Car auctions seem like a scam as most require you to pay upfront to get info on them. But are they a scam or are they actually worth it? On ebay alot of cars sell for well under blue book is it the same in car auctions? I would assume in car auctions (done in person) the costs would be even lower as there are fewer bidders.
BlueBook and BlackBook prices are based on prices at dealers. Private-owner to private-buyer prices have always been lower than that, whether it’s through want-ads or through a sign in the car’s window. Ebay and Cars.com are little more than a huge want-ad section. They deliver buyers to sellers for a fee.
My wife recently worked for a big (bricks-and-mortar) auto auction firm. Only dealers could buy, except for an occasional, open-to-the-public, RV sale. Buyers bid from all over the country, online, as the actual cars rolled through the actual lanes, while actual auctioneers pattered. All sellers paid a per-car fee, sold or not. About 40% of the cars got sold on a sale day. The agency also had a body shop, a detail shop, and a delivery service for sold cars. Massive amounts of money were borrowed and paid off every day. The lending banks required a daily update of the company’s cash flow to justify the loans.
Were they raking in huge profits and ripping off the customers? No. They were barely scraping by.