Selling a Car
Selling a Car
Cars & Bids is the best place to sell your modern enthusiast car – and we’ve made the process easy.
1. Submit Your Car
It’s free to submit your car. We simply ask you for a few details – including the VIN, some photos, and a brief description of the car. You can also choose whether you want to set a reserve price, or if you want your vehicle to be sold with no reserve. A reserve price is a minimum value you’ll accept in order to sell your car – and while a reserve auction may seem like an appealing choice, we’ve found that vehicles offered with no reserve get more bids, more interest, and more attention.
If you choose a reserve auction, we’ll ask you to suggest a reserve price – but, based on market conditions, we may ask for a lower one before accepting your car. Keep in mind that all of our auctions start from $0, regardless of whether or not they have a reserve.
Our experienced auction team will review your submission and may ask you some follow-up questions. We will do our best to give you an answer within a business day. Not every car is right for Cars & Bids, but we always appreciate you taking the time to submit your car to us!
2. Prepare Your Listing
Once your submission is accepted, we’ll need some additional information from you – like detailed photos, service and ownership history, etc. Don’t worry – we’re here to help you throughout the process!
- Before you can sell on Cars & Bids, your car must not be listed for sale elsewhere – meaning you’ll have to remove any other advertisement for your car and you cannot accept offers outside of the auction.
- Take excellent photos of your car to get top dollar – hire a professional photographer or review our photo guide before snapping your own pics.
- Film a quick video walk-around and cold-start – just shoot them on your phone in landscape mode and upload to YouTube or Vimeo.
- Have your car inspected to get top dollar – you can order your inspection after your submission is accepted, and once you approve your inspection report we can include it with your listing.
- Review the process for transferring vehicle titles in your state – and, if you have a loan on the vehicle, review the process and timeline for paying it off with your lender.
- Get ready for a thrilling 7-day auction and be prepared to engage with the community and answer questions as they arise.
3. Finalize Your Auction
Once you’ve provided us with all of the necessary information and photos, we’ll create a draft of your listing for you to approve. Once you’ve reviewed and approved it, we’ll work with you to schedule your auction, and it will go live shortly thereafter!
4. Participate in the Auction
- Timely and positive seller participation in the auction – responding to comments and questions, providing additional pictures or videos as needed, etc – is crucial to a successful auction. Good seller participation will result in additional interest, more bids, and a higher final sale price.
- Interested bidders may contact you directly via email using the “Contact Seller” feature, allowing them to schedule test drives, pre-purchase inspections (at their cost), and ask additional questions.
- Enjoy the final minutes – many of our auctions end with thrilling bidding wars, so get ready!
5. Auction End
After the auction closes, you’ll have the option to use Cars & Bids SafePay to complete your sale quickly and securely, 100% online. You’ll also receive the buyer’s contact information (and vice-versa) in order to finalize the details and logistics of the transaction. Learn more about Finalizing the Sale.
If your auction had a reserve and it was not met, we’ll reach out to you and the highest bidder to see if we can help make a deal!