In 2018 I wrote about the fast growing online auction site Bring a Trailer. Since then the site continued to grow, was acquired and just got some competition.
According to an April feature story in the New York Times, Bring a Trailer had over 100,000 registered bidders in 2019 and revenue totaled $230 million. In June it was purchased by Hearst Auto, publisher of iconic titles like Road and Track and Car and Driver.
Now there is a new kid on the online car selling block. Doug DeMuro, a well-known automotive commentator with a YouTube channel boasting 3.7 million subscribers and a content contributor to AutoTrader, has launched Cars and Bids. His automotive and entrepreneurial passions really come through in this video explaining how and why he built a team and started the business:
The Cars and Bids pricing structure was clearly designed with BaT in mind. BaT charges a 5 percent commission on sales, Cars and Bids 4.5 percent. A listing costs $99 on BaT, $49 on C&B (for no reserve, $89 otherwise). Listings last a week on both sites, and both put a focus on encouraging comments to the listings.
C&B does try to differentiate as well. As BaT grew quickly, there were gripes about long wait times to hear back and auctions starting without prior notice to sellers. Doug never mentions BaT by name in any video, but he does stress how C&B will get immediately back to sellers if their vehicle is accepted and will work with them to arrange optimal auction timing.
C&B has a very clean, image first design and also provides a history report with every listing. There is a Q&A section pinned to the top of the comments area with seller answers to questions, which is very helpful. Doug says the site will focus only on modern classic cars, from the 1980s and up. He’ll also do periodic auto market reports based on the sales of C&B.
Info snapshot of a nice E93 M3
My favorite DeMuro video is the one he did on my two cars, the E46 M3 and the E39 M5. He said in 2017 that eventually pristine examples will be worth close to $100,000 dollars – the key word being eventually.
I registered for C&B and have been participating in auctions where I can add value for a few weeks now. C&B seems to have good traffic both in cars for sale and in comments per listing. More options for sellers is a good thing and BaT is unlikely to stand still, especially considering their new owner.
On a recent podcast with Malcolm Gladwell (a huge BaT fan!), BaT founder Randy Nonnenberg mentioned a upcoming feature. Soon every listing on BaT will include a link to reviews of the vehicle written when it was introduced, leveraging the archives of the magazines. This convenient access to historical reviews should be a plus for enthusiast sellers and buyers.
BaT proved the business model of an online car auction site, and now C&B is trying to improve on it. These two sites should keep each other on their toes and innovating. And that’s a great thing for car enthusiasts.
UPDATE 10/2: Doug gets his own nice feature story in the NY Times. They do make the direct BaT comparison. C&B has sold 475 cars since launch in June, bringing in $8.5M.
UPDATE 7/3/22 – Keeping posts fresh with new data – here’s a fantastic resource compiled by Netwon Liu from the Facebook E39 M5 Owners group. He has compiled all E39 M5 sales data for the first six months of 2022, from both BaT and C&B.
UPDATE 2/23/23 – Big news in Doug’s life. Cars and Bids gets $37 million investment from The Chernin Group.
Hi Chris,
Interesting blog and site. Lots of good info. I’d been watching Doug’s reviews for years before he launched Cars and Bids. I also loved his quip on how the E46 M3 and E39 M5 were heading for the stratosphere pricing wise. From a usability perspective, C&B is really zeroed in on the user experience. When I browse C&B on desktop or mobile, I can immediately see the price, year, mileage, location, bidding countdown, and fun facts while scrolling. I can filter and sort results with useful presets (closest, new, no reserve), and color codes indicate urgency (red for auctions ending soon). Millennials like me are used to seeing visual hierarchies like these across every digital product we use.
Doug and his team know their user very well and I didn’t know I needed a better BaT until now. BaT, on the other hand, appears to be using a WordPress build that is nice for blogging but not optimal for giving users information at their fingertips. I think that you are correct – BaT will deploy resources to make their site and experience better.
In the meantime, I’m checking both on a frequent basis: I caught the E39 M5 fever and am looking to acquire one this year. Deciding whether I’ll keep my E92 335i 6MT. Can’t wait to do some NCC chapter event once it’s safe for them to resume.