SHOULD YOU SELL YOUR COLLECTOR CAR AT AN AUCTION?

KL Nichols

First I should explain auctions for the novices; there are several kinds of auctions: There are local auctions by local auctioneers that auction off any kind of saleable property. This includes estate closings, realestate and personal property to name a few. There are also local CV (Collector Vehicle) auctions, most of which, are held by a national collector car auctioneer with the support and backing of a local collector or CV dealer, once or twice a year if your town or city is large enough. Then there are the Super CV Auctions, such as the Barrett-Jackson that is held the first of January in Arizona and the Kruse Auction in Auburn Indiana held in September over Labor Day every year. Both of these auction companies hold several other auctions a year, but only these two qualify as Super Auctions! Then there are Internet Auctions, the premier one being eBay Motors.

The quality of your collector car; and the time you have to sell it, along with the amount of money you have to spend get the ball rolling are just a few of the determining factors that will make your decision for you when and if you decide to auction your car off. For brevity we will refer hereafter to Collector Vehicle as “CV”.

Just a note here; to insure that your car sells fast; make sure everything on your car works and that it is clean. Sometimes a few bucks spent on your collector car for new carpet or to replace a window will add big bucks to the final price, but don’t over do it and if you car is a project car, none of this applies.

One other avenue; I am always amazed that not everybody knows about is the local and national CV magazines, you see these at your local convenience store, such as Auto/Truck Round-Up, Deals On Wheels, Auta Buy and Old Car Trader. These run from Free to around $40-$50 per month and take about a month to hit the stands, most have pretty fair websites and will include you vehicles photo and description on their website, with your ad, or for a few more dollars. This is definitely the cheapest and most effective way for most people to sell their CV! Some will even take the picture for you. One note here, if you do not have Internet Access, you will be at a disadvantage!

Let’s talk about Local Auctions; these run from Ma & Pa Auctions to fairly sophisticated auction organizations to local collector car dealers. These can run you from free to 10%-15% of the final sale, but it is local and you can protect you vehicle by bidding on it yourself from the audience or have a relative do the protective bidding. Some even accept Reserves. Of the local auctions, you may find actual Dealer Auctions, these cater to people selling everyday drivers, but will sell a CV, and may even have special CV event days. Unfortunately, your CV will probably see little action in this venue and if a sale results, it will be lower than the value of the car unless you use a reserve or provide bidder protection in the form of bidding on the vehicle yourself! With some local auctions, you may even see your CV selling side-by-side with tractors and lawnmowers, due to the fact that most of the Ma & Pa auctions serve the farmers and estate sales. Adverting the sale may help some, but no guarantee.
Local Collector Vehicle Dealers offer two or three CV sales opportunities.
The first one the local dealer who holds CV auctions in conjunction with a national CV auctioneer.
The second is the occasional CV dealer who holds individual CV auctions; this can be ascertained by talking to the local classic dealers.
The third is the consignment option. A lot of CV dealers take consignment CV’s for an initial fee ($100-$500 for advertising, storage and maintenance) and then a percentage of the final sale (3%-15%) all of which are negotiable. If your CV is a special, desirable CV worth a lot of money and smacks of a quick sale to the dealer, he may even not charge you anything or varying percentages of consignment and sales percentage fees, hoping to make a quick profit and not be bothered with advertising, storing or cosmetic care. Watch your self here, as some dealers have the contractual right to make repairs and charge you for the repair parts & labor at the going rate!

National or Celebrity Collector Vehicle Auctioneers; you will find a list of these at the end of this article, so I won’t go into that here, just explain your costs of using their services. The terms I will discuss are Listing Fees, Seller’s Fees, Buyer’s Fees, Transportation Fees, and Miscellaneous Fees.

Listing’s Fees; can be anything for $0 to $500 and up. The wide difference is based on the value of your CV, is it a special, desirable CV worth a lot of money and means a probably quick sale for the auctioneer, but the Listing Fee can cost can be influenced by the fact that the market is slow or down, the auctioneer needs a nice car to point at and influence other CV owners to list their CV’s with his auction, and on and on… This is something you can work with by either listing early or withholding your CV until the last minute.

Seller’s Fees; most are currently 8-1/2%-10% (Auctioneer’s overhead is fairly high) of the final sale and have the possibility of negotiation as with everything you deal with in this field.

Buyer’s Fees; most are currently 8-1/2%-10% of the final sale and only effect the buyer. But they do tend to factor in as the buyer ultimately is bidding for 108-1/2%-110% of the final sale.

Transportation Fees; this fee is self-evident and differs for every area. Naturally the further you have to transport your CV to the auction, the more expensive this cost will be. There are several ways to do the transporting of your CV to the auction. This is an area to be very careful! It is not unheard of for transporters to hold a car hostage for higher prices or to not deliver it on time. I speak from experience! So don’t chose the cheapest, choose the most reputable!

Do-It-Yourself; is probably the cheapest and most sure way! A $600 to $1000 trailer can be sold with the car or sold after the auction to recoup it’s cost fairly easily. That being said, protect your trailer, they are easily stolen and disappear almost instantly!

Hire Someone Else; possibly a local trucker that is deadheading back to the area of the auction. But you had better have good insurance on your CV to do it this way, and I don’t mean regular car insurance!.

Hire A Professional; there is a list of these at the end of the article so I won’t go into that here. I will go over the risks of this option. I once shipped a car to New York that didn’t arrive for 6 weeks and cost three times as much as the original contracted fee. Luckily the original transporter paid the excess fee! It seems that they had been busy and had consigned the shipping to an unknown transporter who proceeded to play hide and seek with my car. So be sure of the transporter that you choose to handle your precious CV!!

Miscellaneous Fees; this can include gas to and from the auction food, motel and fun expenses and can be quite expensive!

I add a word of caution here for the person who is still not put off by my fairly negative assessment of the Collector Auction Scene, the general consensus pf the people that I consider experts is that in order to come out on a CV auction requires to collector cars entered in to any auction to reach a break even point!
Auctioneers:
· www.barrett-jackson.com
· www.rmauctions.com
· www.silverauctions.com
· www.collectorcars-int.com
· www.kruse.com
· www.leakecarauction.com
· www.acclassiccars.com
· www.russoandsteele.com
· www.icaauctions.com
· www.petersencollectorcars.com
· www.calcruising.com



Transporters:
· www.moveavehicle.com
· www.aaaautomovers.com
· www.findahauler.com
· www.passport.fedex.com
· www.intercitylines.com
· www.oldride.com/collector-auto-transport.html
· www.haulingdepot.com/antique-car-shipping.htm
· http://www.webertransports.com


Copyright 2007 KL Nichols