Bring a Trailer’s Vintage Car Auctions
The Best Vintage & Classic Cars Online
2005 Porsche Carrera GT Breaks Bring A Trailer’s Online Sale Record | www.bringatrailer.com
Bring a Trailer (BaT) is an online auction platform for vintage and collectible vehicles. In 2021, the online car auction site sold $828.7 million worth of cars, a 108% gain over the $398 million it sold in 2020—and a full quarter billion dollars ahead of its closest live-auction-house competitor.
BaT’s jump indicates a major shift for the collectable and vintage car market. Moving online removes the middle-men from what has, heretofore, been an opaque industry featuring back-door deals, insider favors, and clubby agreements between power brokers.
Online auto auctions are a high-volume, lower-price operation, with the bulk of BaT sales going for less than six figures. But having so many of those sales builds community, enthusiasm, and is the real boost for their bottom line.
High-end or low, the instant gratification, deep-dive photo and video coverage, and lively online engagement from commenters (nearly 2 million comments posted on listings in 2021) is a difficult model to beat. Especially when buyers are spending more time at home and less time traveling than ever before.
A 2005 Porsche Carrera GT sold for $1.9 million on Bring a Trailer, setting a world record for the highest amount of money paid at auction for the V10 supercar as well as the highest BaT sale to date.
How’s It Work?
It’s pretty pain-free. Sellers answer questions on the submission form and upload photos so BaT can determine the fit for their audience. If a vehicle is accepted, the seller pays the listing fee and BaT gathers all necessary information – including videos, maintenance records, vehicle history, and service documentation. Then BaT creates a listing for the vehicle.
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Auctions are live
Every auction goes live with an informational listing, photo gallery, and additional seller features. Each auction has a comment thread where the BaT community discusses the vehicle and asks the seller questions, schedules a viewing or sets up a test drive. Each seller has the ability to lower their reserve while the auction is live. Auctions typically run for 7 days.
Bidding
All bids are verified by a credit card hold to ensure commitment of potential buyers. When a bid is placed, BaT places a hold on the credit card on file for 5% of the bid amount. When the auction closes, the hold is released for all bidders who didn’t win the vehicle.
The post-auction
If the auction reserve is met when the listing ends (or the auction is no reserve), BaT provides the seller and winning bidder with each other’s contact information.
The buyer and seller then work together to complete the transaction and arrange for delivery. If the auction reserve is not met when the listing ends, BaT will provide the high bidder’s contact information to the seller in hopes that they can work out a deal.
Fees
It’s simple. Sellers pay a $99 listing fee, with the option to add their Plus photo service for an additional $250. That’s it. Buyers pay a 5% fee on top of the final sale price to BaT, with a minimum of $250, and capped at $5,000.
The One That Got Away!
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This 1995 Ferrari F512 M is one of only 75 delivered to North America that year, and showed only 2,200 miles. In fact, a dashboard plaque denotes this car as number 69 of the 75 examples imported to North America for the 1995 model year. This Pininfarina-designed F512 M was the final installment of the famed Testarossa.
It’s finished in Rosso Corsa (Italian racing red), with in tan Connolly leather upholstery on the seats, door panels, and lower dashboard joined by a black upper dashboard. The cockpit is trimmed Equipment includes air conditioning, an Alpine CD stereo, carpeted floor mats, a gated shifter with a dogleg first gear, motorized seat belts, and power-operated windows, mirrors, and locks.
The car is powered by a 4.9-liter flat-12 mated to a five-speed manual transaxle and a limited-slip differential. Features include 18-inch multi-piece wheels, side strakes, fixed headlights, air conditioning, power windows, an Alpine stereo, and a gated shifter.
The dash instrumentation includes a 200-mph speedometer, a tachometer that redlines at 7,250-rpm, and gauges for oil pressure and coolant temperature. An analog clock and auxiliary gauges for fuel level and oil temperature are housed in the center stack. The six-digit mechanical odometer indicates 2,200 miles.
The 4.9-liter DOHC flat-12 was rated at 434 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque when new. Power is delivered to the rear wheels through a five-speed manual transaxle and a limited-slip differential.
While I missed that particular auction, another one will come along, and I’ll jump into the fray for that one. In the meantime, stay safe, stay well, and…happy motoring!