The Daily Vroom

YESTERDAY’S TOP 5 SALES

Want to dive deeper into any of these listings?

Just click on the car to take you directly to the listing.

The Quiet Erosion of Pure Auctions

I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately.

Over the last few years you can feel the auction platforms starting to bend just a little. Not in some dramatic headline way. Just quietly. Sealed bids. Post-RNM offer windows. “Marketplace listings” Little things that tell you the pure auction model isn’t quite as pure as it once was. (and of course platforms mature, they don’t and shouldn’t sit still).

And honestly, that makes sense. We all know what used to happen. Car misses reserve by x amount. Seller and high bidder already have each other’s details. (buyers are very resourceful) Deal gets done anyway. Platform gets nothing. So BaT adding the post-RNM offer window wasn’t some ideological shift. It was plugging a hole. They were tired of watching revenue leak out the side. (it still does leak quite a bit, but like shill bidding, there’s only so much a platform can do!)

But here’s 2 cents. BaT is never becoming a classifieds marketplace. I just don’t see it. Their whole identity is built around the stage, the clock. the comment section. The idea that when something lists there, it means something. The second they add a permanent “make an offer” section next to auctions, that changes the feel of the place. And they know that.

Cars & Bids is more interesting. They’ve always hustled deals behind the scenes. If a reserve doesn’t hit, they work it. That’s been part of the DNA. Now as we’ve discussed over the last few days about PE, they don’t care about romance. They care about growth and then more growth.

So if there’s even a sniff of real incremental revenue from adding a proper marketplace tab, you know that conversation is happening. Doug might care about brand, but at the end of the day he’s ‘just’ a W2 employee now. If the board sees upside, they’ll explore it.

But it’s not as simple as “add fixed price, smooth revenue.”

Look at Hemmings. More than 95% of what’s on there is make-an-offer. Auctions are a small slice. You could argue they’d actually benefit from leaning harder into auctions to create more energy.

And that’s really the tension. Do you want energy or do you want volume?

Auctions create moments, they create attention, they create price discovery. But they’re volatile. Some weeks are hot. Some weeks aren’t.

Fixed price is calmer. More controlled. But you don’t get the same buzz. You don’t get the same public validation. And there’s no guarantee those listings convert either. You can add inventory all day and still not increase transactions. There’s also inventory overload, trying to find that ‘dream’ car is not easy to say the least!

I’ve bought both ways. Sometimes I want to see where the market actually lands and I’m happy to let it run. Other times I’ve already decided and I don’t feel like rolling the dice just to say I “won.” I just want to buy the car and move on.

So it’s not auction versus classifieds. It’s what kind of platform do you want to be?

Do you want to be the stage where cars perform? Or do you want to be the mall where everything is available all the time?

Maybe hybrid works for some, not for all. Maybe most platforms drift there because growth pressure pushes them. But once you change the feel of a site, it’s very hard to change it back.

And that’s what I think we’re really watching play out right now.

Would love to know what you think.

Enjoying The Daily Vroom?

Pay it forward by sharing this newsletter with an automotive aficionado in your circles. Your endorsement allows us to accelerate our growth.