RE: [Chrysler300] Tom Turners Terra Cotta F coupe for sale

I’m not quite sure what you mean by scammers. Do you mean shell bidders? I think there is the possibility that shell bidding could occur. I have never bid on a car, but as I understand it, you have to sign up and give them a valid credit card. If the car reaches its reserve and thus is sold, again as I understand it, the card is immediately charged the 5% buyers premium. If it is not sold, of course no premium is charged. I think there is always the possibility of non-paying bidders, although I assume their credit card would be charged the buyers premium, and I’m sure they would be excluded from future auctions. And I guess there could be shell bidders, but from the seller's perspective, if a shell bidder didn’t result in another higher bid from a legitimate bidder, he would lose the sale.

One interesting, and perhaps controversial, feature of BAT is the fact that people can and do in some cases trash talk cars. The philosophy of the site is to let complete and open discussion, often based simply on opinions, occur. I remember a case in which a customized Corvette, which was very unusual looking, probably received about 50 comments on how stone cold ugly the car was. Obviously, that’s not good for the seller in terms of reaching his desired price, but it is allowed. I remember another particularly vitriolic discussion when the seller was insisting that a Sunbeam Tiger was actually a factory built Tiger, versus a converted Alpine. Some commenters insisted that it was not a real Tiger, even though the seller offered some evidence that it was. There was a lot of debate about the quality of the evidence provided, including challenging the opinion of two members of the local Tiger club, who inspected the car in person, and concluded it was in fact a real Tiger. But the people challenging that opinion decried their qualifications to make the judgment, and insisted unless it had gone through a special inspection by certified Tiger experts, it could not be considered a real Tiger. I would assume that discussion had some negative impact on the ultimate price of the car, but it did meet its reserve and was sold. Basically, when listing on BaT, you accept the possibility that there might be some strong negative opinions expressed about your car.

In some cases, the BaT moderators will delete comments that are particularly rude or offensive, but they allow quite a bit of latitude for people to express their opinions. And as I mentioned before, often times the opinions aren’t even about the car itself, but might relate to the marque or some other general type comment. In many cases, someone will point out that a certain supposedly factory option wasn’t available that year or challenge some claim the seller is making. The site sort of has a “culture,“ in which it is acceptable to offer opinions about originality, condition or other factors related to the car's value. The sellers on BaT simply accept that as part of the process.

BaT in my opinion, however, is known for running very honest auctions, often with 50 to 100 pictures of the car being sold, as well as walk around videos, running videos, etc. The seller doesn’t even write the description; the BaT staff writes the description based on input from the seller. There are some sellers, mostly dealers, who have sold 10 or more cars on BaT, and of course there are lots of individual buyers, but there are also people who have bought multiple cars. In general, it appears to be a very honest and acceptable mechanism for selling cars.

After writing all of this, I realize I am straying a bit from the requirement on this forum that the information be pertinent to our letter cars. I apologize, but I wanted anyone who might be considering following the auction of the F currently on the site and perhaps bidding on it to gain a clear understanding of how it all works. Incidentally, there have been about 50 comments regarding this car, and letter cars in general, almost all of them positive. One sharp observer noted that a picture of the clock was not correct for the car, and that picture was promptly removed. As I write this, the bid is at $29,000, with about 4 1/2 hours to go. As I mentioned, however, most of the bidding seems to occur in the last few minutes.

Shannon

300F convertible

"Kindness to animals may be the best measure of a person's character."

On Oct 30, 2019, at 11:21 PM, 'Ron Waters' ronbo97@xxxxxxxxxxx [Chrysler300] <Chrysler300-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

So what kind of protections are in place to guard against scammers ? Also, if someone 'trash talks' the car being auctioned, or the seller, how does BaT remediate that ?

Ron

From: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of labloverdc LabLoverDC@xxxxxxx [Chrysler300]
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2019 7:29 PM
To: Allan Klotz
Cc: finsruskw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Club
Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] Tom Turners Terra Cotta F coupe for sale

I have been following Bring a Trailer auctions for some time now. There is no "buy it now" feature; you have to wait until the auction ends.. Unlike eBay, there is also no sniping. Any bid within the last two minutes of the auction will reset the clock. So if a bid is $20,000, for instance, with a minute and 30 seconds to go, someone could bid $21,000, and from the time they bid there would be two minutes more for someone to bid. That process continues until no more bids are placed within two minutes. Some auctions get extended five, 10, or even 20 minutes. Then, either the car is sold, if it reached its reserve, or the auction is closed, and it is noted that the car did not meet its reserve. During the auction, no one other than the seller (and BaT staff) knows what the reserve is, so they don’t know when it has been met. The only exception to that is that some auctions are listed as no reserve auctions from the very beginning. Obviously, in that case, the car is sold to the highest better. If the reserve is not met, the seller is given the high bidder‘s contact information, and they are invited to work out a private deal. No private deals before the auction ends are allowed.

There is a fee to the seller to list your car, and I believe a 5% buyers premium is charged with a maximum of $5000. Normally, cars are only listed once, but in fairly rare circumstances, they may be relisted a second time, usually at a much later date.

Extensive and open dialogue among people watching the auctions is encouraged. In some cases, the comments are very positive, and in others, they can be very negative. In some cases, valuable insights are provided to people who may not be completely familiar with the marque. For example, 300 club members could contribute a wealth of knowledge via the comments section, especially with regard to just how rare, valuable, and interesting letter cars are. In many cases, the comments don’t pertain specifically to the car in question, but relate to the marque in general.

Most of the heavy bidding seems to come in the last 5 to 10 minutes of the auction. It can be very exciting to watch, and I thoroughly enjoy perusing the website. You can look up information on almost any car, view prior auctions, and the comments can be quite illuminating. I think it’s well worth a look for car aficionados.

Hope that helps.

Shannon Steele

300F convertible

"Kindness to animals may be the best measure of a person's character."

On Oct 30, 2019, at 4:06 PM, 'Allan Klotz' allan.klotz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [Chrysler300] <Chrysler300-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi

Does anyone know if it is possible to buy the car directly before the auction ends and what the buy it now price is?

I am also looking for a cheap 1960 Windsor in the East coast area. I need the body parts for renovation of my other cars, so this must be useable and it must be able to drive onto a transporter and later into a container.

Thank you very much for any information you can give me.

Thanks

Allan

From: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of finsruskw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [Chrysler300]
Sent: 28. oktober 2019 23:24
To: chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Club
Subject: [Chrysler300] Tom Turners Terra Cotta F coupe for sale

On bring a trailer.com

Auction ends on the 31^st

Current bid is $16,500

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1960-chrysler-300f/