Auctions no good for sub £1000?

[Cheezey]

I recently bought a Jazz cheap from a woman at work. 'It's a 57 plate, I'm just going to scrap it'! It needed a good clean, a heatshield fixed and some new mats. After that it looked great. I then advertised it cheap and it sold to guy needing a good car within a couple of hours. Within a few hours I had 15+ calls, messages and emails it was that cheap. 

 

I enjoyed doing it and was happy to pass it on cheap again. A bit like Pete and Dud's affordable forecourt in the modern section.

 

I fancy doing it again and was going to go to an auction on my week off next week. I looked on the websites of auction places in Glasgow, Livingston and Bathgate(I think). Looking at the fees for the private buyer it didn't seem like it was worth buying at auction for sub £1000. 

 

Anyone got any auction tips for sub £1000 in central Scotland? I can understand now why a tie up with a bigger dealer is so important for a smaller trader for stock. 

[Broadsword]

Personally I would stick with eBay for now. It seems to be a buyer's market at the moment.

[Cheezey]

I had assumed that ship had sailed many years ago for bargain buys on eBay. I bid about £700 recently on a diesel MG ZT. It finished with me as the highest bidder but reserve not met. 

My wife mentioned Facebook has loads of cheap stuff for sale now. The last couple of times I tried Facebook again I gave up within ten minutes. 

[DodgyBastard]

Facebook marketplace has loads of cheap shit, if you browse regularly and can go to view stuff at short notice it's easy to get a bargain.

[cort16]

Anything of that value at the auction is pretty much scrap. The dregs that traders wouldn't take and other crap folk are trying to off load as they've got problems.

The last car  I bought from Auction at this price was cursed Panda 100HP. 

As said Facebook marketplace and gumtree is much better at least you can kick the tyres and the sellers tend to be slightly more honest.

[timolloyd]

Worth checking your local nextdoor.co.uk too. There won’t be many (if any) cars there, but in me experience it’s populated by sensible people wanting to give stuff away to good homes. Certainly in my area, that includes cars too.

[Flat4]

There used to an auction at the cattle market in Stirling, either Saturday or Sunday morning. Not sure if it's still there but it was cheap.

Prices seem to be pretty strong on eBay atm!

[brownnova]

Is Cannock too far??!

[Cheezey]

I occasionally used to go to the cattle market one many years ago on Tuesday night. It moved to the Marches car park for a bit. 

I wonder if it is still on. 

[sierraman]

Auctions not really worth it unless you’ve an account with them, fees can double the price sometimes on few hundred quid stuff. 

[CortinaDave]

Ive got a have a go trader mate whos got an account with BCA and has given me a silver card. As above though everything under a grand seems to be absolute crap and theres dozens of other small time traders there looking for the same as you so anything that does look reasonable is never a bargain.

the silver card fees also seem to be a secret, theyre not listed on the website so I asked last time I was in and the woman at reception would only tell me the fee on a specific sale price, not give me the fee structure list. "sorry im not allowed to give you this".  God knows why

[sierraman]

Nobody apart from the tin pot sometime car dealers use the auctions for bangers. Someone doing it as a proper business will likely have a contact at a main dealer or wherever to take whatever comes in part ex. The fees on small time stuff isn’t worth it. Auctions are ok for ex fleet direct stuff but still you need big bollocks, a three grand 120k Insignia has a lot of potential to look superficially ok but shit it’s gearbox on the way home. Stuff under 3 years old as well that’s done mega miles goes for over the odds. You can probably guess then where all these 3 year old 35,000 mile old cars come from you see at various used car lots. 10 minutes correcting the mileage, an empty service book and some stamps and ink off eBay.