Granatrot

Lotuss7

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Bring a Trailer has lost its soul.

When it began here in San Francisco it was simply a site run by enthusiasts who posted interesting cars which were for sale by others. Loved it.

The move to auctioning cars began well. Just a few cars and the site creators crafted the write ups. Sucess brought hiring of perhaps enthusiastic (at first) but less informed staff and the initial quality eroded.

Now it is a large business. With an audience who is often as uninformed as the staff.

Yes they can achieve good financial results for sellers. But it is only through the the band width they have. And sucees is far from assured.

I have a few cars I want to sell. But not with them.
 

scottevest

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I sold my VW Westfalia through bring a trailer and I have nothing but positive things to say about them. Really well run and professional. On the other hand, I sold a Polaris slingshot on eBay and had the exact same experience where the high bidder bailed
 

lip277

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I saw that "The Idiot" said he is moving to Florida... Dunno if that means his business in Atlanta is closing or not....

Either way - I think it will be interesting to see what he does with his cars now that we know who/what he is.
The E9 community is pretty small and when these cars come on the market (especially 'nice' ones like he supposedly has) - word gets out pretty quick and... Will see how that goes for him.

Regardless to that soap opera - Welcome Devin. You'll find while we love these cars - we also value the persons who choose to to drive them and we look out for each other pretty well (you've seen that here with how this has unfolded).

Enjoy the car... and all that it brings...
(although - as an older BMW owner - I think you already knew that - LOL)
 

tightbox

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Hi folks! A lot has transpired in the past 12 hours, and just want to let everyone know that I will be the next steward of this lovely E9. His new home will be in Tampa, FL. I have been lusting for an E9 for a while, and this car checked most every box. I have 2 E28s: a Zinno '87 535is with 300K on the clock I have owned for 20 years, and a 55K mile E28 M5 that I have had for 17+ years (and will be participating in this Saturday's Cars and Caffine/BMWCCA 50 Years of M exhibit at Amelia). I suspect that the E9 will be the chosen one to go to Vintage in May. I look forward to picking your collective brains as I learn more about E9s in general, and also look forward to meeting many of you should our paths cross down the road...Devin
I’ll look out for you to say hello at Amelia.

Looks like you scored a killer coupe! Glad it worked out for everyone involved after the deadbeat bidder disappeared.
 

Markos

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I quite enjoy BaT as a fly on the wall and a recent seller. I had to do a bit of negotiating, but I was quite pleased with the overall price. Granted, I was only selling parts.

I wouldn’t expect a company to scale enough to have experts on 80+ model years for every make and model.

BaT might consider having ambassadors that could chime in with authority on a given mark or model. This along with a visual indicator of their status. It wouldn’t have worked for this auction since @HB Chris is the obvious e9 choice. :) Sellers could opt out of ambassador comments, which would have underlying implications.

Bring a Trailer has lost its soul.
 

boonies

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Devin, welcome! Your new coupe is georgeous and we are glad you joined us here. I know you will find this forum very helpful and the members here generous with their time and advice!

Lance
 

FGS

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Yes they can achieve good financial results for sellers. But it is only through the the band width they have. And sucees is far from assured.
But that's exactly the point.

Perfect competition, as a definition, is that all information is available to the largest possible catchment area.

The more people see the car, the higher the price it reaches.

I am planning to sell my CSI in the next few months, and I will almost certainly do so through them because I know that whatever amount it reaches, it would be very unlikely (not impossible) that through different channels I would get higher value. It is then up to me to decide whether to sell or not at that point.

Is success guaranteed? The question is: what is success? If I expect to sell my car for $ 200K and half the value is achieved, the problem probably lies in my unrealistic expectations.
 

craterface

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Bring a Trailer has lost its soul.

When it began here in San Francisco it was simply a site run by enthusiasts who posted interesting cars which were for sale by others. Loved it.

The move to auctioning cars began well. Just a few cars and the site creators crafted the write ups. Sucess brought hiring of perhaps enthusiastic (at first) but less informed staff and the initial quality eroded.

Now it is a large business. With an audience who is often as uninformed as the staff.

Yes they can achieve good financial results for sellers. But it is only through the the band width they have. And sucees is far from assured.

I have a few cars I want to sell. But not with them.
Like you, I have been following BaT since the beginning.

It has grown. For sure. But you can't blame Randy for moving on. I hope Howard got a piece of the action on the sale.

They basically invented the space, and everyone else is just a copycat.

I have bought a Mercedes 560SEC and an Alfa 164 on BaT. And I have sold a Giulia Sprint, a 997, a TR2, the 560 SEC, and my 2800CS. All the cars sold about 1-10 percent above my reserves (which were realistic), and all buyers performed. 4 of 5 sold sight unseen, and the buyers were happy.

I had fun with all the cars, and fun with the buying and selling experience.

There is no better place to sell a German car (Porsche especially, despite the existence of PCar Market) than BaT, IMO.

Where they fall short is on super niche-ey cars like a Hillman Imp with Body by Zagato, or similar.

And there are flaky buyers everywhere, including at high-end live auctions.

You should try them, but you have to tolerate the wait for it to go live, and tolerate the peanut gallery and the boilerplate format of the writeups.

You should give them a shot.
 

tferrer

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I would use them again. And like your experience no bidder ever contacted me with questions.
I sold a very modded long hood 911. Carbon roof, fenders, 3.6L etc ets.. I got 50k above my reserve of 120k and never got a single question from the buyer. Had a friend sell a Porsche 356 D for 250k. Never had a single email from anyone of the bidders. Crazy to me...
 

Lotuss7

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Not saying this wasn’t a great car. Presented well and fairly sold.

just saying I have seen other sales go sideways.

nice to have knowledgeable types commenting instead of nit pickers!!
 

sfdon

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I sold off a Ferrari collection for a client at auctions over several years.
Never met a single buyer until after the auction.
Not one question before bidding.
Go to an auction- the cars are lined up and seldom is the seller there.
 

HB Chris

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I see now that Marcello is trying to an e9 off of Facebook! Scammer.


Now he is issuing threats:

‘You need to quit I will find you and I will sue you for slandering trust me I will if you don’t quit I will find you So I backed off the auction I paid $5000 nothing came out of your pocket you need to stop now’
 
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adawil2002

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I see now that Marcello is trying to an e9 off of Facebook! Scammer.


Now he is issuing threats:

‘You need to quit I will find you and I will sue you for slandering trust me I will if you don’t quit I will find you So I backed off the auction I paid $5000 nothing came out of your pocket you need to stop now’

Yup, saw that.
 

teahead

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Odd that he's trying to unload a Malaga CSi (which looks pretty good), and bid on this beauty. Hmm...
 
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