Anyone sell a vehicle through an auction?
 

I have a vehicle which I don't have the time to sell privately. My location makes it difficult as well because I'm not near a big city. So I am looking at possibly sending it to auction.

Anyone have experience with this?

The auction likely takes around 30%. Much better off to sell it by yourself or as in my case I just sold a truck today and it was my son that did the work for me. Good luck. Heck advertise it on here. You never know.

What are you selling ?

Nah, Check out Regal Auctions.

https://www.regalauctions.com/


Grizz

quick google search found that they take 10%

Im closer to edmonton, but I found similar auction sites.

I've done it through Regal Auctions in Calgary once. It's a hands-off way to sell a vehicle, but it'll cost you, as you'll be getting a lower sale price.

This is not as much due to the commission the auction house charges, as to the fact that the people who shop at public auctions for private consignment vehicles are usually (very) budget minded. This is understandable, given that they won't have a chance to drive the vehicle, and so are taking the risk of something cropping up post sale that could not have been detected by them though a visual inspection at the auction yard.

The auction companies such as Regal offer a warranty for major component failures, but that only covers so much.

Where selling a car like this makes sense is if it's an older, inexpensive vehicle that is in less than good repair, and the required repairs are not economical if done through a shop due to time required * shop labour rates (for example, many small issues like switchgear/instrument cluster problems that would require taking apart the dashboard, or something difficult to diagnose in the charging system, etc).

Also, keep in mind that potentially many people will be crawling through your vehicle during the inspection period, especially if it goes through the auction floor more than once (meaning, doesn't sell on the first go-round). There is a limit on the time and the number of sale attempts by the auction house, but you can reduce your price if you see no interest the first time or two.

take your vehicle to a few car dealers that buy cars for cash

they take pics and shop your car to wholesalers

sold a camaro for 44 and a corvette for 55 this spring, took all of an hour each time
easy leash and got within 3 grand total of what I wanted on private sales

took a week to get the cash when the wholesalers picked up the cars

There is a huge demand, especially for pickups and SUVs out of the states. There are a ton of guys buying vehicles to ship south so like Cement Bench said, contact a few wholesalers or go through a dealership like he did to get to the wholesalers but if you can go direct you save one shave off the sale price. If you want to try going direct ADESA is a good place to start to learn the ropes and their fee is only $750 on a $20,000 vehicle.

The auction route is also a viable auction if you are selling the right vehicle but it has to be a large auction house that has lots of U.S. buyers. The good ones charge 10% to the seller, no buyers premium so you would only want to do this if you are trying to reach a collectors market or high demand pickups etc.

Michner in either Calgary or Edmonton. They are quite a bit larger than Regal and have more buyers so your chance of a higher price is greater.

One more point, selling through ADESA you can set a min price and it only cost about $150 if it doesn't sell. With some auction houses they do not allow min pricing (No Reserves is the common term) and even some that do allow a Reserve charge very high no sale fees; so make sure you check that out before consigning a vehicle to an auction.

I had a 96 F-150 regular cab long box. Straight six, manual lock hubs, manual transmission and manual 4x4. A truck that would never leave you in the bush. It had 180,000 km on it. In 2005 I was working and had a company vehicle. (I had it in 2003 actually but the point of this story takes place in 2005) The truck had not moved in almost 2 years and yard rot was setting in. I cleaned it up, put in a new battery and attempted to sell it. Tons of tire kickers. I was asking $4000 and nobody would even offer me anything over $1000. Finally I got ****ed off and sent it to Richie Bros with a few pieces of iron my employer was selling. $4500, minus fees. A week later a cheque arrived in the mail for $50 more than I was asking ($4050) hoping to get realistically $3200-$3500.

Then within the month I quit/fired (still not sure which happened. The owner and I get along much better today than when I was working directly for him as now I work for him occasionally through my current employer since that day.) from that job and wish I had kept that truck. I still do.

What kind of vehicle is it ???

:confused:

I have sold at Michener , never again. Unless you are one of their contract suppliers of vehicles, they put zero time / effort into your sale. Your vehicle will go early or late in the sale as filler and you get nothing at those times. Last truck I took in, I took it in 3 weeks prior to the sale and was assured it would go through late morning/early afternoon blah blah blah . It ended up as the second truck through the sale and I got next to nothing.
If you are thinking auction , just knock 50% off what you think it's worth and sell it privately. It will go quick and you will do better than auction price without commission
Another option if you really don't want to deal with it is a consignment sale at a car dealership.At least you can set your price.

Michener has a commission as well as a sellers fee plus gst .

Donate vehicle Kidney car Foundation if worth a couple thousand. Receive a tax credit to be applied in spring.

Getting a tax receipt for $2000 is no where near the same thing as getting $2000 cash. No matter what your tax bracket that donation only nets you $950 tax credit in Alberta, less other places.