Bring a Trailer Reviews

My experience with BAT was outstanding. They assisted me with auction prep and notified me immediately of my auction results. BUT, my car was sold on September 12, 2025 and it is not September 24, 2025 and I have not yet been paid for the car. According to emails I received the sellers funds were deposited September 16, 2025. My experience with Caramel, the company BAT uses to handle payment has been one star at best. If BAT cannot find a better way to handle closing I would advise not using BAT to sell your car. BAT does not allow any other way to close the sale so Caramel reflects badly on the entire process.

Bring-A-Trailer is corrupt!!! They knowingly and intentionally allow blatant and very serious false advertising simply to garner a commission. In September of 2025, in listing #210966, the seller, Mr. Doug ** of Vintage Museum Restoration in Indianapolis, Indiana posted, directly, that the vehicle being sold "IS" legal for Vintage Kart Racing which affects the value greatly. Yet about a month earlier, on August 13, 2025 the seller Mr. ** directly posted on a Facebook post on Texas Karting Network (and I quote) "WARNING this kart is NOT legal in VKA". VKA is the Vintage Karting Association! This blatant misrepresentation, with the proof thereof, was brought to the attention of Bring-A-Trailer numerous times and ignored.

Sold a jeep that I had bought a year prior, made some improvements and put about 3k to it and wanted to move on to a different project, so I listed it back on BAT, the weeks before, they only had two other jeeps of the same model listed. The week my went for sale, they had 6 and flooded the market. They say they don’t do that. My jeep went for 2k less than when I bought it a year prior due to their manipulation. Also I had no say in the end date of the auction. The middle of the week on a Wednesday at 1:30, is not a great end time. Then we used the BAT check out a week later, I still have not been funded my full payment, the buyer has the jeep and BAT has the title and I am left with shortchanged. Broken system, they had do it recommend selling with them.

Very strange site. They refuse listings that are much better than some of the junk they DO list. I have never had so many complaints with a company. They are rude, terrible communication and execution of deals. RUN AWAY!

Seller beware! There is a clause in the seller’s agreement that permits BaT to accept a high bid less than the reserve, that BaT would make up the difference. Which is okay, provided that BaT actually follows through and does make up the difference. My vehicle sold for $53,000 but reserve was $55,000. BaT accepted the high bid and promised me a check for the $2,000 difference. Vehicle sold July 4; it is now August 17 and still no check. Bat has stopped responding to my requests for payment and it looks like I will need to file a legal action against them. Very frustrating situation…

Ass company. Pick and choose what they want to sell. 0/10. Stay far away and sell elsewhere. Almost discrimination honestly. Never sell your vehicle here and if you do throw a bag of shit in the drivers seat.

I just got off the phone for the last time with BaT as I was attempting to sell one of my collector vehicles. I had posted this same vehicle with a reserve six months ago during the winter months, obviously not prime market time. I attempted to repost the same vehicle, which is forty five years old, highly optioned, unmolested in original showroom condition with extremely low miles. I even invested 5K to replace all wear items since they were old and dry rotted, everything from brakes, cooling, fuel, ignition, tires, to give the buyer a reliable vehicle for years to come. Nothing like buying someone's POS money pit.

Bought a Jeep on Bring A Trailer May 20 2025. Seller was a total scam. Bring a trailer did no vetting of the seller or refused to look into them. I followed there instructions exactly. The seller was not in the USA. They where skipping titles. The seller was running a fake dealership from Illinois. I Paid for the vehicle in full. I did eventually get the vehicle, not at all as described. It does not even go down the road. The main problem is that it is now June 20th and I have no title. I can not sue or go after the seller because I don't even know who they are and the name supplied by bring a trailer is in a different country. I am shocked that a big site like this does not even get the ID from the seller. So now I am out $13,500 and Bring a Trailer says there is nothing they can do.

This was a decent Place to buy but Not Now, They also Should let the Bidding Public know if there Is a Reserve on a Vehicle that is listed, Of Course not the Reserve Price but let the Public Know there is a Reserve. Also They leave Auctions up that were 4-5 Years ago, Here is the Problem with That, I Bought a Vehicle for a Certain price and then I put over 10k In the car and when I decided to sell it people go right back to the Auction price I Paid for it, Even Though I did and Put Up Receipt’s for what was SPENT to make the Vehicle MUCH Better and Needed Work most people still come back and say “You only Paid 7k for it, now your asking almost Double for it”.

Caution Beware... My Son purchased a Toyota 4Runner that blew up 90 miles. The seller said on a long post about the vehicle had no Temperature issues.. His comments were solid about the vehicle and so my Son bid and won it.. He flew from Utah to Peoria AZ to pickup.. When my Son arrived at the House to pick up the Seller advised him he should put on a trailer and drive home.. My Son explained that after speaking to him several times on the phone why are you telling me this now..

Bidder beware. Even if the seller misrepresents the product, Bringatrailer.com keeps their commission! They do not stand behind anything posted on their site, nor do they offer any customer reviews on sellers. They are a total scam.

I recently won (May 2025) a 1974 Alfa Romeo Spider on Bring-A-Trailer. The car was presented by the selling dealer as a very well preserved Example of this make he had gotten from a collector in Arizona and Illinois. The comments from prospective bidders on the car asked if everything was functional on the car which the selling dealer indicated they were except for the horn. I took this on face value of the dealer. Big mistake. After I received the car and went thru it I found numerous issues not indicated: 1. Completely dry steering box ( No Gear Oil and seal leak) 2. Inoperative heater blower motor. 3. Washer fluid tank would not hold water nor does fluid pump operate. 3. Suspension rattles due to bad shocks and bushings. 4. Air filters for Fuel Injection plugged due to lack of maintenance. 5. Manual Throttle Cable broke and inoperative.

Extremely disappointed with Bring-A-Trailer. I have been using/bidding on the site for many years since the beginning. The website is now focused on quantity over quality which is sad as that is most definitely not the founding principles of the website in the beginning. Bring A Trailer now focuses on favoritism of certain ads. Example: an almost identical vehicle is being sold with a high reserve. When you have to list the other vehicle you get forced to make the ad with no reserve which ultimately the vehicle sells at a much lower rate. This occurred to me.

AVOID THIS SITE AT ALL COST!! This is the worst site I have ever used. All they care about is making a buck. Their customer service is just plain awful and rude. If I could leave 0 stars or negative stars I would!! Use any other car auction site besides this one!

Have commented on BAT for a while both positive and negative comments as to the cars and their presentation. Always keeping it honest and accurate. Then a 'high end' seller complains that my comments are not helping those with 'high end' cars sell them. Bat then restricts my account and no longer allows me to comment, much less ever accept one of my offerings. The notion that Bat wants transparency is nonsense. They only want to provide a safe venue for those who provide them the most income. Started out as a great venue and has evolved to just another money machine for the wealthy.

I bid on a car in late '24 and everything with the car and dealer was good however BaT not so much. They tacked on a hidden fee just to get the seller's contact info, I had another user there ask me about how everything went with the sale and I had bought that up. BaT swooped in and lied. Stated I was not charged such a fee so I posted a screenshot of the invoice they sent and they banned me. I asked them to remove my account and remove my card info from BaT but they did nothing, not even a reply to the email and it seems that they do not have any phone number to call... A few months later I get emails about bids being made on my banned account. I login and see that I was no longer banned, could not remove my credit card so I reset the password and emailed them again to close my account. Nothing, then again more bids I did not make were made.

Disappointing experience listing a car for auction with Bring a Trailer at every step from start to finish. They argued with me about the reserve I required, rejecting my auction twice before eventually coming back and agreeing to a higher number each time, eventually agreeing to the number I presented as my requirement at the start. No purpose to the argumentative responses at all as to the reserve I needed. The next step was photography. I hired the professional photographer (about $400) that they recommended and one of the first comments in the auction was that “this car would really benefit from professional photography”. Hardly a rousing endorsement and such a terrible start.

Heard so many good things until I started to deal with them. I wish I had read about them ahead of time. I would deal with one person then another. Zero experience when looking for VIN numbers on older cars. They give you no direction and you have to investigate and find the information yourself. Took hours and when I finally found it and sent it to them they disregard the information sent. I send them an official form with what is needed to confirm the VIN and that is still not enough because they DIDN'T READ THE FORM!!!! Honestly MORONS!!! I believe kids are running this and have no idea. STAY AWAY!!!!

I bought a motorcycle through BaT, and it was delivered to me with damage. The seller and their own shipper didn't have a pre-shipment inspection completed, and now there is nothing to show liability or a way for me to recoup my loss. The seller has been one of BaT's customers for many years and has made huge profits off of them. BaT should ensure that they do not allow their bikes to be shipped without any means of insuring for damage while in transport, but they do not.

I contacted BaT to list my 1972 Firebird, complete re-build with all the best parts out there. BaT didn't like my reserve that I wanted to set for my auction. First they tried to get me to go to a no reserve auction, then they wanted me to limit it to what THEY wanted it to be at, which was half my reserve price. Because I would not lose all my money by putting the reserve where THEY wanted me to, they refused to list my car. I will never buy or sell with them and I will make sure that I spread the word to the car community.

Do Not use BAT, EBAY is better, all they care about is to make a sale and charge your credit card, Most of the comments made in the comment section, when for sale, are people that have nothing better to do but degrade your car, just jealous because you have something they don't and can't afford, then you have the know it alls, and the deaders that make things up, been there 3 times, no more for me.

I am echoing the sentiments that I read here. With all the reviews and very little positive speaks volumes about BaT. BaT didn't want a reserve even though it was significantly below the recent selling prices of the same model. Nonsensical irrational reasons provided. I didn't get the impression that my assigned assistant truly understood classic and collector cars or was interested in being helpful. It was clear from his communications that this was just a job for him. Without the feeling of trust with BaT staff, I feel that I may have dodged a bullet here. I would suggest to anyone considering offering their lovingly looked after vehicle to a new home to go elsewhere. BaT appears to have lost their way.

Seller was very nice until I flew up to pay and drive the car home. I got an AIRBNB in the area the seller instructed me to. When I wanted to start the car before I wired the money, the seller became extremely irate and demanded I wire the money right away and tell him the second the money got into his account. This of course was impossible since I did not have access to his account. So, I booked the next cheap flight home. There was no way to contact anyone at BAT promptly. You can only email them. It took me a few months but I got my deposit money back through my credit card company. Not only was the seller irrational but by the emails I got from BAT, it seemed that they were in cahoots with the seller. They refused to instruct the seller to treat me, the buyer, civilly. They refused to instruct the seller how money wires work.

Run away. Any site is better. All the nightmare stories online are true. Is not only the users, but a staff that is rude, unprofessional, and dishonest. I had a nightmare buying a car that was completely misrepresented, and thought it was just the seller. I sold a car, and that’s where the nightmare really began. Run away. Any site is better. Fake shill bids, buyers that don’t follow thru, misrepresented cars, dishonest staff, on and on. Run!

While BaT talks a good talk, they appear loathe to accept cars with a reserve, even though they state on their website and application that they take such cars. I signed up to list a classic car and received an email in return saying they did not want to accept the car with a reserve attached and asked me to reconsider a reserve. I explained that if they were as good as they say, they should have no problem meeting or exceeding what I would expect as a minimum. I offered to lower the reserve 20% but received an email two days later declining to list the car with a reserve, but if I wanted to "unlock the full potential" of the sale, they would be happy to list it with no reserve.

I use to trust BaT until I found that they do not vet the VIN number stampings and even though they ask for a copy of the title, they don't always match that to the car's VIN number and if they don't ask for detailed photos of the VIN, you need to be very aware and do your research prior to any purchase or even before you bid. This auction platform is the perfect venue for some unscrupulous seller to dump a vehicle on an unsuspecting buyer as BaT basically will wash their hands of this type of situation after a fraudulent sale and say that you as the buyer, should have asked more question and received more photos of areas of concern even after we as buyers are paying thousands of dollars in purchase fees to BaT.

The sale of my 68 Cadillac Eldorado with BAT auctions was the worst experience I have ever gone through. It took 2 weeks to get my money through their Caramel sale completion service. The buyer was dragging his feet on making payment and signing documents. Then the buyer has used completely incompetent broker services to arrange shipping. It has been 5 weeks since the buyer agreed to buy the car and it is still in my storage building. I have even tried helping him by providing contacts that I know of for shipping. I have notify BAT several times over the weeks and they have done very little to help the buyer mover forward with shipping. So much for the name Bring A Trailer.

I’ve purchased several high-end cars through BaT, but twice now, I’ve had absolutely horrendous experiences. Sellers failed to send me the titles, deliberately made errors to prevent me from transferring the car into my name, and worst of all, BaT has no proper human-driven escalation process to protect buyers. They hide behind delayed, unhelpful email responses. It’s been months, and I still haven't received a valid title for a luxury car I paid for. I wish I could cancel and get my money back, but BaT has provided no meaningful assistance. People should steer clear of this broken business model.

BAT will not list a car with a reserve price that is close to what it is worth. They only make money if the car sells, so they will lowball the seller on the reserve to make sure it sells, even if the seller loses a large percentage of their value to weak bidding! I tried to use them to sell a car that has comparable cars listed online right now for prices between the high 50ks and high 70ks. My car is a mint condition example with less than 20k miles, fully optioned, and clean, with factory accessories like car cover and battery tender. BAT refused to list it unless I lowered my reserve bid from my stated 60k down to 45k, which is 10k less than any other listed comparable car on earth.

Seems like there is discrimination at work in the selection process. I own a classic 1979 Cadillac hot rod with close to $200,000 in documented improvements that was turned down by BAT. They would not allow me to post my car for sale and offered no logical explanation. My car was originally owned by my grandfather who purchased it new in 1979. It was passed down to my mother, father and brother before finally making its way to me. I invested a ton of money and spent more than 10 years customizing the car, using the best of everything available. I have a professional appraisal and receipts for every penny spent. hey claim to carefully curate every car on the platform, yet there are multiple cars similar to mine but no where near as beautiful. Makes no sense and the worst part is the lack of professionalism in simply providing a clear policy detailing how the selection/qualification process works - because it doesn't.