One starts to wonder if Bring A Trailer's strategy is to sell so many cars that the community doesn't notice when it screws up, big time. Most of you probably missed this auction for a 2017 Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet, which was withdrawn by BaT after $50,000 in bids had been logged. The reason for being withdrawn? The car didn't exist, aside from in the entry form submitted by a seller who was very close to securing a significant wire transfer while providing nothing in return.
I have it on good authority that this 911 was pitched to another auction site that managed to catch the issues, which were numerous. As pointed out in the comments section of the BaT listing, the warning signals were obvious if you cared enough to Google the VIN (BaT didn't). It revealed a car sold in the past year with:
1) different seats;
2) different wheels and tires;
3) completely different rear badging stating it was an "S," with current badges stating it’s a 4S (which per the VIN, it was not);
4) and additional discrepancies listed in the BaT comments.
In addition, the listing showed two different VIN numbers in the gallery photos, with one linking back to a 911 sold on PCarMarket and another sold via Carvana in May '23. Guess what? Cars can't have two VINs, and almost anyone with half a brain could deduct that the seller simply got sloppy in submitting the wrong pictures from two different listings as opposed to just sticking with one set of numbers. Either way, they were well on their way to a payday by simply submitting a listing with photos pulled from a five minute Google search.
BaT is a large operation these days. I applied for an auction specialist role a few years back and the only way to move forward was to leave my full-time job to take a 40-hour-per-week job them, along with a nearly 75 percent reduction in pay. The fact that they demanded full-time employment indicated to me that their operations were on another level compared to its competitors; now, I know that's not true.
If BaT's intake team can't even Google the VIN before a listing goes live, what does that tell you about their overall approach to quality control? To me, it says it's non-existent. It also lends further credence to the belief that any car you buy on its platform being thoroughly vetted is a complete falsehood. You stand as much chance buying a good car on BaT as you do from the corner used car lot.
I don't have an auction platform; I simply have a way to offer additional proof from upstanding sellers that their car is their car, and that they have been steadily investing in it since taking ownership. With more transactions moving to an entirely digital format, it's time we start demanding better from BaT and requiring safeguards that protect buyers from unscrupulous sellers.