS said:californiamilleghia said:ClearWaterMS said:californiamilleghia said:Put a bid in at the start as a place saver ,
set your alarm for an hour or so before the end which gives you time to read the comments and maybe ask a question ,
When the auction "ends" the first time you have the 2 minutes to decide if you want to start bidding ,
You do not gain anything bidding early ,
PS: If it's close to you and you are a serious buyer , I would try to inspect it ,
Good luck
thanks, the car is close and i went to look at it and spent quite a bit of time with the owner already...
i plan to place a bid, I have a limit of what i'm willing to spend, my question is do I throw a single strong bid in which would nearly double the current price (with about 1 day to go) or do I just keep bidding it up with 2 minutes left and hope i'm the last one standing.
I would wait ,you are not going to scare anyone to not bid if they want it,
It might work at an in person auction where you can look like a high roller that would bid anything to get it , not sure how you do that with a blind auction ,
is there a reserve on it ?
yes it has a reserve, BaT doesn't allow sellers to state what it is.
It's strongly recommended that you don't reveal it - but you can if you want.
I really like the way that BaT extends the clock with a bid. I wish eBay worked that way as a buyer, and if I sold on eBay I'd probably feel the same.
If you really want it and don't care what the price is, either way works. If you really want it and DO care about the price, wait until the end.
there's no way bidding early will keep the price down. Which is why no one does it!
Having studied game theory in college, it really doesn't matter all that much. Assuming that there is a relatively clear valuation on it and sufficient number of bidders, it will sell for what it is worth, more or less.
The exceptions to that are basically because of emotion. And because cars are often an emotional purchase, it can happen here.
Personally, I would figure out what the maximum I would pay for the car is, and plan on bidding that amount at the last second. Obviously if the bidding is well below that amount, don't show all your chips unless you need to, but plan on bidding all of your budget... at the last second.
John Welsh said:These auctions are 10 days of watching and 10 minutes of bidding. Every time you bid you give the other guy time to think about it. That may be time to convince himself or convince his wife that it's a good or feasible purchase. Last minute bidding takes away his ability to contemplate or gain spousal approval for going forward to a higher price level.
I would bid only last minutes and only in tiny increments. You don't need to make $5k jumps at the end (but some bidders might.)
Since you've seen the car I would comment something like, "thanks for taking the time to show me the car." Then, don't bid. No disparaging remarks. Just make it clear to other bidders that you have touched the car.
This might get into the heads of the other bidders who have not touched the car. What do you know that they dont??? Is the car a wreck???
I think this is just evidence that it's all a crapshoot, but in my mind it goes the other way too. Bidding early gives everyone else time to think "man do I really want to spend this much money?" Where last minute rapid fire bidding makes it easy to get caught up in the adrenaline and just keep clicking "bid".
In reply to mtn :
Just keep in mind that the last second is 2 minutes before the close of bidding. The clock gets extended so there's no sniping and everyone is able to counter. It's like every auction other than eBay :)
I'd bid what I'm willing to pay in the last 15 minutes and then walk away if it goes higher.
We have a doctor who likes to buy stuff on BAT , mostly old race cars so he can vintage race them ,
nothing that special , $20-$50 grand ,
these cars are not competitive , but he is just racing for fun without a plan of winning ,
I am sure there are dozens of other bidders who can bid $20-50,000 and not lose sleep over it....
my strategy mostly worked... I ended up throwing in one last bid over my limit and ended up getting the car for that. So good news I got the car :) bad news, I paid $250 more than I wanted to.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2005-porsche-911-carrera-s-coupe-22/
i went to look at the car last weekend, the car is in good shape has a 4.0L LN engineering engine put in around 7 years ago and 20k miles ago. It has GT3 shock/coil over setups with H&R springs and a host of other improvements. It's got a few miles on it (133k) but besides that it should make a great driver for me to enjoy as a first porsche. a thread about the car will be started when I pick it up next week.
I'd say that's well bought, with the 4.0 LN motor in it. Have fun, I'm sure it's a great car and $250 is nothing...
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