See my take on these sales below.

Yesterday we saw the lowest number of sales for a very long time. Just over $5.7m worth of vehicles were sold. Some of that was down to BaT having under 100 vehicles for sale! (they sold ‘just’ 68)

Talk of the town yesterday was this 1977 Lamborghini Countach LP400 Periscopio auction. What a spectacle! The car is a beautifully restored piece of automotive history with a rock 'n' roll past thanks to Rod Stewart. But it didn't come without its controversies. We're talking right-hand to left-hand drive conversion, adding and then removing a targa top – quite the journey.

The final sale price? $714,444. There aren’t any comparable data points in online auctions, so I’m not sure why some people thought this was a $1m car.

The modifications? Some folks couldn't get past them, thinking it hurt the car’s value. But others saw the celebrity ownership as a unique touch that added flair and a story worth paying for.

Another interesting tidbit, was that ‘renowned’ seller 1600veloce was bidding right until the end & ironically said he waited too long on the bid button!

The buyer OSGALLERY now has quite the collection of red cars, all bought in the last 6 weeks!!

For those of you keeping up, BaT rolled out a new feature on the 10th called 'Make a Final Offer' for RNM auctions. Many have rightly noted that nearly all other sites have been doing this for a while. The difference is, BaT needed to implement the necessary infrastructure to manage it effectively, given the sheer volume of auctions they handle. This explains why they only launched this after the verified checkout system was in place.

They haven’t exactly made it easy to track which auctions actually used this feature. It’ll just show as sold with no handy filter for ‘after auction’ sales. Selfishly, I think an extra tab labeled 'sold after' would be a game-changer, not just for me but for everyone trying to keep tabs on what it took to seal the deal for specific models. Just my two cents.

That being said, I’ve found a little workaround to track some of these. This does have a negligible effect on my reporting since one day it can show 'bid to' and the next day it shows as 'sold'. However, daily number reporting for BaT will continue to be accurate for that day. Anyway, let’s get down to what’s actually happening.

The first ever auction to have an offer accepted after the auction (within the BaT portal) was a 1967 Ford Galaxie 500 Convertible that sold for $22,500. The final bid was $20,000, so it took an extra 12.5% to get the deal done. Eventually, I’d like to share with you the percentage increases it takes to get a deal done, and then we can get more granular comparing different models/makes.

The largest difference I’ve seen so far has been for a 1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 S Cabriolet A (pictured above) that ended at $310,000 and was sold for $395,000. That's an $85k difference, which is a 27.4% price increase on the last bid.

In just one day, with this 'little' tweak, BaT has boosted their bottom line by five figures. As the word spreads (still don’t understand why they aren’t writing on every single RNM about the new process??), there will come a time when this could easily translate into a six-figure daily revenue bump. That works out to quite a bit of extra income per year. Kudos to BaT, it was an inevitable enhancement.

Sellers Feedback

After speaking to a few sellers, they’re very happy with this additional way to sell their cars. I’m also getting some mixed feedback on how this could work out long-term.

One school of thought is that this will push sellers to set higher reserves, as this new feature gives them leeway to negotiate a deal after the auction if it doesn’t hit that higher number.

The other school of thought is that sellers who might have considered listing their cars in a no-reserve auction may now opt for a reserve auction instead. This new feature gives them the added benefit of potentially negotiating a deal even if the auction doesn't meet the reserve. This added layer of security can make sellers more comfortable with setting a reserve, knowing they still have a chance to sell post-auction.

Off Platform

I still think there are going to be users who take this off the platform, trying to avoid paying the fees, mainly with sellers who are well-known or have handles that can easily be traced to their Instagram or shop name.

They can contact them offline and make offers that way. Even if the seller doesn’t necessarily want to do this, if the top bidder says they’ll only pay a certain amount off the platform (which might even be more than they’d offer through the portal, as they have a 5% fee to play with), the seller would either have to accept (if it’s within their selling price range) or lose the potential sale. Don’t forget, many bidders often speak to sellers during the auction period by finding their details online.

Another scenario that happens quite a bit is the seller getting multiple offers post-auction (again, off the platform) and then playing those against the highest bidder, which I’ve seen happen with this 2008 Jaguar XKR Convertible.

So to summarize, yes there are always going to be people who try to take it off platform. This new feature will look to lessen that, so that is big plus for BaT.

I also wonder if the format of the bidder making the first bid is the right way to go?

Just thinking aloud here as I write this. If the seller has the right to the first email offer and says hey you bid $50,000 and I was looking for $60,000. How does $55k sound?

The bidder can then go back with some knowledge of what the seller is looking for, rather than going in blind with just one offer where the seller can say yeh or nay. It seems to me to make more sense?

Anyways at the moment it’s working for BaT and also both the buyers and sellers, so good for everyone.