Market Intelligence
BaT. The Far side of the Moon
The article discusses the auction house Bring a Trailer (BaT), which specializes in online sales of classic and supercars. With a turnover of around $853 million, BaT outperforms major traditional auction houses such as RM Sotheby’s, Bonhams, and Gooding. BaT offers approximately 650 to 700 cars per week, with each lot having its own deadline. The auction house has developed a fair technique to prevent last-second challenges, and bidding wars can continue even after the allotted time has expired. BaT is famous for selling mid-priced youngtimers between $50,000 and $250,000. It has outperformed traditional auction houses in sales of Dodge Viper GTS, Acura Integra Type R, Porsche 944 Turbo, and Nissan Skyline GT-R. However, cars produced between the late 40s and mid-60s, which are the main segment of traditional auction houses, are less present on BaT.
Not many people know that there is an auction house specialised in Classic cars and supercars that invoices more than the three historic leaders of this market - RM Sotheby’s, Bonhams and Gooding. And when I say more, I mean more than the three big auction houses combined, with a turnover somewhere in the region of $853 million. Its name is Bring a Trailer, and you’ll find it in America, owned by the powerful publishing group, Hearst. Created about ten years ago to focus on online auctions, it was successful long before traditional auction houses were forced into the same arena by the Pandemic. And it was the Pandemic that confirmed Bring a Trailer’s absolute dominance of the format.
How does it work? For want of a better word, like a war machine: every week, BaT offers somewhere in the region of 650/700 cars at a time, and on every occasion, they’re different as each lot has its own deadline. Among the many clever things they’ve introduced, they have devised a serious and fair technique to avoid frustrating last-second challenges before the time expires. Each offer made inside the expiry phase of the fixed terms guarantees an extra two minutes of time for anyone who wants to raise the bid. This means that bidding wars can erupt after the allotted time has expired.
As always, let’s try to understand how it works by choosing a few select lots.
