Frequently Asked Questions

AutoBids is a revolutionary new platform that is leveling the playing field for retail customers. This is the platform that allows the public to attend car auctions from the simplicity of their homes. Traditionally, only dealers were able to attend public car auctions. Now with AutoBids, everyone can simply buy and sell cars through online public car auctions! Our operations are limited to the United States for now. Must be 18 years or older to participate in our online car auctions.

Selling your car is simple and first time in history, listing your car is 100% FREE. Just make a new account and post a new listing! Make sure to fill out your car listing to the best of your ability and pick a price target you want to sell for. The bid starting price is calculated by AutoBids’ private algorithms and will be decided by the platform. You have complete control of when the bidding starts, and the bidding finishes 5 days from the time it starts. We recommend adding an inspection document to get more bids on your cars. If the price does not meet your target price, you can either decide to sell your car or you can opt-out of the sale without having to pay any fees, but we think you will want to experience the satisfaction of selling your car on auction! If the bids hit your target price, great! There are NO FEES for cars that are not sold, if the target price is not reached. Make sure the car is not sold anywhere else if you decide to list your car up for auction. Otherwise, the seller will be subject to pay a penalty fee. Remember, our auctions go on for 5 days!
After the auction is over, a chat is set up between you and the buyer where you can talk about the next steps, both the buyer and the seller will also receive e-mails regarding their contact information. If you are still not satisfied with the sale or you changed your mind, you can pay a small penalty of 5% of the listing price and opt out of the sale, but we encourage you to sell your car if it meets your target price. If the sale is successful AutoBids gets 1% of the sale. If the auction is over and it meets your target price and the buyer opts-out, then we pay an inconvenience fee to the seller and the buyer is given a penalty. There is a 5 business-day window to finalize the sale. Cars that are Green light listed can be examined before finalizing the sale.

Buying a car is just as simple as selling a car. Set up an account, pick an active auction for a car you like, and start bidding! It costs $1 + transaction fees (roughly $0.30) to bid on a listing. Dealerships can pay $100 and have access to unlimited amount of bids. Once you have a bid for a listing you do not need to pay to bid for the same listing again. Click on pre-determined price buttons to increase the bids. If someone bids within the last 2 minutes, the time of the auction is increased by 20 seconds. It is as simple as that. You will be notified if you get outbid or if you have won the auction. If you have won the auction, there will be a chat set up between you and the seller to talk about the next steps, and contact information will be given through e-mail. There is a 5% penalty if you opt-out of the sale for an auction you have won. After the auction is over, there is a 5 business-day window to finalize the sale. Green light listed cars can be taken to a certified mechanic for a check. If you have any problems or questions feel free to contact our customer support team! Make sure to enjoy the process of buying your car!

The cars on our platform are divided into 3 categories. AS-IS: This means that you get what you see. There are no promises made by the seller to the functionality of the car. The buyer accepts the car with it’s faults whether it can be seen or not. Green Light: This is a promise by the seller that 3 functionalities of the car is working: the engine, the transmission, and the air conditioning system. This gives the buyer the chance to have those 3 parts examined before finalizing the purchase. Salvage: Salvage title means the car may or may not be working and that the car suffered some sort of significant damage in the past.

Yes! We have a “Sponsored Listings” tab on our website and app designed for this specific request. Increase the amount of visibility on your listing by promoting it on our “Sponsored Listings” tab. Reaching more people will result in having a higher amount of bids on your car. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your car to the maximum number of people possible! This is not a mandatory requirement for maximum visibility because there is a chance your car will show up in the “Hottest Items” tab depending on the interest for the car.

From buyers, we take 1% of the total sale amount as a cost of service. Buyers also have to pay $1 for every unique listing they bid on. If you want to bid again for the same listing you don’t have to pay anything. Those are the only costs of buying a car from the AutoBids platform.

Listing a car is 100% FREE. From sellers, we take 1% of the total sale amount as a cost of service. Sellers can choose to promote their listing but this is not mandatory. If the target price is not met and the car is not sold, seller does not pay any fees! Other than that sellers do not have to pay for anything else!

There are no returns after the deal is finalized. If the car-title is listed with a Green light label, then the buyer can take the car to be examined before finalizing the sale. In case there are problems, please contact the seller first. If the seller refuses to return the vehicle or pay for the repairs, contact our customer service with proof of whatever is wrong with the vehicle. If the car is falsely advertised you can also contact our customer service. We strive to provide satisfactory service for both buyers and sellers.

Our bidding process is designed for simplicity. After you pick a car you like then you can bid on it using the predetermined bidding buttons. Once you put in a bid you have to pay $1. You will be notified of the state of your bid constantly. After the bidding process is over, the seller will either accept or reject the bid. If the offer is accepted, the buyer and seller will exchange contact information where they can talk about the details and the next steps. If you have problems during any of the processes please contact our customer service.

Uploading photos is simple. After clicking the “sell a car” button, you will see photos section pop up. Photos should be clearly visible, less than 1 MB in size, and should be in the JPEG format. In the photos part, you can see the different angles recommended to showcase your car. You will reach more people if you follow these recommendations. Using inappropriate pictures or advertising other platforms is completely prohibited on our platform. If a user is caught doing prohibited acts, the user will be subject to fines and will be banned from using our services.

In addition to the final purchase price paid to the seller, buyers pay a 1% buyer's fee to AutoBids. The buyer's fee has a minimum of $50

In order to register, first sign up by clicking the “Sign In” icon in the upper right corner of the screen – then click “Sign up here” in the box that subsequently pops up. Once you create a username and password, you’ll be prompted to verify your email address. After you’ve done that, you can return to AutoBids and you’ll be prompted to register to bid. If you don’t want to register just yet, no problem – you can do it later. Once you find a car you want to bid on, click “Place Bid” on the car’s listing page, and you’ll be prompted to register before you can bid. You will have to enter your credit information, as we place a hold on each bidder’s credit card until the conclusion of the auction.

In order to place a bid, you first have to register, which we’ve explained above. Once you’ve registered and you’ve found a car you’re interested in buying, bidding is easy – just click the “Place Bid” icon on a vehicle’s listing page. Then, you’re prompted to enter your bid amount. Your bid must be higher than the previous bid, of course – and depending on the current bidding level, there may be a minimum increase over the previous bid. Once you’ve submitted your bid, we place a hold on your credit card for 1% of your bid amount until the duration of the auction, in case you end up as the winning bidder.

Bid increments increase as follows: - Minimum bid of $100 to start the auction - $100 increments - $250 increments - $500 increments

All bids on AutoBids are in United States Dollars (USD).

Yes, however you will need to pay in full for the vehicle promptly following the close of the auction, just like all other buyers. Additionally, any logistics, import fees, transportation, legal dues, and/or other items needed to export/import the vehicle are entirely the buyer’s responsibility. Please ensure you’re aware of all these rules and you have everything fully in place prior to bidding. The close of the auction is not the time to begin researching transportation logistics and import regulations.

After you have won the bid, you will have a window pop-up that will let you chat with the seller. Additionally, you will have the seller’s information you can use to contact about the next steps. Just click the “Contact the seller” link next to the seller’s name, and you’ll be able to send the seller a private message that won’t appear on the auction itself.

No. If you are outbid, you will need to manually input your next bid. Note that the price of the vehicle will immediately progress to your bid amount. For example, if the current high-bid is $30,000 and you input a $35,000 bid, the current high bid will immediately go to $35,000.

We place a hold on your credit card when you bid in order to account for the possibility that you may have to pay the buyer’s fee, should you end up as the winning bidder. The hold is for 1% of your initial bid amount, with a minimum of $225 and a maximum of $4,500. If you aren’t the winning bidder, the hold is released from your credit card at the conclusion of the auction.

If you’re the high bidder on a car where the target price isn’t met, we’ll work with the seller and the buyer in an attempt to find a sale price that’s suitable for both parties. The buyer and seller can negotiate until they find a middle ground. This is only for when the target price isn’t met.

At the conclusion of the auction, both the buyer and seller are given each other’s contact information to complete the transaction. Read more about Finalizing the Transaction.

Financing is now available on AutoBids! Look for cars with the “Finance Available” label. This label means that the sellers of these cars offer financing on their vehicles. Additionally, you can contact your financial institution to apply for a loan on a car! There are many options to buy a car on AutoBids. Try Financing today.

Transportation costs are always the buyer’s responsibility, so we recommend gathering personal travel and/or shipping cost estimates prior to placing your bid. Some common strategies for collecting a vehicle include: - Booking a one-way flight and/or car rental and taking a road-trip home – after all, what better way is there to get to know your new car? - Using a shipping company to pick up and deliver the vehicle to your location. As you review these options, please be sure to verify that a general timeline would work for the seller prior to bidding. Some sellers may be happy to store the car briefly to allow you time to pick it up, and may also be willing to bring the car to a nearby location for it to be loaded onto a shipping truck. Note that title transfers, paying off loans, etc. may take a little bit of time. When in doubt, contact the seller and make sure the timing works for them! To facilitate the process of finding an auto transporter and getting various quotes, we have provided links to a few shippers below. They both provide instant quotes, which can be helpful in understanding the approximate cost of shipping. Make sure to consider these costs prior to bidding! - uShip - EasyAutoShip

We recommend wire transfers or cashier’s checks for payment, but there are many possible options. We do recommend discussing the potential timeline with the seller as early as possible to ensure that you’re both comfortable with the timing and steps. Note that some states can take several weeks to reissue a title once the loan has been satisfied. Additionally, some states require titles to be notarized by the seller before it can be transferred to you, so pay attention to those rules – and reference state DMV websites – before sending important documents. Read more about Finalizing the Transaction.

Yes! Aside from common-sense rules like language and personal attacks, the conversation should be focused on the vehicle being sold, so as to be fair to the seller and bidders. We want to ensure the AutoBids community remains an open and positive place to spend time with fellow enthusiasts. A partial list of things that are frowned upon (and will be moderated accordingly) include: - Foul language - Personal attacks - Attempting to share your personal contact information - Spamming - Asking the seller about their reserve - Calling out the price you think the vehicle will sell for - Inappropriate images or descriptions in your profile - Plugging your personal business, website, social media handles, etc. - Sidetracking the conversation about other vehicles or topics unrelated to the vehicle being offered - Linking to inappropriate videos/webpages/content - Linking to other vehicle for sale ads

When you are trying to sell a used car online, the most important thing can be the photos you take of the car. Buyers will be looking at your pictures before anything else. Quality car photos bring in more buyers. Learning how to take good photos of your car can be the first step in selling a used car online.

Negotiation on AutoBids is available once you win the bid but it does not reach the seller’s minimum requirement. Then you can go to “Buyer Logs” located in the menu on the web or the app.

Win-o-meter on AutoBids is a meter that shows the buyer how likely they are to win the auction at the current price.

Money Back Guaranteed: We will refund your “Bidding Fee” in full for three days if you are dissatisfied.