What hasn’t the internet changed? It’s certainly changed the auction business forever, of course ebay helped get this revolution underway but now many of the large traditional auction centres have their own online auction portals and many traditional auctions also allow for bidders to bid from home via the internet.

Recently online car auctions have been gaining in popularity with both of the major Australian car auctioneers, who run regular in-house weekly auctions, now offering online bidding systems to the public.

This has been very popular with Auto Dismantlers who can bid on cars at salvage auctions without having to leave their place of business. It’s also a bonus for public buyers who maybe cant make the auction on the day, or maybe live a long way from the auction room.

But of course it has the obvious downside, unless you’ve checked over the car you want at the inspection day, you can only gauge what your buying by looking at pictures that the auction centre has taken. Although both of the auction centers go to great length to provide a reasonable description of the vehicle and supply photos from various angles, it’s just not the same as being there.

At the auction room the while the sale is underway the auctioneer, helped out by a few staff, will be taking bids from both the online system and from people on the floor. As well as seeing the vehicle and watching the auctioneer, people standing on the floor can watch the online bids coming in, and the current bidding price, via big display screen displaying a similar screen to what the online bidders will be watching.

The screen of an online car auction - from Pickles Auctions

You may need to pay a deposit prior to bidding, which can be deposited into the auctioneers bank account and once that payment has cleared your free to bid. Bank payments take time to clear, so, you’ll need to to that before auction day.

A word of caution about holding off bidding until the last minute before the drop of the hammer, sometimes there can be a little lag with the online system, and the auctioneer may drop the hammer before seeing your final bid.

More about Online Car Auctions:
ManheimFowles Similcast
Pickles Live

Also check the local auction rooms in your state online bidding services at traditional auctions ACT – New South Wales – Queensland – South Australia – Tasmania – Victoria – West Australia