TCG Stories

Over the last few months, Hagerty has re-published an article warning classic and vintage car owners about the propensity for being taken as total suckers by unscrupulous dealers and consigners. At first, I thought - how on Earth could so many people, who were presumably of some means, be taken advantage of so easily? 

One of the biggest scandals in recent months is the implosion of CPR Classics, a highly-regarded Porsche restoration and consignment service that apparently just started straight-up taking people's cars under the pretense of paying them (hilarious!), selling the cars without titles, pocketing the cash, and then just not answering their phones. And very few of the scam victims even bothered to drive over to the shop and see whether their $150,000 911 still existed. Pardon my vulgarity, but WTF? 

And if you really want to get into a rabbit hole about how incestuous the industry is about protecting bad actors and hiding the fact that some fairly intelligent people have been scammed, you should try and click on this link to a 1972 911S that BaT listed on behalf of CPR before being exposed as marketing a car that didn't exist and CPR had no right to sell. If you click that link, does BaT ask you to log in? And then when you do, does the URL take you no where? Yeah, me too - you can get more details here on the Early 911S Registry, which thankfully, hasn't been shut down by BaT. It still appears on Classic.com, but again, BaT has obviously scrubbed the link and gone to great lengths to make sure you don't realize just how little due diligence they actually do.

With friends like that at BaT, how is anyone really safe when you let outside companies who have dealers interests at heart run the show? 

How should you buy a vintage car sight-unseen

As someone who has bought numerous cars sight-unseen from sellers who I just generally trusted, it caused some self-reflection. Basically, I realized I have an informal checklist that is on autopilot in these situations. The steps include:

1.) I'd like multiple angles of photos beyond what was included in your listing. 

2.) I want to talk on the phone, at length, about key history details and potential issues.

3.) I want to dig through any records you have of the car before I commit. 

Now, here's the thing: as a seller, this can feel like a burden. But I always commit to sending a deposit before any of this commences as an act of good faith and for ensuring the seller gets something for their time if I walk. That's only fair. This approach has yet to cause any heartburn on the part of people I'm considering buying a car from, and if I get two out of three - usually multiple phone calls and some photos of the specific areas I asked for (service records are a bonus) - I'm content to move forward. 

According to Hagerty, some people were wiring thousands and thousands of dollars without doing any of this, and being snookered by photos that the scammer simply grabbed from an eBay or Bring A Trailer listing. I never realized it was that easy!

Why a records-driven approach is better for buyers - and sellers

Of course, this is why we provide the solution we do, which is a records-driven approach to car selling. Users can document their work and receipts for as long as they own the car, and then create a for sale listing that sucks all of those records into one easily shareable ad. If an owner is tracking their investment and overall curation of a car, it demonstrates a track record of ownership that is near impossible to fake. And since The Common Gear provides full access control where your records are only visible to the people you agree to share the listing with, it greatly reduces the potential for fakery (as opposed to every Bring a Trailer listing that is still visible years after the car has sold.) 

When you buy a car, it's a commitment on both sides. And while we have all bought the occasional project with zero paper trail for peanuts because, well, who doesn't love a basketcase, that's a very different proposition than spending $20, $30, or $100,000 of your own hard-earned cash on a supposedly well-loved car. 

If we all demand more when we decide to buy an enthusiast vehicle, the ability for scam artists to take advantage of people in this hobby will become far less appealing. 

Back in the day, you wanted to buy a Porsche from guys named Max Hoffman or Al Holbert. They were known in the community for different reasons; Hoffman was an early Porsche booster who influenced factory decisions from New York, while Holbert was a grassroots racer who rose through the ranks of both the motorsports community and the car business, with his dealership receiving allocations of some of the most sought-after new Porsche models. Literally, car purchasing decisions were made based on the proximity to guys who had close relationships with the factory. 

That afterglow was powerful. It got to a point that people saw it a badge of honor to say they owned a Holbert car. To this day, a Holbert license plate frame will net you several hundred bucks on eBay. However, putting too much faith in a vendor or an enthusiast icon can overshadow what is a rotten car at its core. That recently happened with a Range Rover Classic that sold for $25,000 on Bring A Trailer but popped up on the private market after the sale fell through on BaT.

First of all, the sale didn't proceed because a shill bidder ran up multiple auctions and flaked on more than one. That's a story for another day. The seller, a private party that sells a few times each year on BaT, was connected to a private buyer via someone who I can only assume is a casual broker (there are lots of these popping up in the online auction era.) The broker negotiated a sale for the final bid price for the 1995 Range Rover County Classic SWB of $25,000 and the deal closed seemingly after the no-sale on BaT. 

As the screenshots that accompany this article show, the Rover was delivered with numerous issues, not the least of which was an apparent head gasket failure that caused the truck to run hot once it reached highway speed. Apparently, the seller didn't allow the PPI to include on-the-road driving, only a cold start and whatever operational speed was used to move it in and out of a service station bay. Obviously, this should have been a red flag - but for all but the most pessimistic buyers, the BaT effect can instill confidence that is grounded in nothing other than the prolonged existence of the platform.

"It's been around for years and everyone gets a great price - that must mean I'm getting a great car!" Wrong. The platform has always existed to benefit the seller with all liabilities placed on the buyer. Some of you may be saying, "Well, duh - it doesn't matter how you buy a risky enthusiast vehicles, it's your responsibility to assess its condition" - and I would say you're correct. However, when you buy via a forum or a craigslist ad, there's an awareness that you're on your own. It's up to you to trust your gut and your internal moral compass whether the seller is a decent human being. If you're a novice at this or perhaps typically insulated from vehicle purchases, the comment section on BaT can feel like all the validation you need. 

A few things about this particular truck: one, if you watch the videos, it's pretty obvious the seller is going out of his way to keep the temperature gauge out of view. Every driving video has the frame stopping in the middle of the cluster with the fuel gauge visible, but you can't see the temperature gauge on the left side. Also, there was a bit of foreshadowing via a comment that asked why the overflow tank was empty; the seller responded with a nothingburger answer about the fact that he uses Evans brand coolant. Some potential warning signs, for sure, but if you don't have a sixth sense about things like a seller not allowing for an actual test drive during a PPI, those clues will fly over your head. It reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from The Wire, when Commissioner Burrell reminds his cohorts how ruthless the streets can be: "It's Baltimore, gentlemen. The gods will not save you."

By the same token, a BaT auction does not sterilize your purchase. It can go wrong a thousand different ways. And as the unfortunate buyer of this Range Rover found out when he asked his broker to propose a solution with the seller of a $5,000 refund and he'll go away (well short of the $10,000 -$15,000 in estimated repair costs), the seller responded that he had no money and the proceeds were already spent. 

It's enough to make one wish that we still did our deals with the likes of Hoffman and Holbert. 

Recently, The Common Gear co-founder Jeff Lavery joined his friend Rudy Samsel of Guys with Rides to talk about the state of the collector car market, with a specific focus on the so-called claims of "money laundering" that continue to surround certain cars on auction sites. Check out the latest edition here.

At some point, you just can't help people. I know I crow about sellers of enthusiast vehicles being unfairly forced into selling at no reserve, but that's really not much different than believing a fat person was forced to get all their nutrition from Dairy Queen. 

You have the right to say no; it's just that you're impatient, or otherwise under the impression that you need to sell your vehicle as quickly as possible, damning the consequences that it may involve in the process. That's the strangest thing about people who complain about the results of their no reserve auction: you literally don't have to sell your car that way. 

There's an odd sense of compulsion that develops among some sellers whereby they decide to roll the dice on a car they absolutely know to be worth more than what the auction house is telling them. I sold my 1995 Audi S6 over the summer for what was probably a very good price, but I still feel content I got a fair deal - especially when you consider how little time I spent actually selling it. I left maybe $1,200 on the table, but it sold in a little over 12 hours. So, let's assume that the addition $1,200 would have required another five days of live selling, talking with buyers, dealing with tire kickers, etc., etc., and you multiple 120 additional hours times my professional hourly rate - well, you're talking about way more than $1,200.

Yes, there's a definite value to selling something quickly, but I also know based on how the Audi presented (bad paint) I would have gotten raked over the coals by the armchair quarterbacks on an internet auction versus a guy showing up and seeing how solid the car was mechanically. At the end of the day, I still managed the transaction myself, on my terms, and likely made more money than a glitzy internet auction would have. 

There's a combination of issues happening: sellers assume that managing the sale themselves will require more time than they think, and they believe the auction houses will get a better price, and faster, than if they did it themselves. There are no guarantees for either of those conditions. 

Put simply, they are being lazy. You don't want to be this guy who got absolutely FLEECED on Hemmings because, I guess, he wanted the car gone before winter. But in looking at the video, he's got quite a bit of space and the Chrysler could have absolutely stayed there a few weeks while he dealt with some in-person meetings. Multiple commenters posted that they would have been interested if they knew the car was for sale. Even if just one of those was legit, he could have likely gotten a better price for his car than agreeing to the Hemmings terms, which again - and I can't state this enough - no one is forcing you to sell your car this way. 

Our platform allows you to be as detailed or as brief as you want, but the smart play is to upload your records or photos documenting maintenance work to drive higher buyer confidence, and justify a higher asking price. Craigslist is gone, Marketplace is a dumpster fire, and The Common Gear is here to help you sell your enthusiast vehicle on your own terms.

First of all, this is not a Bring a Trailer "hate post." Not at all. What it is serves more as a reminder that the bigger an entity gets, the greater the distance becomes between its intended mission and the people it claims to serve. Pierre Hedary, a noted Mercedes-Benz expert and shop owner, has politely pointed out recently that he's received an influx of customer cars bought on BaT with significant, undisclosed mechanical issues, and for that, he's been called out by the internet flash mob. 

You should watch his latest video here; as usual, Pierre is extremely measured in his response, and does very little (if anything) to fan inflammatory flames. The most hilarious feedback he's received since his original video questioning the BaT effect (Why Bring A Trailer Cars are a Terrible Idea) is that he's some sort of closeted liberal, which of course, is the knee-jerk response by anyone who feels personally attacked that their open checkbook lifestyle is risky at best ("Oooh, you dare question my purchasing power, you must be a poor liberal schmuck - please), but beyond that, it's incredible how insecure folks get when someone dares question whether BaT has any integrity whatsoever about the vehicles they sell. 

Listen: buying vintage cars and trucks is inherently risky behavior. Things can go wrong in a big way and you can be upside down in a hurry. That's the roll of the dice we all live with. The problem that Pierre points to is a very simple disconnect between the BaT brand and the buying experience that many real-world folks are having. BaT has, intentionally or otherwise, built a reputation that indicates they have the ability to connect buyers with the best cars and most professional sellers. If you buy on BaT, you avoid the supposed refuse that haws their wares on craigslist and Marketplace. 

The reality is, this simply isn't true. Are there good cars on BaT? Yes. Are there good cars on craigslist? Yes. Are their total shitboxes in both places? Yes to that as well - but if you say it about BaT, be prepared for the pitchforks. 

Many of the loyalists to BaT are the same kinds of folks who would chastise people of a certain political stripe for ardently following an elected official without asking enough questions. The irony is they don't practice what they preach as it relates to buying and selling cars, so many of them are hypocritical at best. To date, I have sold three cars on BaT and have never bought a single one of the eight vehicles I own on their platform. With few exceptions, I have been pleasantly surprised by every vehicle I own, but that's because I'm buying the seller, not the car - and that is a dynamic that's near impossible to create on BaT, where both the seller and the company leadership refuse to stand behind their products once the hammer is down and the wire transfer is complete. 

Hey everyone - we're excited to share with you the first in a series of instructional videos on how to use The Common Gear to store digitized records of the maintenance and improvements you're making to your collector and vintage-grade cars and trucks. 

One of our primary test users, Lars, has a 1988 BMW 325is he's been logging updates of since he bought the car last summer. From road trips to oil changes, he captures vital details about his car's history that will be useful for his own tracking purposes, or if he decides to sell the car later on. 

Check out the video below for quick overview of how he uses The Common Gear for his own maintenance tracking, and watch this space for more quick instructional videos on how to put The Common Gear to work for you.