[gooseyloosey]

Just out of curiosity I popped onto the always entertaining Copart site to see what was doin'.

There's an '06 with a bid of $16200--looks like its got at least that amount of good parts on it---in Cali

http://www.copart.com/c2/specialSearch.html?_eventId=getLot&execution=e5s1&lotId=16411349

 

[umbertob]

That's a great price but I must be color blind... That don't look like green to me. :?:

 

[RossoCorsaItaly]

Copart preliminary bids are usually very low, the bids get very high when the auction goes.

Copart is one of the most overpriced auctions and it's all either wrecked junk from insurance company or dealer junk they can't even move at regular auctions!

 

[Drevs]

God **** I like living in a free state.

http://www.copart.com/c2/buyingOverview.html

Interesting site... thx for the link.

 

[gooseyloosey]

Copart preliminary bids are usually very low, the bids get very high when the auction goes.

I believe most auctions work that way, no?

Copart is one of the most overpriced auctions

Interesting comment from an Economics 101 perspective. In a no reserve auction, I'm not sure how one overprices something unless the house bids on the product---if you're saying they do this then that is illegal. Any auctioneer, Copart, Ritchie, Sotheby's, Ebay, NASDAQ, etc., tries to find the marginal buyer who sets the clearing price.

and it's all either wrecked junk from insurance company

Yes, the name and photos on the site would indicate this

or dealer junk they can't even move at regular auctions!

Back to Econ 101. If Copart is one of the most overpriced auctions, wouldn't the seller always prefer to use the Copart venue over another presumably lower priced regular auction?

 

[RossoCorsaItaly]

I believe most auctions work that way, no?

No, most auctions don't have preliminary bidding, they just have immediate bidding. The benefit of preliminary bidding is you save on a few fees but you risk overpaying because you assume what the market is.

Interesting comment from an Economics 101 perspective. In a no reserve auction, I'm not sure how one overprices something unless the house bids on the product---if you're saying they do this then that is illegal. Any auctioneer, Copart, Ritchie, Sotheby's, Ebay, NASDAQ, etc., tries to find the marginal buyer who sets the clearing price.

Co-Part is not a no reserve auction, you can sell with or without a reserve. The house does not own the cars, dealers like myself or insurance companies are the sellers and Co-Part is the middleman. The dealers can bid on their own cars, via another username and not get penalized.

The two major dealer auctions are Co-Part and Manheim. Co-Part is usually used by wrecking yards and new dealers who don't understand the business or international buyers as Manheim does not cater to international. Manheim is where the majority of dealers go.

Back to Econ 101. If Copart is one of the most overpriced auctions, wouldn't the seller always prefer to use the Copart venue over another presumably lower priced regular auction?

The issue with CoPart is they charge ridiculous fees. On a $5,000 sale to make things simple, you are looking at netting around $4,200. At a Manheim auction, the seller on a $5,000 sale, the seller nets $4,850.


I have no problems explaining or elaborating, but I get the vibe that you are being a smartass and questioning my knowledge. This isn't economics 101, this is about auctions. I sell and buy hundreds of cars every year at both CoPart & Manheim auctions, a good part of my business is buying cars off Manheim & eBay and reselling at CoPart for a profit which says quite a bit given their very very high fees. You can assume or you can take my real world experience.

 

[Drevs]

I get the vibe that you are being a smartass and questioning my knowledge.

Clearly you don't know the goose. He's the most serious Rastafarian primate on the boards.

 

[gooseyloosey]

I get the vibe that you are being a smartass and questioning my knowledge.

Clearly you don't know the goose. He's the most serious Rastafarian primate on the boards.

Who's still scratching his head (although maybe I have lice) trying to understand if Copart or any auction site is so overpriced why they would have any buyers at all, or if their commissions are so high why they would have any sellers. Either there would be a complete dearth of buyers (overpriced), or sellers (underpriced), and yet they seem to be growing the business.

Oh and by the way, I was just being about 25% smartass . You never want to go full smartass, to butcher a quote from a movie.

I'm just having a tough time today with lots of stuff because I went offroading in the FJ this w/e, and halfway up a narrow mountain trail my 4wd went out. I couldn't re-engage it and had to back down about what seemed like a mile in 2wd, and my neck is killing me today. After giving up on it, I decide to try to engage it again later in the day and voila it was working. I dunno, piece of Jap crap I guess. I shoulda had the RRS. :doh:

 

[gooseyloosey]

Hey, not to change the subject, but is Umberto and family, and everyone else who lives out near Pasadena OK? These wildfires look like they could be awful close to that area.

 

[RRToadHall]

Unfortunately Umberto and family were evacuated a couple days ago. Hopefully they will be able to get back into their home today. Let's all keep our fingers crossed for his clan! ray:

 

[gooseyloosey]

Unfortunately Umberto and family were evacuated a couple days ago. Hopefully they will be able to get back into their home today. Let's all keep our fingers crossed for his clan! ray:

Ditto. Just thinking about it, what stress, especially with children.

Thanks for the update!

 

[Drevs]

Wow, crazyness... I hope he and the fam have a house to come back to. :shock:

 

[TripleE]

He better not have left the Sport behind. :naughty:

 

[umbertob]

Thanks everyone. Finally home, interesting weekend to say the least. The Sheriff ordered us to evacuate the house on Saturday, like everyone else here in Northwest Altadena, and the order was lifted just a few hours ago after a long battle on the rugged mountains less than a mile north of here, which are as dry as a bone and caught fire like matches. House is still here, lots of smoke to breathe and dust to clean up but the fire never made it close enough to make it dangerous for our neighborhood, thanks to our amazing firefighters and the almost total lack of wind - otherwise we may be singing a different tune. In the end, it was just a minor inconvenience for us and the babies to move to a nearby hotel, live out of a suitcase for a couple of days and wait it out... Others were nowhere near as lucky, and we are praying for everyone's safety out there. Unfortunately, this is a monster firestorm and it's still growing.

I tried uploading a few bits of video I took from my house Friday night and Saturday morning, until things got too close and we were asked to leave. After compression the video is terrible and the commentary even worse (daughter in tow), but you get an idea of what we were witnessing here, there's 160+ miles of this same scene all along foothill and mountain communities in Northern L.A. County. http://photobucket.com/altadenafire - Sorry, off topic.

 

[gooseyloosey]

Good to hear your family and house are OK Umberto. Those are some amazing pictures.

Please feel free to separate this thread if you want.

 

[Drevs]

Great news! Time to swap in a new cabin filter for the RRS

 

[RossoCorsaItaly]

Who's still scratching his head (although maybe I have lice) trying to understand if Copart or any auction site is so overpriced why they would have any buyers at all, or if their commissions are so high why they would have any sellers. Either there would be a complete dearth of buyers (overpriced), or sellers (underpriced), and yet they seem to be growing the business.

A large percentage of their buyers are international, who can pay more because their car prices vary drastically from those in the U.S, others are ignorant U.S. dealers or wreckers who plan on taking the cars apart.

Sorry I must have just gotten the wrong vibe from you, so hard to tell over the net.

Either way let me know if I can clear up anything else about CoPart, Manheim, or auctions in general.

On a side note, RRS prices are very high right now on the wholesale side! Need an 06 SC with 50-70k miles if anyone knows of one.

 

[gooseyloosey]

Thanks Rosso!

Since we have two topics going in this thread, here are some pics of the wildfire(s)

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/wildfires_in_southern_californ.html

Check out 26.

 

[Drevs]

I keep the Big Picture open 24/7 and often check for updates. Awesome site...

 

[umbertob]

Off topic again... But I am getting a little sick of seeing firefighters lately. This morning I got to work and as I entered the parking lot of our business park I almost passed out when I saw charred office furniture stacked up in front of my office, firefighters trucks everywhere. As it turns out, the small business right next door to our warehouse (an internet vendor of computer and electronics batteries) went up in smoke and was completely destroyed at around 2 am. Our company was saved by a concrete firewall separating their warehouse from ours and we sustained only minor water damage during the firefighting effort - no structural damage (or so we hope, engineers will double check the building tomorrow), although we lost all utilities: Power, water, phones, fax, email, internet access... Only power has been restored as of tonight and phones/DSL and water are very iffy for tomorrow, too, since everything kind of melted away. Didn't get much work done on a cell phone, that's for sure. The guys on the other end of the affected business weren't nearly as lucky, since there was only a drywall separation. They got heavy water damage and the roof in their warehouse partially collapsed, so they had to move out. The whole area smells awful. Fire dept is still investigating, they are sure it's electrical in nature but not so sure it was an accident. :evil:

Before going home tonight I took some pictures of the carnage for your enjoyment.

This is their front entrance adjacent to ours, talk about a close call!

Few shots from the rear alley, the total destruction in plain view:

This concrete firewall saved our ass from certain disaster:

That flimsy drywall didn't protect their neighbors on the other end much, although firefighters were able to limit damage to their business to water and a partially caved roof: