#20: What to Look for at Car Auctions

So, if you hadn't gone and looked at the car and got your hands on it, right, and actually

looked at it in person, and you just bit on it, you might've got caught up in the moment

and spent 90 or 100 grand on this thing, right, and just not even bat an eyelash, then you

get it home, and you've got the dreaded, horrible buyer's remorse.

Life plus cars community, welcome back to another episode.

We are excited to bring to you a new topic, and it is timely because Brendan is heading

to Carlisle, Pennsylvania for the infamous fall car show, swap meet, and auction.

And so, as part of that, we thought we'd take some time this week to talk about Brendan's

experience with buying a car at an auction, what to look for, what to expect, and also

as part of this episode, we'll talk about experience listing a car for sale at an auction.

That's Brendan has experience, and I even have some experience working for a car auction

company that we're going to talk about in a little bit.

So Brendan, you must be getting excited because you're just days away from heading

back to Carlisle, which is where we actually first connected about this whole crazy car

thing, isn't it?

Yes.

Oh my gosh.

Ian, so exciting.

I have no idea.

This whole thing, we're going to be there from October 1st to the 5th, and they're going

to have their auction, their fall Carlisle auction, planning on checking out some cars,

hoping to bid on them, see if we can't buy a couple for resale, and there's even a

couple in there that the Bailey family was thinking of making a keeper, adding to the

family.

As my dad always put it, once we think about a name, that usually means their family.

Yep.

Then it's going to stick around.

There's a bunch of cars going through that we are interested in, and not only the auction

in Carlisle, but we're also really thrilled about being there for the swap meet because

there's parts you can get for any car you could ever imagine.

I mean, you have people come out of every state nationwide that bring random stuff from

a unique air intake only available out of the country for a 66 Ford Mustang to someone

that has a hubcap for a 1948 Willys or, I mean, you just list goes on for just amazing stuff

you can find.

Like for me, always on the list is an original set of 14-inch Rally 1 wheels for my 66 GTO

because it did not come with those.

So I'd love to have a set of the Rally 1 wheels, so I'm always on the lookout for

a nice set of those.

So maybe I'll find some.

Maybe.

Yeah, again, as we talked about in episode three, finding your car community, how much

I mean, just I was lured by that the fairgrounds there and just the endless row after row of

cars and car parts and car stuff and car people.

Yes, a very last minute decision by the family to go and we got my brother to go and my dad

and I and it should be good.

We're excited.

I'll take plenty of pictures.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, in my honor there.

Yes.

I'll make sure to take at least 50 within the first 10 feet.

Right.

All of the same Mustang.

Yes.

I mean, different angle of all of it.

Yes.

But no, I mean, to what you were saying earlier about our introduction Ian, like this episode

is about auctions plus cars.

I haven't sold many cars through an auction.

Usually I sell them more either word of mouth or locally advertised, but I have

bought a few.

My dad and I bought a few from Mekam actually over the years and I don't know if the listener

would recall, but that's actually one of the stories from talking about Ruby, the 67

Impala is we bought that on the airplane at 30,000 feet, you know, on our our phone,

but we did look at it in person.

So yes, incredible story there.

Episode six, I believe they're.

Yes.

Talk about that story.

Yep.

And then a year later, we bought a couple other cars out of Mekam auctions in Texas, a 1970

C-10 Chevy, which we now have in the family stable named affectionately Winston.

So I know that for me, like going into an auction, I mean, I'm speaking particularly

to the listener who may not have any idea what it would even, where would you even

begin as far as looking at a car at an auction, what that and what that entails.

Actually, the first thing it's like buying any car, right?

Yeah.

Where your first step is to decide like, what is it that you want for a car?

When I look at cars for sealed auction, like I have, as the listener should know, like

I have a running bucket list of cars that I want to own in my lifetime, right?

Like add to the stable.

And so I'm always looking for those cars, but then at the same time, because I do

try to buy and sell and flip cars and make a little extra cash on the side, I'm

always thinking about what could I buy that would actually be something that

someone would desire, right?

Like what can I buy that I could resell pretty easily?

This auction car is a great example of that, is they have quite the plethora

of cars going through this auction.

You know, jumping right into that, like what you're saying is you need

to narrow it down to what you're looking for.

So like if you want to collect your car, right?

You need to think about what do I really like?

What look do I like?

And what am I going to use it for?

Like are you talking about buying a collector car that you're just going

to drive like once a month and it just sits in your garage because you just

love looking at it?

Or are you going to buy one that you're like, I'm driving to work every

day during the week in this car, right?

Like these are the things you got to ask yourself.

And there's a lot of factors coming to play with that.

So once you narrow it down, then you can start looking.

So like one of my bucket list cars is like, I would like like a 1968 Cadillac

Deville convertible because 68 was last year.

They had stacked headlights.

69, they went horizontal on the Deville convertibles and I don't like

the look of the horizontal.

Like I like the vertical.

I think that just looks so much better.

So like this auction in Carlyle has a 67 Deville convertible that's

like a verified two owner, low miles.

Like it's not perfect, but it's nice.

And it's like that for me, I'm like, okay, like it's got the look.

It's got some pedigree to it.

You know, like maybe it needs a little bit of work, but it's also a car

that I could probably buy it for the right price.

And then I could drive it consistently without worrying about it.

Like it's not perfect, right?

Like it was perfect.

I might drive it once a month or even less than that and just try

not to put too many miles on it.

For me buying a car like that, you want something you can drive and enjoy.

But not too rough to the point where you got to put a lot of work into it.

That's one of the episodes.

Yeah, one of the more recent episodes we've done, we've talked about like

fixing it up versus letting it go.

It's like, I can tell you right now, listener, based on my experience.

And I'm sure many other people's experience, it is way better to spend

the money upfront for a nice driving car than it is to buy one

for like two or five grand and then be like, oh, we'll fix it up and drive it.

No, no, spend 30, spend 40 and then just drive it every day.

Like don't be buying one that it's a project because man, can that just, oh.

Oh, it just gets out of, yeah, out of control, what you have to put into it.

And then it just sits and there's so much value in just, yeah, as I know,

with the Mustang and just buying one that is sorted and get in and drive.

Exactly, exactly, which is part of the reason why I pushed you so much

to buy it because it's like it's already been gone through.

Like you can just drive it minimal maintenance, right?

Like it doesn't need to have rust repair.

It doesn't need all this other crap.

That's a that's a big deal.

But I mean, for someone looking at buying a car at an auction,

like, yeah, you've got to narrow it down.

So like for me, right, it's like there's that one side,

which is like adding to my list of cars that I like.

But then the other side of it is looking at cars that I think I could sell.

Well, for example, this auction has like a three

quarter ton suburban going through a couple different iterations,

like the late 90s and then early 2000s.

And then they've got like older.

There's an older Ford pickup, like an F 250 of 1972 flavor.

And it's like that I could sell that easily because there's a demand

where I am in New England for like people love old pickups and old SUVs.

Yep. So I look at that and I go, OK, if I can get that for the right price,

that's something that I could resell pretty easily

because there's a demand for a four wheel drive, you know, big old pickup or SUV.

So that's just really the biggest thing is just narrowing down like what you want.

But I also I have to do like a little sidebar on that, you know,

a little asterisk right on the side of that, which is my dad

and I talk about it constantly is we have like a running list of,

you know, bucket list, quote unquote cars.

But every once in a while, there will be one that pops up that you're like,

oh, we should buy that like in the perfect example is Bumpa.

We haven't talked too much about Bumpa over the podcast episodes,

but that was a 1984 Mercedes 300 S D diesel.

So my gosh, I honestly, I had forgotten about Bumpa.

Oh, yeah, you drove Bumpa.

I sure did.

It took me a beat to just say, wait a minute,

like this is the first time Bumpa has come up on the podcast here.

Yes. So that car is not a car that either my dad or I would

had any interest in buying or even had on our radar.

But it just so happened to be that the owner of a local restaurant,

he approached my dad and I while we were having dinner in his restaurant.

He was like, Hey, I want to sell this Mercedes.

And like, I know you guys love cars and like you'll take care of it

and blah, blah, blah and all that.

So we were just like, yeah, like we don't like it's not a car we're interested.

And then we looked at it and we were like, it's been in one family

since brand new, like, you know, what the heck.

So we bought it and it's actually like it was a pretty unique car.

It was fun learning about it.

Not a car that we necessarily would have ever purchased normally.

Right. But the fact that it had this story behind it,

that it was a well kept car, that it was a unique car.

And I mean, like for me, like learning about those 80s Mercedes diesels,

like those cars are amazing.

Like they'll go for 500,000 miles.

Yes. Crazy. It's crazy.

Yeah. And just to explore that's another whole part of the car world,

both the engine, how it runs, the whole community around those classic

Mercedes is huge.

And so now it's a whole other side of the car community that you were able

to experience by complete surprise and then leaning into that.

Yeah. I mean, that car was was fun in its own right.

It definitely was a learning curve for me for working on it because it is.

It's vastly different than working on like a 60s or 70s era, you know,

GM or Chrysler Ford, like there's just everything's vacuum operated

and it's diesel and it's got, I mean, just crazy, crazy engineering

into a Mercedes, even in the 80s.

And, you know, we don't have Bumper anymore in the stable.

My dad decided to thin down the herd a little bit.

And we actually sold it to a gentleman that owns a restaurant down in,

I think it was Massachusetts, maybe Rhode Island,

but he actually converted it to a waste oil burning. Oh my gosh.

So he put like the tank in the trunk.

He puts like the old fry later oil in it, you know, it's a car.

Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, I was at first I was like, well, that's kind of sad

to do that to such a nice example, because this car was like a hundred

and twenty thousand miles on it, you know, very well kept.

But I was like, you know, teach your own now experience a brand new chapter.

Bumper is now a veggie car.

Yeah. But I mean, that's an example of what I was saying about

like it's a car that you wouldn't like would not normally

be on your radar, but it like crossed your path the right time,

the right price, the right story, you know, and it's like, OK, like, all right,

I'll consider it. I mean, it seems that if people are looking at a car

at auction, it's typically a specialty car or it's a bucket list car

or something that they've had their eye on for a while.

It seems that very much seems that that's what it caters to.

I mean, there are certainly cars in going through the auction

that are you could buy and then daily drive. No problem.

Most though, it seems that people are there with purpose

and that they are looking for like, oh, that's the one I've always wanted.

Yeah, yeah, it's the pleasure car.

It's not your everyday car.

And I mean, that, you know, like I have to digress for a moment, right?

Like I tell my friends, I tell people all the time, like you

when you're looking at these older cars or collector cars,

like I talk to people all the time that are like, oh, like all by that,

you know, 1949 Jeep pickup or all by that 1970 Chevy C10

and I'll daily drive it in the summer, right?

And every time I'm like, no, it's like you go by yourself

like a Kia Sorento or a Volkswagen Jetta

and that's your everyday car, your commuter car.

And then when you're at a place financially

or a place to store it, like when you can afford it

and you already have a car and you have a place to store it,

like then you get the fun car.

Like people have this idea of like, oh, I can buy a 50 year old car

and I can drive it every day.

It's like, no, no, you can't.

It's like, I mean, not unless you want to completely redo it

from top to toe, then you might be able to.

But you will miss all the creature comforts of a new car.

So all of these, when I say I digress, I mean, all of these cars

are like, we're talking a pleasure car.

It's something you have on the side from your daily driver.

I I did see a gentleman in a T bucket Ford

at 7 30 this morning on my drive in like, wow.

I mean, it was a beautiful day to be fair.

It was. Yeah, that was that was quite something.

Hey, the guy driving the T bucket, though, mad props.

Mad props. Oh my gosh. Yeah. No top.

It was. Oh, yeah.

But it's also means like people have the rose colored glasses

when it comes to cars.

Yeah, like, for example, like, like I just recently serviced

and was driving around on my father's forty seven Willie CJ

to a right.

Yeah, we're talking this is a basic car, folks.

We are talking basic like bare bones, basic, no suspension,

nothing like no comfort creature comforts serviced it up,

drove it around.

I think I put 15 miles on it and I was like, OK, that's good enough.

And I parked it in the back of the garage, put the cover on it

and got it ready for storage.

I was like, yeah, that's good.

We can drive that next spring.

I was like, it's just not.

It's just not comfortable.

Like it's just not.

It's not something that you would want to drive on a consistent basis.

No power steering, no power brakes, no suspension, six volt electrical.

Right. It's a little tractor.

You just. Yeah, it's like something that you want to hop in on a Sunday

and take the family down to get ice cream.

And you drive literally 30 minutes and then you're done until next weekend.

So and I mean, I give my dad credit when he restored it in the 70s,

he drove it like every day for like a year.

Yeah, he had a little trailer with it.

He drove it in the winter.

And I mean, the whole nine yards is the top on it.

Yeah, it's like that.

He's like, you're crazy.

You are crazy.

That that that's some dedication there for sure.

But yeah, so I mean, that's your whole thing about

the cars to look for what you're looking for, right?

It's it's all subjective.

Like, of course, everyone has the car that's like, you know,

oh, like a, you know, roadrunner, I want one of those or I want a Mustang

or it's going to be a truck or whatever.

Like just whatever it is, you keep your eyes peeled for those.

Yeah, but you also don't want to discount like what if your neighbor

has sitting under his back porch at AMC Javelin or something?

Maybe that's the car for you.

Be curious, be open to what's out there.

Yeah, let the let the cars surprise you much like Bumpa the Mercedes did.

Exactly. Exactly.

And that car was named Bumpa from the guy's father, who the kids

called Bumpa because he bought it new in 84.

So I want to shift into selling cars at auction.

So I have pretty limited experience selling cars at auction,

but I did sell a car through cars and bids once.

That's right.

I remember this experience.

Yes, I had I had a Maserati TC.

So the Chrysler TC by Maserati.

That was the car.

I think it was an 89.

Yeah, yeah, me and my my my buddy Tyler, who helps me out at my shop.

We went and bought it together.

It had been in storage for quite some time.

I mean, it only had like, I want to say 18 or 20,000 miles on it.

Like it wasn't high miles, but it had been sitting for a long time

and it was mouse infested.

And for the listener who may be thinking Maserati.

Wow, Brendan, I mean, it's it may be the Maserati you're thinking of Lister.

Yeah, it was it was a partnership in the late 80s between Chrysler and Maserati.

And they did these fancy.

It was basically a Chrysler Lebaron.

Yeah, that they did like really fancy stuff to and gave you like a special

plaque. And I mean, nice enough car.

My biggest takeaway is it was an automatic.

It was if it had more power, just a little bit more power,

and it was a manual, which they did come in a manual.

But the one I had is not like it would have been way more fun to drive.

I mean, it was it was just a Chrysler Lebaron that was like gussied up.

That's all it was. Yes, so I mean, we went through.

We got it back.

We totally disassembled the interior.

Everything got like all the niceness out of it.

Serviced it completely like all new brakes, all new tires,

changed all the fluids, fixed a bunch of stuff on it, polished it up.

And then we took a million pictures of it and we put it on cars and bids.

I mean, I'd never done it before and they have very strict guidelines

and like the pictures you take and the angles of the pictures you take

and how you list it for sale and the way you write it up

and like all this stuff.

And then like I'd list it and then someone that works at cars and bids

would come back, but oh, can you tweak this or can you take another

picture of this or like, you know, blah, blah, blah.

And then it goes live and then people can bid on it.

We ended up selling to this guy.

It was a very open platform and like, you know, they would send me questions

whoever was bidding on it and I'd answer them back immediately.

And and it was fine. Yeah, it was it was overall was a good experience.

So cars, if I'm remembering correctly, this was a few years ago now.

But if I remember correctly, like cars and bids did not take part

in any of like the payment or anything.

They basically were just like a connector, right?

Quote unquote for like buyer seller.

Yeah, the condo once once like the hammer price happened.

It basically was like the the official buyer reached out to me.

And then I was like, yeah, here's my bank information, send me the payment.

And then he did.

And then a trucking company showed up and picked the car up

and it was all arranged by me and the buyer.

Anyway, it wasn't too bad.

I haven't listed the other car with cars and bid.

I will probably at some point I'd like to my experience with bring a trailer

is the only time I've tried to sell a car for them was actually bump up.

I tried to list bumper for sale and bring a trailer.

But I wanted to have a reserve price with them of like,

I think it was like seven grand and they wouldn't allow it.

They would only allow me to list the car if it was no reserve.

And I was like, well, you know, we've got more than that in it.

So I'd really like to be like minimum seven.

Like I think it's a nine or $10,000 car.

And they're like, nope, no reserve or we won't take it.

And so I didn't list it with them.

Yeah.

I actually sold bump on eBay of all places.

Oh, interesting. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it brings to mind that, I mean, and I can speak to you.

You work for bring a trailer.

We're going to hear about that.

Yes. So I can speak to that because, yeah, a little,

a little known fact there to the listener out there.

I, I worked for.

We have a bat alumni in the house.

That's right.

I was a bat auction writer for a brief period about four months

of that. I wrote up the auction listings you see on the website.

Short, it was I would be given assignments.

So it would be a listing where I would have the sellers contact

and we would connect through through their channel and just say, OK,

like here, here are the pictures and here is all the information,

things to know about the car features, facts and all of that.

And as you said, Brendan, with cars a bit being very particular,

so is bring a trailer.

So my job as an auction writer was to organize the whole gallery

of pictures that were provided by the seller and put it in a cohesive format.

So, I mean, and similarly, they had all the pictures that they wanted

to organize as such, and then you would write the whole copy for that listing

and very particular as far as objective, like, so like no subjective terms.

Like, you can't say, oh, it's all original or like, oh, it's rust free,

like none of that, that it was always very much stating the facts

about the car, its engine, its powertrain, its history features.

It was painted at one point in its life.

Yeah, reportedly.

And so that was that was what I was tasked with.

And so this was a period of my life where I was trying something new

and I was very fortunate to have been hired on as an auction writer

with bring a trailer there.

And this was in 2020, right as the pandemic started, as it would happen.

And so of all this, I was writing about collector cars.

So it was a unique experience.

It was all remote positions.

So I was still based in New Hampshire and yet

bring a trailer is based in California out of San Francisco.

So I was communicating with most of the bring a trailer staff out there

in California and here I was in New Hampshire.

So that was neat that it was a fully remote job so that I would look

through, I would get assignments.

I mean, I had everything from BMW 540i was my first one.

And then I actually had an O5 GTO that I wrote up and and just

countless others that color was the GTO.

It was that blue.

Oh, I'd have to look it up.

You see, I actually bookmarked all of the listings because I ended up

doing 40 different listings with bring a trailer in my brief time that I worked for them.

Oh, I'm sorry. It was an O6 Cyclone.

Oh, it was it's Cyclone gray metallic.

Oh, that's a beautiful color.

Whereas I'm rocking a phantom black.

So, yes. So anyway, getting back to my experience.

Yeah, as I say, I worked for four months there and really had a great experience

and was grateful for that time I was able to spend with them

and got to work with some amazing cars and got to and got to experience

that side of the collector car world and ended up walking away from that job.

Just given what the timing was with the pandemic and still staying

and teaching at that point and all told is definitely a cherished part of my car.

The easiest life that I actually got to spend some time working for bring a trailer.

So who knows? Oh, perhaps I will reconnect with them some day

and see see where things may go.

Well, I'm sure they miss you every day because you are hands down

one of the best writers you could ever hope to have on your payroll would be

Ian Henry, no doubt about that.

Yeah, well, thank you because actually that was something that I mean,

I very much was made for that kind of work

because, you know, me and as the listener knows, I have such a

encyclopedic knowledge for these.

Oh, just the minutiae.

I admire it so much.

And so instantly, I just knew how to write these listings

because it was just a matter of listing all the stats

and the facts that and I took with it my pension for being a writer

and put it all together that I had a lot of fun with it.

So again, it's something that I'm grateful to have had,

even if it was brief.

So looking at the writing side of this whole auction world,

because it very much is a big part of this because all these.

Oh, it is. It's all about representing the car

and the best way possible to increase bids, like to like represent it.

Right. You know, yeah.

So this is actually I'm happy we're talking about this

because I wanted to segue into a very important thing

that I wanted to bring up about auction cars, buying cars at auction

and even just buying cars in general.

But really for auction cars is seeing them in person

or as my buddy Vernon always says, get your hands on them.

Yes. Right.

So Ruby, which if the listener remembers the 67 Chevrolet SS4 27

that we bought from Meekam, my dad bought that we named Ruby.

Beautiful car.

That car, he knew that car was going through the auction

and he wanted the bid on it.

But we went to Meekam in Texas to look at it

because he was like, he was like, that's a car

that for the amount of money you're going to spend on it.

He's like, you just you have to see it

to verify the condition it's in.

Of obviously, as we're talking about with bring a trailer,

cars and bids, even the Carlyle auctions,

they're going to try to represent the car online or in pictures as best they can.

But it doesn't give you the full story.

Looking at the car in person helps you verify.

So like Ruby, for example, we looked at it and they had it like roped off

in this one section inside the convention center.

And like so dad and I go and look at it.

We're like walking around it.

And I'm like, well, like the door gaps are pretty good.

It's clearly been painted at one point.

Like it's got a little bit of paint run here.

It had at the time like a mechanical gauge

for the coolant temperature inside the center console.

So I was like, so obviously the temperature gauge on the dash isn't working.

Right. Like it had like a thing added on top of the dash.

I didn't like like you could see like a little bit of messed up wiring

under the hood, but nothing crazy.

But it was one of those things where it's like looking at it in person.

That helped dad and I decide like, OK, if this car is perfect, right,

it's worth 100 or 120.

But in the condition it's worth, you know, the condition it's right now,

it's worth to us somewhere in like the 50 to maybe 70 range.

Right.

So if you hadn't gone and looked at the car and got your hands on it,

right, and actually looked at it in person and you just bid on it,

you might have got caught up in the moment and spent 90 or 100

grand on this thing, right?

And just not even bat an eyelash, then you get at home and you've got

the dreaded horrible buyer's remorse.

Exactly. Nobody wants buyer's remorse.

Nobody. And trust me, I've been there before.

It's just you buy some Jeep Grand Cherokee's next thing, you know.

But it was the five nine and I couldn't resist. Exactly.

Exactly. They only made 14,000 of them.

They've got to have a couple of five nines.

Idiot.

What was it?

Taking. Yeah.

But no, so that I mean, that's a great example.

And like and but I mean, to the other side of it, too,

like like nobody's perfect, like when we bought when dad bought

Winston from Meekam and when I bought that GMCU condonale,

we were not there.

We just looked at the pictures and rolled the dice and we just

we sat, we sat down and we said, OK, if it sells for X price

or below, even with the buyer's fee, because options have buyers

and sellers fees, how else do they make their money?

It's like, then we'll buy it.

But anything above that number, we're done, right?

So you got to go into it with a game plan.

You can't just like really nearly sign up and be like,

let's put it on the car.

It's like, no, you've got to have a game plan.

So you've got to do some research, know what they're worth, etc.

And like Winston, the C 10 perfect example,

dad was like, this is the number I'm comfortable buying it for

because it looks nice.

So if there's something wrong with it, we can fix it and still be OK.

And the hammer price was well below that.

So what the heck?

The nice thing with that truck is it was in way better shape than we

anticipated. So that's a huge win.

Yeah, which is not usually right.

That's not how it usually goes.

It's the other way around and like that Yukon I bought right like that.

Like it's just it clearly had sat for 20 years because it was a 2004

and it needed a fuel pump and it needed a window regulator and it needed sensors.

I mean, it just needed a bunch of like little crap because it sat.

Yes. So it's just like it's to be expected.

Yeah, there's always that.

But yes, but to to emphasize my point,

actually looking at the cars you're bidding on

is a huge value.

Or at the very least, if you can't make it to the auction,

send someone you know and trust that is a car person to go look at it.

Because I mean, it's like at Meekum,

like you could actually start the cars up and you could walk around them

and, you know, look at them and climb underneath them, get all over them.

So it's like, OK, you know exactly what you're bidding on.

And that's most options you can do that.

Because I think that would be what would give me the most pause

or hesitation as far as buying a car at auction.

If I'm not actually there is because, as I said,

you just want that piece of mind of seeing what you're buying

because it's a big purchase and would want to be there.

And the whole idea of buying a car online

could be some nerves for sure.

So. Oh, absolutely.

And that I mean, that happened to me earlier this year.

Like I've got I've got to tell like, you know a little bit about Ian,

but like I because I'm a used car dealer, I've signed up for

auctions around New England, and there was an auction down in Connecticut

that I bought a GMC Yukon Denali from with like 220,000 miles on it.

And I did quite possibly like the single biggest mistake

that you make when it comes to buying a car.

This Yukon came up and it's like you can preview it before the auction.

And I was like, dang, like even though it's got high miles,

like it's clean, like it's been like fleet maintained.

Like I was like, you know what, I was like, I did a proxy bid, right?

Which is like you put in a bid for the vehicle that's like your max bid, right?

And if that's what the number is, like you get it.

So looked it up in the book value on it for being a 2016 Denali Yukon XL,

like blah, blah, blah.

It was like 18 grand, right?

Like some crazy number.

And I was like, would that kind of miles like to know it?

So I did a proxy bid for eight thousand dollars.

And I was like, there's no way that I'm going to end up

with this freaking Yukon.

There's just no way.

And so I forgot about it.

Like I forgot that I did.

It was like a Friday afternoon in the auction runs every Wednesday.

So Friday afternoon before the auction, I do this proxy bid.

I'm like, hey, Grant, whatever.

Like I'll be I'll just throw it in there.

Yeah, no Thursday, Thursday of next week.

I get a phone call from the auction and they're like, Mr. Bailey.

I'm like, yeah, they're like, how are you going to pay for your Yukon?

I'm like, what the heck are you talking about?

And they're like, well, you bought this 2016 Yukon for, you know,

seventy four hundred dollars plus, you know, auction fee, blah, blah, blah.

And I was like, oh, shoot.

Like, oh, yeah.

Let me let me send a check right down overnight there to you.

OK, like, oh, my God.

But anyway, yeah, that that was that was one of those things

who was like, oh, no, like, what did I do?

Anyway, I got it back to the house

and it actually was in better shape than I thought.

But that was just an example of like, that was a mistake.

Do not do that.

Like, oh, my God.

But it needed like it needed a starter.

It needed a rim.

It needed a tire.

It needed a rear air compressor for the shocks.

I mean, there's one of the sensors for the blind spot was bad.

I had to buy a new sensor for that fricking nightmare.

Like, oh, my God, two hundred twenty thousand.

That'll take a toll on on anything.

Oh, yeah. I mean, it did ride nice.

Give it that. Did ride nice.

The oops, bed. Yeah.

But no, I mean, I don't know what I was thinking.

I was like, yeah, it's it's it's I could get it for that.

What a deal.

It's like in. So I know what.

Yeah. What do you mean?

Yeah, crazy.

Most people, I feel like, well, it won't be in quite that scenario.

That said, if you find that car where it's like, oh, my gosh,

yet it's it's it at Mika more.

It's on bring a trailer and it's across the country.

And you just like, oh, my gosh, like this is such this car of it.

I mean, what would you do in that situation, Brandon, as far as like,

do you try to get somebody out there to see it?

Yeah, I'm curious since well, we're talking a lot about trying to be there

and see it if you can.

You know, I mean, it's so tough, right?

So it's like, I would say that for the the average person, right?

Like if you're looking at buying like your dream car,

like, and, you know, no matter what it is, let's use, like, say it's a

say it's like a 1988, I don't Chevy Blazer or something, you know, K5 Blazer,

like just say it's that.

Yeah, like, and you're looking at spending 20 to 25 grand on a really nice one.

It's like, you should put the effort in to go look at that in person.

Yeah. And verify it.

And I mean, it doesn't have to be something like it could be anything.

You'd be buying a Ferrari.

You could be buying a Pujo for five grand.

It's like, it doesn't matter if it's your dream car and you're spending good money for it.

You should make arrangements to go out and verify it for yourself.

Like, there's no question to me on that, especially if it's your dream car, right?

Obviously, there's ways around like I've had before, like my brother

who lives in Montana, like, go and look at stuff for me in Montana

because I trust him.

I trust his opinion on stuff.

I mean, I've had my cousin that lives in Texas go look at cars for me

and test driving before, like before I make an offer on him.

So, I mean, if you have someone you trust, that's a big deal.

And there also is like independent mechanics and independent inspection agencies.

You can hire to go look at them.

I mean, you could always say there's a car for sale in like Minot, North Dakota.

Call a local garage and say, hey, there's a car for sale.

Would you mind going and looking at it and I'll toss you a couple

hundred bucks to go inspect it for me?

You know, and I mean, there's ways around it.

But yeah, if it's your dream car, like, don't don't skimp on like

something like that, like, because like we said, the last thing you want

is buyer's remorse.

Right. What if what if you always wanted a land cruiser?

Seventies or eighties one that shows up and you're just disappointed.

Like, how awful is that? Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, you've waited all this time.

You've put the money into it and then. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's like for me.

Well, like for me or you like, like, you know, like we've talked,

you know, ad nauseam in this podcast about how much I love Volvo v 70

ours. What if I bought a v 70 our manual like sight unseen, I got back

and I found out that it was like horrible condition, wasn't

originally a manual and had been converted.

But it's like, you know, I mean, obviously I do homework on it,

but I would feel horrible.

And it's like, but the problem is you're signing stuff.

That's, you know, as is clauses, bill of sales that say

you're there's no warranties like you, you know, it's it's

what's the Latin caveat emptor, right?

You know, barbie wear.

So that's right.

Yeah. So it's just it's just you need to do your homework

and you need to put the effort in, especially cars are expensive.

Like you do you want to take that risk, right?

So I mean, I've done it before and I would say that probably

it's like a 70 30 split that I've come out ahead on buying

ones without doing my homework on them, right?

But not everyone's that lucky.

And also I've bought and sold way too many cars.

But yeah, you got to do your homework.

So I mean, that that's actually great.

That's like a great segue too.

And they're like talking about the Carlisle auction.

There are a bunch of cars going through that auction that my

father, my brother and I are interested in buying.

And some of them were considering buying to keep in the family.

And some were considering to buy to resell.

Every single one of them is just we are that's the reason

we're going is we have to look at them to verify their condition.

Because you just don't know.

I mean, it might be like, for example, there's one car for sale

that I really like that's a 1972 Ford F 250 and it's a beautiful

regular cab truck, long bed, 360 VA, beautiful truck.

Like I love those old Ford's and from the pictures, it looks nice,

but not perfect, right?

But it's one of those cars where you just don't know.

Because like right now in my mind, I'm thinking, oh, like I'd be willing

to buy that for, I don't know, fifteen, twenty thousand dollars.

Right. But if you go and look at it in person, you might go,

this is going to sell for more than that.

Like money is 30 or 32.

Right. Or you look at it and go that I'm not spending a penny more than

twelve five, right?

Like you just you don't know.

And and in terms of finding a value for the listener, one of the

greatest assets that I've seen and dealt with is Hagerty.

Like you can sign up for a Hagerty account and you can use their

valuation tools and they're they're pretty good for values of what

stuff sells for and what things are going for.

And they keep keep a pretty good market idea of the market and trend.

Right. The other thing too is, I mean, Ian can attest to this is,

you know, my dad and I are constantly looking at buying cars

and moving inventory and watching auctions that it's you kind of

get a general sense of what stuff's going to sell for just

based on keeping your eyes on it all the time.

You know the market. Yeah, exactly.

You get to learn it, you know, the more that you watch

auctions, go to it, et cetera, et cetera.

But Hagerty for most people use that.

And then the other thing too is just as simple as do a quick

Google search, like if your dream car right is like a, you know,

82 DeLorean, just be like, you know, 1982 DeLorean for sale

and just look at what people are asking for them.

And then for me, like a good rule of thumb is if you see 10 of

them for sale and they're varying prices, I always try to

plan for 10 percent less than what they're asking is

probably realistically what you could buy one for.

So if the average is 25, you might be able to get one for

20 to five or 20 years, you know, something like that.

Right. So there's also, yeah, the variability of just who's

going to show up at the auction and who's going to be on these.

So really anything, anything goes when it comes to an auction.

I think that's also an important factor in all of this, as opposed to

the more traditional methods of buying a vehicle at a lot

or a private sale or what have you, the fact that this is like,

this is live. It's happening.

It's it's it's real time.

And you don't know who your other bidders, who are you competing with?

And both, I mean, in person and I know they'll have, they have phone bidders, right?

Oh yeah, online phone, in person, yes.

And it's they all have different percentages.

And like, I know Meekum, like Meekum is 10 percent buyer's fee

if you're in person, like you're there at the auction.

And I think it's 12 percent for phone and online.

And I mean, some places are crazy, like some places are like 18 or 20 percent

if you're like online or phone bidder instead of being there.

It's like, what?

It's like, that's crazy.

So I mean, it's all things to consider.

And also, too, like like a quick blurb, too, on like paying for the cars.

Like we've talked about different ways to finance cars and things of that nature.

But for the auctions, like they're really easy to sign up for.

You can either sign up for financing.

They have finance companies they partner with.

And you just put in your info just like applying for like a credit card or a car loan.

They punch you in and they go, oh, you're approved for $50,000 to buy a car.

You know, blah, blah, blah, or yeah, you just show that you have a retirement account

that you're setting aside some money to buy a car for or get a letter of credit

from your bank, which I've done before.

They're like, yeah, he's he can pay for a car up to X amount

because he's, you know, blah, blah, blah.

So I mean, there's just there's many ways to get through it.

So showing you're good for it and that, yeah,

it would be confidence and they're confident in you as well.

Yeah. I mean, Ian knows I'm all about the finance, all about that interest rate.

It all depends what the interest rate is.

Hey, if it's cheap money, I'll buy a car.

It's going to appreciate value. What the heck?

That's right. Make that work for you.

Yeah. Yeah.

There's got to be that excitement, too, just in the moment.

Like once the bidding gets rolling, you're like, OK, we're in it.

And now he just he just don't know until you're in that the heat of that that auction.

Oh, and it's tough. I mean, it's, you know, when you are in the heat of it

and like the auctioneer is going, I mean, and that's the whole plan, right?

Like the whole idea behind it is fast paced environment

to make people bid and not think about it, right?

But a great example of like, for me, personal experience

is as everyone knows my dream car, right?

Ninety three Corvettes, the R1 40th anniversary.

And I almost bought one last fall, like almost exactly a year ago.

And there's one going to actually, there are two, two of them going through

the Meekum auction and I signed up to be a bidder and I bid on one.

And I was like my my maximum that I would spend on it,

including their buyers fee of 10 percent or no, it's 12 percent

because I was doing it online is I was like, I'll do like $48,000.

I was like, right, like that's it.

Like that is my number.

Forty eight grand, I think I had the high bid at forty five.

And then one of them sold for like 68 and then another one sold for like 80

because they had like a thousand miles on them or something, right?

Like no miles at all, like perfect, perfect cars.

Yes. And, you know, dad was like, Jesus, calm down.

I was having like a mini meltdown because I was like, they sold for too much.

Like I missed my opportunity.

I'm never going to afford one.

Like, oh my God, like it's over.

I'll never own one.

Oh my gosh. Yeah.

And he's like, calm down.

Like, jeez, I'm crowing out like it's not a big deal.

But I mean, I it was crazy.

You know, I mean, it started bidding at like 25 grand.

And I was like bidding on it, bidding on it.

I was like, OK, like good, like we're getting up to like, all right,

like it should slow down around 50.

And then it was like, it's like, no, no, both of them.

It's like, why, why I've been forsaken.

Yeah.

Why?

I was awful.

But no, but the thing is, though, is it's like, I did not get caught up in that moment.

Right. It's like, I knew I like, I knew where my number was.

That was like, I can't like, I'm not because if you go above that,

it's like, then I'm like, then I'd be like crawling to the bank

or I'd be crawling to dad.

And you're like, can you please lower me a little extra?

That's just a little bit more.

I'm not affording that payment, you know.

Oh, I really got out of hand.

Exactly.

So it is important to keep a level head because yeah,

famous words of my buddy Vernon, who's been doing the car game

for his whole life, who's now in his 70s is there will always be another.

So if you have the car opportunity that presents itself,

that is a good deal and you do your homework, you weigh the options

and you jump on it great.

But if you're in like a situation where it's like a car comes up

that you've always wanted and you're like, oh, I have to buy it right now

because I'm not going to get this opportunity again.

But it's like, it just maybe doesn't seem right or the price isn't right or whatever.

It's like, if you just if you hold on, you know, if you keep your powder dry,

right, there might be another one that comes up and most likely there will be.

If you have the time for it, but that's one thing to consider

is you don't want to have buyers remorse.

You don't want to pay too much.

You want to verify it.

You just you want you want to do your homework and do your homework.

Learn about it.

And honestly, that's like that would probably be my number one advice.

Is if you have a dream car, like say you're not like most people

have a dream car, even if they're not a car person.

Yes. Yes, that's you have a dream car.

Research it.

Know every single thing about that car, everything.

Know what options it came with, what colors it came with.

Like known problems, like, you know, what they sell for, obviously,

what they have been selling for of recent, like what they sold for new.

Like, I mean, just every single thing you can learn about everything you should.

That is probably number one.

If we're talking about buying your dream car at auction,

like you should know everything about that car.

Yes. This isn't just like on a whim.

I'm walking by the auction go, oh, I wouldn't mind buying

a like an old, you know, Volkswagen thing.

It's like, no, like, if that's your dream car, you should know everything about it.

They made X number of them.

They came in these five different colors.

They came in these transmission options.

They had these engine options, like these are the known problems.

They had like a timing issue.

I mean, whatever, just you should know all of those things.

Yeah. Yeah. Know it inside and out.

And then, truly, you know what you're getting yourself into

and you know what you're buying.

Well, knowledge is power, as we know.

Particularly in the car world here.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

As you said, Brandon, if it's a car that you love, that you want,

that you know is the one, then take a deep dive

as we as we're doing with some of our favorite brands.

Take a deep dive on that particular car

and how many were made, what's the color?

How many were made in that color?

What's the engine?

What's the transmission?

Common, yeah. Common things to know.

Learn everything about it because knowledge is power.

It is. Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's a big deal when you're buying a car,

especially your dream car.

So, yeah, I mean, I'm very much looking forward

to this Carlisle auction.

I can tell the listener right now

that I have a few vehicles set aside,

some of which I would buy to resell,

some of which I am interested in keeping

and to run through that list quickly here.

Yeah. Let's wrap up.

I want to tell the listener and then we will come back

and I will update them as to whether or not

we end up with any of them.

So, number one on the list is everyone knows

I love my three-quarter tonne suburbans.

There's a 2005 suburban three-quarter tonne

with the six-liter V8.

I'm interested in buying that for resell.

There is a 1965 Pontiac Bonneville convertible

with a 389 and a four-speed transmission,

which I am all over as a keeper.

This is...

I love the Bonnevilles of the 65 and 66 era.

The stacked headlights again, just the look,

the Coke bottle styling, just that.

I am all over that car.

That is a beautiful red, white, top white interior.

No, red interior.

Yeah, that one's my favorite.

It is gorgeous.

And I love that it's a four-speed.

Love that it's a four-speed.

We've never seen that, wow.

And then there is a 1972 Chevy K20

that is a 350 VA automatic.

And the K means it's four by four, beautiful truck.

That's something that I'd be interested in buying

to resell.

And then the one that my dad and I

are both very interested in is

there's a 1967 DeVille convertible

with an original 36,000 miles on it.

It's kind of a gold with a black top, black interior.

Love the 67, love the 68.

Before they did the stacked headlights,

it's a bucketless car for me

because I've always wanted a gigantic Cadillac,

huge V8 rear-wheel drive,

and gotta have a drop top with factory air.

So that's up there.

That's one that I would keep, consider keeping.

And then yes, so the next one is

there's a 99 suburban three-quarter ton

with the turbo diesel, 65 diesel, which, oh my gosh.

That one for me would be a tough

between either sell it or keep it

because I would love to keep it with the diesel.

But looking at the pictures, it's got a couple of dents.

It's clearly been used.

I have no idea what the miles are on it.

It says low miles, but I don't know what that means.

Beautiful red suburban three-quarter ton

last year of that body style.

And with the diesel, damn, like that.

Yeah, I would really like to have something like that.

That's a rare find.

You don't see those.

But we'll see.

So that one's on there.

And then I bookmarked a McLaren for Ian,

but I'm not bidding on that.

So we'll ask you about that.

The more that that was just sitting on the screen

as we were talking and the more I'm like,

do I need a McLaren?

Everybody needs a McLaren.

Yeah, everybody just kept looking like, I do it.

Maybe I should buy this car.

Yep, and then the last one that I'm considering buying

as long as it goes for a very low price

is there is a 2007 V70R Volvo automatic, unfortunately,

that is silver with a blue interior.

Nord Cap blue interior.

Thank you, Ian.

Thank you.

It's got 130 something thousand miles on it.

It's definitely been used.

It's been loved, but that would be the type of car

that if you could get it for,

I mean, I doubt it would sell for this,

but if you could get it for five or six grand,

like I would just drive that car all the time.

Yes.

Why not?

Yeah, I mean, it seems.

It would be my winter car.

What the heck until I could find one

with a spaceball shifter.

That's right.

It could be your first foray into V70R ownership.

You're right, you're absolutely right.

But going through the list,

I'm happy I did for the listener

and for you, Ian, every single one of them

to kind of reiterate what we've talked about is

I will look in person at every single one of those cars.

I will go over them with a fine tooth comb

and I already have in mind what the values are

of what they are and what I'm willing to pay for them.

And after I verify their condition in person,

I will tweak that number and I will decide which ones

I really want to focus on, which ones not.

Because right there,

I just gave you five or six different cars.

It might end up being that I'm like,

okay, I'm literally just going to focus on

the Cadillac and the Volvo

or I'm just going to focus on the Chevy K20 and the Ford.

Like you just don't know until you get there

and you see them in person

and you inspect them in person

and you crawl underneath them

and you're sitting them and I mean, the whole nine yards.

So that's the reason that we're going is

you got to see these cars in person.

You just have to.

They are, it's their own unique being

that these cars and there's so many layers

to each one of them, they're each unique.

They each have their own story

and much of that story,

the only way you can truly experience it in person,

seeing it right there in front of you.

Exactly, exactly.

Well, I am very excited for you, Brendan

and the whole Bailey family there.

You guys have family affair there.

Well, we wish our long lost brother, Ian Bailey,

was going to come with us.

Yeah, I know.

Yeah.

It would be.

Is the guilt trip working yet?

Oh, very much so.

Yes.

Oh, stop.

Stop.

Oh, I mean, but just seeing these cars,

oh, I'm already amped for you guys.

So look forward to hearing how it goes

into the listener out there.

We will return to these cars in a later episode

as to which ones did the bellies buy or not buy.

Yeah, we might come home with zero

or we might come home with three or four.

You never know.

It's all about what they sell for.

All about what they sell for.

That's the excitement.

Do you have a favorite in that list, Brendan?

So out of them all,

my number one that I'm really interested in

is the 67 Cadillac Deville convertible.

And the reason being is because a 68

has been at the top of my bucket list

for quite some time.

For the listener to verify,

obviously my dream car is the 93 Corvette ZR140th anniversary.

But that's a pretty expensive car

and that's a car that I would not drive.

See, I categorize like I have a 68 Deville convertible,

69 Riviera GS, Volvo V70R with a manual

and a couple other cars are my,

what I like to consider like the realistic bucket list

of cars I'd like to own

because they're much less expensive cars

and they're just ones that you can hop in and drive easily.

But the reason that I gravitate

towards this specific Cadillac so much is

it's essentially a one owner car,

36,000 documented miles.

And it did sit for a long time

but it's had a bit of work done to it, right?

Like it's had the interior redone

and it's been gone through

to like make sure it runs okay and all that.

But if you look at the pictures,

it's clear that this car is not perfect.

Like it's been repainted on one section.

You can see the paint color differential

between the rear quarter and the front.

And like under the hood,

like there's parts that are just

shinier versus not.

And like even the speedometer has got like rust on it, right?

And it's like, this car is not perfect.

This car definitely would need some work

when I got it home, right?

But for what it might sell for,

like which I'm guessing anywhere between 10 and 20 grand,

I just, I don't know

without actually looking at it first.

It's a very original, very low mile representation

of that car.

And it's something that I would drive all the time

because it's just a boat

and I love a gigantic GM V8.

And it's got factory air, drop top.

And yeah, it's just that

that is absolutely my favorite car

right there without question.

Oh, it's so cool.

And it's just, I'm not crazy about the color

but the more I look at it, it grows on me

but I just love the look of it.

But as long as this thing is not like rotted out

like the frame's not rotted,

the floorboards aren't rotted the trunk.

Like I would be willing to buy that baby

and just drive the wheels off it

cause it is a beautiful looking car to me.

Oh my gosh.

And how fun with the drop top

you just take that thing out, cruise everywhere.

Oh yeah.

And for the listener, like you have to remember

like Ian and I are driving cars from the sixties

that are technically considered mid-sized cars

and they're like 18 and a half feet long.

This Cadillac's like 21 feet long.

It's huge.

Yeah, it's like another three feet longer than my GTO.

And then Ian's like four feet longer

than Ian's Mustang.

So yeah, it's crazy.

And I love it.

I love a giant boat.

Yeah.

It suits you well.

Oh yeah, big man, big car here.

Yeah.

But yes, that would be my favorite.

Out of the ones I showed you Ian,

which one's your favorite?

The Land Cruiser?

No.

So, oh.

Volvo?

Don't say Volvo, that'd be a cliche.

No, that would be a cliche.

I'm gonna go Bonneville.

That thing just looks awesome.

And the fact is a big munchie for speed.

Because I'm not usually a big boat kind of a guy,

but man, just the fact that it has that four speed

would be just a riot.

Yeah, that is my red on a red.

I love the Bonneville.

So that's another one that's on my bucket list

is a 66 Bonneville with a 421 V8 and a four speed,

which is very rare.

Yes.

But that big block, high output motor in a four speed,

oh, I'd be in heaven.

It would be like Ruby's partner, right?

Like a full size car, a big block in a four speed.

But yes.

Yeah, that Bonneville, that's my favorite.

I don't know what the heck that Bonneville

might sell for, but that is a beautiful car.

Yeah, the fact that it has the original window sticker.

Oh yeah.

It's gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.

And that's a car that's like, that car,

I mean, we might come home with that.

It could sell for 2530 or it could sell for 60 or 70.

It all depends on the condition it's in,

which we'd have to verify in person.

That's a good call in,

because that is a beautiful car.

I'm actually, when we get done on this,

I'm gonna call my dad, because this was just listed.

See how it says lot 474.1?

Oh yeah.

Means they added it.

Recently, because it's the .1.

So I'm going to actually call my father

when we get off the phone.

I need you to look at this one.

What do you think?

Yep, so what about you guys?

What do you think with Life Plus Cars?

Which car are we going to come home with?

Let us know.

Drop us a line at lifepluscars at gmail.com.

That's right.

Which ones will be coming home with the bellies?

Yeah, and tell us about which cars

you want to buy at Auctions.

We want to hear from you guys.

What do you think?

What's it going to be?

Are you going to Bear Jackson?

Are you going to Meekham?

What cars do you want to buy?

What's the dream cars?

Ask us.

We'll give you our opinions.

Whether they're right or wrong.

We'll give it to you.

Yeah, we'll tell you.

All that is to say thank you.

Thank you again listeners out there

for following along for another car conversation

with Brendan and I.

This was a lot of fun.

And we'll have to just wait and see.

There will be a follow up episode in the future

where we'll return to our conversation here

and find out which cars.

We'll do a little segment and talk about

how the auction went.

And I will make sure to take plenty of pictures,

maybe some videos and we'll upload them

to our website, Facebook, Instagram.

And make sure that we talk about that.

Yeah, exactly, lifepluscars.com.

And you can follow us on social at lifepluscars

Instagram in particular.

And follow along for all the fun

that we have here at lifepluscars.

Brendan, thank you for sharing all of your expertise here.

It was a lot of fun to sit back and learn as always.

Oh yeah, well, I mean, I still have a lot to learn,

but it's been fun that I've had the experiences that I've had.

All right, well, thank you again listeners.

And until next time, we'll see you on the next drive.

#20: What to Look for at Car Auctions

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