b'30 Recycling Industry MattersSold to the Highest Bidder. Maybe!By Marty Hollingshead it is very frustrating that after I have recently seen 4,500 par-L ets look at current practices inyou have been the high bidderticipants at one auction alone. Didnt place at the Salvage Auctions weat the auction, the vehicle is now onthis same, huge audience have the attend. Vehicles are put up forhold or sold on an if.opportunity to bid on and buy this vehi-auction on the sale date. Now, these auc- So, now you have two options. Youcle? So, you were the high bidder. Isnt it tions are live, online-only. You can, ofcan either try to buy another vehicle tofair to say that the market has spoken, course, preview these vehicles before themake sure that you get at least one ofand the vehicle has sold for what thesale, but you have a limited amount ofthem. Then you find out, usually themarket would bear at this time? time to do so. To date, one auction hasnext day, whether you got your callWith all of that being said, why not set up sale lines in quite some time,cars or not. The thing to remembershould you now have an auction after so to preview these vehicles you have tohere, for most of us, is that we have athe auction with you bidding yourself walk the yard and find them in their scat- budget to follow, as well as a need toup?tered locations. I believe that in the nearbuy certain vehicles to fill the holesThis makes no sense whatsoever for future, you will not even be able to doin our inventory. If I am high bidder onthe buyer. Personally speaking, I do not this.ten vehicles, nowadays, all ten can beup my bids on vehicles that I have So, lets look at who the buyers aresold on hold. This means that I couldwon that are placed on a pending sta-at salvage auctions. They are:either get all ten, or I could get none. So,tus. My bid is my bid! They can either 1. Exporterswhat happens to my plan and budgetaccept it, or they can rerun the vehicle.2. Rebuilders and High-Endnow? buyers We are our own worst enemies3. Scrap ProcessersSo, why do they have a counter-bid 5. Auto Recyclers If a vehicle is going toin the first place? They do it because be sold on reserve, itthey can and because we have enabled For this article, we will concentrateneeds to be announcedthem to do it, it works. Let me ask you on the Auto Recyclers and the type ofbefore the sale. this question: How many times have you cars that we all buy. These are, for thebought a vehicle and the Auc-most part, the non-rebuildable, late- tion/Insurance company told you, Your model, as well as higher-quality olderbid was a lot more than we expected, so vehicles. The issues that we all have areIf a vehicle is going to be sold onwe are going to give you some of your threefold. The first of which is the lim- reserve, it needs to be announced beforemoney back? As buyers, if we all ited disclosure of the sellers. With mostthe sale.This will give us the opportu- looked at this from a practical stand-vehicles being viewed online now, it isnity to bid on the same type of vehiclepoint, these if bids, or counter-bids critical that we know who the seller is. Isthat has no reserve. If this vehicle is soldwould go away. I do realize that for most it an Insurance Company, or a Dealer, oron an if, which means that we did notof us, the Insurance Salvage Auctions someone else? There has been some talkmeet the minimum, we should have theare the main source for our product, and about ghost bidding. The Auctionsoption as a buyer, to withdraw our highthey play a key role in supplying the would definitely not be a part of this, butbid. At this point, they can relist thisAutomotive Recycling Industry, as well some sellers would. The second issue isvehicle for a future sale and we can con- as the Insurance Industry. As they are the sale status, i.e. on reserve or notinue on with our bidding.important to us, we should be important reserve. The third, and most frustratingThe whole idea of having a counter- to them. Without our participation as the issue, is the if or counter-bid.bid is frustrating to me for thefollowingbuyers of the parts cars, they will real-When you are looking for a particu- reasons: These online auctions now haveize less in returns. lar piece of salvage to either restocka very high level of participation. ThereSo, what are the solutions to these your inventory or cover a sale,is a hugeaudience at any given auction.problems?'