Have you been to a public car auction before? If your answer is 'yes', chances are that the next time you go to one, you will worry more about things like 'How will I get the paperwork done?', 'What if I do not get a vehicle up to my bid?' 'What if the car is just not good enough to be sold / used further?' 'What if…?'
What if you read along further and get rid of these worries?
Public car auctions, which include local auctions, repo auctions, police auctions, seized car auctions and online auctions are conducted with one of the two purposes: to make profits by getting bids, which is better than negotiations with car dealers and secondly, to plug losses to organizations that have to keep seized vehicles under their control and maintain them, which is a costly and effort-taking job.
Whatever be the reasons, you as a bidder are going to get profits out of this, if and only if you are careful enough or maybe just lucky.
Identifying your need and want
As a prospective bidder, you must be well informed of the things that you want and what you need. Be sure to judge between wants and needs. You may want a car for selling it and make gains, but you might also need one to drive yourself. You must be aware of the date of auction beforehand, so that you can use the time to your advantage by checking on the cars, gaining information about their costs and accordingly arrange the required amount of ready cash.
Reaching the venue in time
Reaching a public car auction venue in time may not seem important, but the fact (which every experienced bidder knows and exercises) is that just being on time can help you to optimize your bidding approach in the auction. You must take a mechanic with you so that you are able to know the cars to bid on and the ones to simply turn your face away. This enables you to maximize your profits and reduce the risk of getting hooked up with unmaintained cars.
Checking the details through VIN#
Always check the VIN# of the vehicles. This point is to be specially taken care of in police auctions, where most of the vehicles are stolen ones and you never know what you may be heading into. You may also like to take a look at the history of the vehicles that you intend to buy.
While you check on a car up-close, you must accept it is a second hand machine and may have undergone some wear and tear in the hands of the previous owner. As a result, you may have to get it repaired. You should assure that the repairing cost might not eventually make the car expensive to you.
No one wins a bidding war
You must be careful not to bid too much or to get into bidding wars and lose your money. This is why, you must maintain your calm at all times during an auction.
So, what are you waiting for? Just go, lay your hands on the next public car auctions and take care of the risks for getting a lucrative deal in your favorite car!
