The Daily Vroom

Good morning Vroomers,

First of all, huge thanks to everyone who reached out yesterday regarding the launch of the TDV Domestic Shipping Calculator. The launch itself didn’t exactly go to plan after the website decided to crash for two hours first thing in the morning, but thankfully everything is now running smoothly again.

And honestly, seeing the reaction confirmed exactly why we wanted to build this in the first place.

As a reminder, if you want a shipping quote, you can now get one instantly without giving away your email, phone number, or life story beforehand. One quote or one hundred quotes, completely free. And if you do decide to book, we’ve made that process incredibly straightforward too.

YESTERDAY’S TOP 3 SALES

Want to dive deeper into any of these listings? Just click on the car to take you directly to the listing.

Also have to mention the 1959 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster below because supposedly the car had covered well over 300,000 miles over its lifetime, which makes the result even more impressive. Just another reminder that great photos, strong documentation, and proper listing management can make a material difference to bring a big price.

But honestly, one of my favorite parts of the sale was seeing the winning bidder who had his first purchase on the platform. It never ceases to amaze me how many serious car people still don’t fully know some of these online auction platforms, so it’s always refreshing seeing someone jump in for the first time and do it with a purchase like that.

Why The Velocity Collection Matters for Cars & Bids

A few weeks back we talked about the next major challenge facing Cars & Bids. Increasing listings is great. Increasing daily sales is great too, and to their credit they’ve clearly done both. Cars & Bids is now regularly running north of 50 live auctions a day, which is a huge number when you stop and think about how quickly the platform has scaled.

But eventually just adding more cars only gets you so far. If you want a real jump in revenue, especially when private equity is involved, the bigger lever is not simply more sales. It’s higher-value sales. That’s what makes this new Velocity Collection so interesting because on the surface it looks like a cool enthusiast event partnership, but underneath it feels like one of the clearest signs yet that Cars & Bids is actively trying to move further upmarket.

And not quietly either. Just look at the cars. Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ1, Ferrari F50. Ferrari 430 Scuderia, Porsche 911 Speedster, Porsche Carrera RS America, Lamborghini Huracán Performante, Lancia Delta Integrale 16V, Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec, A Lola T212, and even a Formula One car.

Suddenly Cars & Bids does not just look like the internet auction site for modified Audis and clean E46 M3s anymore. The perception starts shifting, and perception matters enormously in this business.

Because the reality is Cars & Bids has already proven it can do volume. The next question is whether it can consistently sell expensive cars.

That is the entire game. Cars & Bids caps its buyer fee at $7,500, which means once a car crosses a certain threshold ($150k) the platform has already maxed out the commission on that sale. So yes, selling more cars matters, but selling more expensive cars matters a whole lot more.

Last week, just over 6% of Cars & Bids sales crossed six figures. That’s not criticism by the way. It’s completely understandable given where the platform started and the audience it built. But if that number moves from roughly 6% to 15% or even 20% over time, the economics of the business start looking very different very quickly.

That’s why this Velocity Collection matters. At least 12 out of the 17 cars here could plausibly be six-figure sales. Some already are. A few could go significantly further than that. If Cars & Bids can show sellers that this was not just a one-off experiment but a repeatable way to sell higher-end inventory, it changes the perception of the platform entirely.

Because the question high-end sellers ask is not simply “does this site get traffic?” Cars & Bids already has traffic. The real question is whether the right buyers are actually in the room.

A $40,000 enthusiast car can sell on energy, presentation, comments, and momentum. A $400,000 or $1 million car requires something else entirely. Confidence. Provenance. Documentation. Trust. The belief that serious bidders are paying attention.

Velocity helps Cars & Bids make that argument. It places the platform in a physical environment surrounded by exactly the type of audience it wants more of. Collectors. Owners. People who understand the difference between a cool car and an important car. This is not just digital inventory sitting on a website anymore. It’s Cars & Bids trying to attach itself to a more premium collector ecosystem, and none of that comes cheap.

Because this partnership goes far beyond sticking a logo on a banner somewhere.

Cars & Bids now has physical auction integration, live auction endings at the event, display inventory, branded Velocity Collection marketing, content production, staff on site, consignor acquisition, hybrid online and offline bidding, and all the logistics that come with trying to merge an internet auction platform with a major live enthusiast event.

Velocity obviously benefits too because Cars & Bids brings eyeballs, inventory, digital reach, and energy to the weekend, but if we’re being honest Cars & Bids probably needs this partnership a little more right now than Velocity does.

Velocity already has the atmosphere. The lifestyle angle. The motorsport credibility. Cars & Bids is borrowing some of that credibility and trying to convert it into a new seller story.

And strategically, I actually think it’s a smart move. Most of these cars are actually being represented by the owners themselves rather than simply handed over by dealers, which is important because it shows Cars & Bids is trying to prove an individual seller can launch a genuinely high-end sale with the right support around them.

Cars & Bids is clearly investing heavily in process. More support for sellers. More content. Better partnerships. More hand-holding around expensive inventory. That is exactly what they have to do if they want to win this next phase because the higher you go in the market, the less a listing can rely on vibes alone.

Which brings us to the Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ1. This may quietly be one of the most important auctions Cars & Bids has ever run.

Not necessarily because it could become the highest sale in platform history, but because of what the car represents psychologically. A TZ1 is not a normal internet auction car. One of 117 built. Zagato body. Tubular chassis. Genuine European racing history. This is the kind of car you expect to see at RM Sotheby’s, Gooding Christie’s, or Broad Arrow, not sitting on Cars & Bids next to modern enthusiast metal.

And that’s exactly why it’s fascinating. If this car performs well, it gives Cars & Bids a trophy-case example. A proof point. Something they can point toward when talking to future sellers of serious cars. But it also immediately shows the different level of scrutiny that comes with operating in this territory because unlike a normal enthusiast listing where great photos and seller engagement can carry an auction, provenance becomes enormously important once you move into six and seven-figure territory.

The listing notes that the tubular chassis and engine were replaced under prior ownership while the original chassis and engine are included with the sale. Naturally, that has already sparked debate among serious Alfa enthusiasts in the comments, with questions surrounding documentation, certification, and historical verification. But with over 10 days still remaining in the auction, and the seller being the Petersen Automotive Museum, there is obviously still plenty of time for additional detail and clarification to emerge around the car.

And despite the early back-and-forth, bidding strength across the entire Velocity Collection has already been impressive. That’s really the bigger point here.

Cars & Bids is stepping into a part of the market where the expectations are completely different. Bigger cars bring bigger attention, but they also bring bigger scrutiny, more knowledgeable buyers, and far higher standards around presentation and documentation.

That does not mean Cars & Bids shouldn’t be taking swings like this. Honestly, I think it makes the platform far more interesting. But it does mean the company now has to prove it can successfully bridge two very different worlds at once: the speed and energy of internet-native auctions, and the seriousness expected in the blue-chip collector market.

Bring a Trailer already crossed this bridge years ago. At one point a million-dollar car on BaT felt almost shocking. Today nobody even blinks (just lookabove this article at the top sale yesterday). That shift didn’t happen overnight. It happened because over time the market slowly became convinced the buyers were there and the platform could handle serious inventory consistently.

Cars & Bids is now trying to build its own version of that credibility.

Velocity is a very smart place to attempt it because the event creates the right theater. The collection looks strong. The cars get physical presence. The content gives them visibility. The live auction endings create drama. And the inventory mix tells sellers that Cars & Bids wants to be considered for more than just traditional enthusiast internet-auction fare.

Ultimately, this whole Velocity Collection feels less like a one-off event partnership and more like Cars & Bids testing how far upmarket it can realistically push the platform.

Because if these cars perform well, the message to future sellers becomes very simple:

“Maybe our million-dollar car belongs here too.”

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