Auction vs. Buy it Now: What’s the Difference?

You’ve been browsing through clean-title, salvage, and repairable cars for sale on AutoBidMaster. Now, you wanna know: what’s the difference between a regular auction and “Buy it Now?”

Good news: we’re here to clear that up.

Auctions

When we speak about auctions, they have two phases: preliminary bidding and live auctions. During the preliminary bidding phase, members can place bids on vehicles, and the highest bid placed here will be represented incrementally at the time of a live auction.

The live auction, on the other hand, happens in real-time. You’ll bid as high as you’d like and your buyer power allows. The live auction is over once bidding stops. These auctions go quick!

Different auctions have different rules and sale statuses attached to them as well. An auction marked “Pure Sale” means that the vehicle seller hasn’t set its price. So, the car is awarded to the highest bid; that’s that. An auction marked “On Minimum Bid” has a price that needs to be met before the vehicle is freely awarded. An auction marked “On Seller Approval” will need the seller to approve the winning bid by 6:00 PM PST the following business day.

Buy It Now

An auction marked “Buy It Now,” however, has a fixed price that allows you to skip the entire auction process. If the “Buy It Now” price looks good to you, you can buy the vehicle for that amount (plus all associated fees – use the Fee Calculator listed on every page to find the total), and that’s that! Yet, it’s also possible to take part in the usual auction process and place a bid on the vehicle in the “Buy It Now” category.

The most important thing to note is that the sale price, be it through a “Buy It Now” vehicle or an auction, still has all associated auction and documentation fees attached to it. Keep that in mind when placing your bid.

Another thing to note: we have different membership levels that give you breaks in fees. Here’s a quick breakdown:

Our Basic Membership fees are $299 or 9%, whichever is greater.

Our Advanced Membership ($199/year) fees are $299 or 7%, whichever is greater.

Our Premium Membership ($349/year) fees are $200 or 4%, whichever is greater.

Keep in mind that you can only make one vehicle purchase with a Basic Membership, and you’re limited to a maximum bid of $3,500. Live auctions are also only available to Advanced and Premium members. So, if you’re planning on buying a more expensive vehicle, you can save a significant amount of money with an upgraded membership.

Summing Up

So, when you’re looking for repairable salvage-title cars for sale, now you know what to do when you find the perfect one on AutoBidMaster. If it’s got a “Buy It Now” price that fits your budget, you can buy it right then and there. If you want to try to win it for less, or if there isn’t a “Buy It Now,” you can bid during pre-bidding or the live auction.