A new way to sell some old classics
First of two parts
“When I was little, I used to love to read the classified car ads in Autoweek,” says Randy Nonnenberg, the Bring a Trailer cofounder and chief executive, his blue eyes flashing at the memory. “I’d even cut some of them out and pin them to my wall.”
Recently, I visited Nonnenberg, a bona fide car nut and engineer, and his team of 18 in their openplan offices in San Francisco. The company’s formula is auctioning collectible cars online in real time, 50-plus a day, five days a week.
The daily lineup, honed by Howard Swig, head of auctions, and his team, never fails to find the delicate balance among variety, rarity and nostalgia. Cars with clean histories, fanboy followings and delectable stories rise to the top. “We look at each submission from a buyer’s perspective: What important model-specific details would a prospective bidder need to see about a specific vehicle to make an educated decision to buy?” says Swig. “We also want to list cars (and trucks and motorcycles) across a spectrum of condition and price. Every day it’s a choice between quality and quantity.”
Until now, if you wanted to buy a Chevy Corvair, say, or a Datsun 240Z or a mint-condition, aircooled Porsche 911, you’d go to eBay Motors, Craigslist, Hemmings, dealer sites or the live auction houses — from Russo and Steele and Barrett-Jackson to higher-end concerns like RM Sotheby’s. The collective online offerings are vast but leave the average buyer needing to go elsewhere to research. Live auctions allow buyers to get up close to the cars, but the sales events happen only a few times a year, so it’s hit or miss, depending on what you’re looking for. They also tend to be more expensive — for buyer and seller.
Bring a Trailer stepped into the online auction space in 2014 with three auctions a week ( it now offers 275). The startup has disrupted a crowded space with a solution no one thought they needed — and that others want to copy.
Swig gives the nod to only 4050% of vehicles submitted. Once a car passes muster, the seller is assigned a specialist/writer who captures all available information about a vehicle and tracks the sale once it’s live, jumping in to answer questions over the auction’s seven days.
Moreover, BaT is a living repository for all information it’s ever posted about a car. You can see the prices the vehicle has commanded in past BaT sales.
BaT’s audience of 130,000 registered bidders and 195,000 newsletter subscribers is neither random nor unintelligent about the cars for sale. They are seasoned owners, buyers, dealers, mechanics and loyalists who have come to realize that BaT is a site of such authenticity, transparency and well, geeky attention to detail that they will take their time to weigh in and ensure the record is straight.
A recent example: The suspension on an early BMW M3 caught the attention of more than a few Bimmer-philes, who questioned whether the components were stock. Dozens of experts and former and current owners posed questions, teased out answers and created the human equivalent of a Carfax report — but better. “We recently listed a 1997 Acura Integra Type R with 6,000 original miles and got over 700 comments,” Nonnenberg says.
Among BaT’s fans are automotive heavy-hitters. “The thing I like about Bring a Trailer is that it’s not extremely high end, it’s just cars of interest,” says car collector and former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno. “I bought my 1963 Ford Falcon Sprint through them, and it saved me time. What makes it fun are finding cars with stories and without creepy people coming to your house.”
Other automotive insiders agree. “The world perceives that Bring a Trailer is not greedy; they are one of us,” says Keith Martin, founder of Sports Car Market. “They are enthusiasts at heart and that makes everyone happy.”
McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty, a provider of classic-car insurance, agrees. “I give the Bring a Trailer team full credit. They are the best, safest transaction platform that we have today. Their community values truth, and that’s reflected in the prices.”
Sellers on BaT pay $99 for an approved listing, which includes guidelines on required photos and vehicle history, the written listing and live comment tracking for the auction’s duration. For $349, BaT will send a professional photographer to capture your car’s best angles. And recently BaT launched a white-glove listing service, typically for six-figure-plus vehicles.
On the buyer’s side, BaT charges 5% of the sale price, capped at $5,000. BaT’s sellthrough rate is 76%, and the average price is $30,000.
“We typically don’t relist cars that didn’t sell, but we do introduce the seller to the highest bidder,” says Nonnenberg. “And we don’t take any additional fees if they reach a deal.”