How to Buy a Car on Bring a Trailer: Buyer’s Fee, Bidding and Paying

Bring a Trailer, which most buyers call BaT, sells cars in online auctions that typically run for seven days. It writes each listing with the seller, runs a public comment thread under it, and hands the winning bidder and the seller each other’s details when the auction ends. What it does not do is own the car, inspect the car or take part in the sale contract. That last point shapes everything a buyer needs to know.

This guide covers the buyer’s side, step by step: registering, reading a listing, what the buyer’s fee adds, how the card hold and the clock work, what happens when the reserve is not met, and how you pay, title and ship the car. If you are weighing a live auction instead, the guide to buying at Barrett-Jackson or Mecum covers the buyer’s premium and proof of funds at Kissimmee and Scottsdale in January.

Registering to bid

Anyone can browse BaT, but you have to register to bid. Registration takes a valid credit card, which is how BaT secures the buyer’s fee. After you register, BaT walks you through two-factor authentication, which it requires of every registered bidder, and sends an email you must confirm before your first bid goes through. If the email does not arrive, check your spam folder.

You do not need to live in the United States. BaT accepts bids from anywhere so long as you are registered with a valid card. Some listings are located abroad and are sold in another currency, and when that is the case you bid and pay in the currency on the listing.

Reading a listing before you bid

Every BaT listing is written by its auction staff from the photos, records and information the seller provides. That makes it thorough, but it is still the seller’s account of the car. BaT’s terms say plainly that it does not inspect any vehicle listed on the site, and that the seller is responsible for the listing being accurate.

So the due diligence is yours. BaT asks every bidder to read the whole listing and the entire comment thread before bidding. The comments are where other enthusiasts ask about rust, records and known faults, and where the seller answers. Read the seller’s replies as closely as the questions.

If you want to see the car or have it inspected, use the Contact Seller button on the listing to arrange a viewing, a test drive or a pre-purchase inspection. Do it early. Contact Seller works only while the auction is live, and BaT is explicit that bids are not contingent on an inspection after the auction. The guide to checking a used enthusiast car covers what to look at and what paperwork to ask for, and the same list works for a remote inspector.

Check whether the car has a reserve. A yellow No Reserve tag means the car sells to the highest bid. No tag means there is a reserve, a minimum price the seller has set, and BaT does not show what it is. The seller can lower it while the auction runs. There is no Buy It Now price on any BaT auction; the only way to buy a listed car is to be the high bidder.

What the buyer’s fee adds

Sellers pay BaT a $99 listing fee, or $429 with its Plus photography service. Buyers pay a fee on top of the winning bid, and it is the number to build your budget around.

On most auctions, cars and trucks included, the fee is 5% of the winning bid, with a $250 minimum and a $7,500 maximum. Seven categories pay 10% instead: motorcycles, minibikes and scooters, parts and automobilia, wheels, ATVs, go-karts and tractors. Those carry the same $250 minimum and a $4,000 maximum. The bid box shows the fee for the amount you type before you confirm.

The cap matters more than the rate on an expensive car. A 5% fee reaches $7,500 at a $150,000 winning bid and stops there, so above that the fee is a falling share of the price. On the 10% categories the cap arrives at $40,000. At the other end, the $250 minimum is more than 5% of any bid below $5,000.

For comparison, Mecum charges a 10% buyer’s premium in person and 12% online, with a $1,000 minimum on a car. On the same $40,000 car, that is $4,000 in person against BaT’s $2,000; on a $200,000 car it is $20,000 against $7,500. The fees buy different things. At a live auction you can walk round the car on the grounds and settle with the auction office. On BaT the inspection, the payment and the paperwork are arranged between you and the seller.

How bidding works

You type the amount you want to bid, and if it beats the current bid while the clock is running, you become the high bidder. Bidding jumps straight to the amount you enter. The amount in the box is the amount you are responsible for paying if you win. The minimum step depends on the current bid:

• up to $10,000: $100;
• $10,001 to $50,000: $250;
• $50,001 to $100,000: $500;
• $100,000 and up: $1,000.

BaT protects against sniping, the last-second bid placed by software so nobody can answer it. In the final two minutes, every bid resets the clock to two minutes. The auction ends only when two full minutes pass without a bid. That changes the tactics: waiting for the last second gains you nothing, and the auctions that run long are the ones where two bidders keep answering each other. Decide your number before the final minutes, not during them.

Each bid also places a hold on your card. When you first bid, BaT holds the buyer’s fee on that bid, 5% or 10% with the $250 minimum. If you lose, the hold is released when the auction ends, though your bank can take a few days to clear it. If you win, the hold becomes a charge, and BaT charges the difference between the fee on your first bid and the fee on your winning bid as a second charge. BaT’s own example: a first bid of $10,000 holds $500, and a winning bid of $25,000 adds a second charge of $750, for a total fee of $1,250. Check that your card limit covers the fee at the price you might reach.

When the reserve is not met

If bidding ends below the reserve, the auction does not simply close. The high bidder and the seller get one offer and one counteroffer, exchanged in a secure portal on the BaT website, with 24 hours for each round. As the high bidder, your offer has to be at least your final bid, with no maximum. The seller’s offer has to sit above your final bid and no higher than the reserve. Nobody else can make an offer, and BaT does not share contact details or broker deals with anyone else after the close.

If either side accepts, you pay the normal buyer’s fee and the sale goes ahead as if you had won outright. If an offer is declined or the 24 hours run out, the auction closes with the reserve not met, and you do not receive the seller’s contact details.

One more thing to know as a high bidder below the reserve. At its own discretion, BaT can pay the seller the difference between the high bid and the reserve, which it calls the Make-Whole program. When it does, the car is shown as sold, and the high bidder buys it at the high bid. So a bid under the reserve is not a free look at the price. It can become your purchase.

After you win: paying the seller

When an auction ends with the reserve met, or with no reserve, BaT charges the buyer’s fee to your card and sends you and the seller each other’s contact details. If the card payment fails, for example on insufficient funds, BaT emails instructions for paying the balance. The price of the car itself goes to the seller, by one of two routes. You, the buyer, choose which.

Paying the seller directly. BaT recommends that you contact the seller promptly, ask for photos of both sides of the title and a signed bill of sale before you send money, and pay within three business days or a timeframe you both agree. It recommends a wire transfer. If you hope to pay another way, BaT asks you to raise it with the seller before you bid, not after. It also expects you to have the funds available before you bid.

Paying through Verified Checkout. On eligible listings, marked above the bid box, BaT offers Verified Checkout, run with Caramel, which holds your payment in escrow and releases it to the seller only after the seller has done their part. The seller mails the title to Caramel before being paid. The basic service costs the buyer $99 and covers secure payment plus the ownership paperwork to take to your motor vehicle office. For $149, Caramel also completes the title transfer and registration for you. Both buyer and seller verify their identity with a driver’s license or state ID and a phone selfie.

How Verified Checkout payments work:

• Wire transfer works on every transaction, and it is required when the price is $40,000 or more. Caramel charges nothing extra for a wire, though your bank may.
• On most payments up to $25,000 you can pay by Instant Payment, which clears at once and carries a 0.75% fee, or Quick Transfer, an ACH payment that clears within three business days for 0.4%.
• Payment should typically be complete within seven business days.
• Verified Checkout is only for private-party sales where the buyer and the seller are both in the United States. If you choose it, the seller has to use it.

Two details catch buyers out. First, Caramel is a licensed used-car dealer, so a sale through Verified Checkout counts as a dealer sale. BaT notes that some states, including Arizona, Illinois and Nevada, collect sales tax on dealer sales that they do not collect on private-party ones. Check how your state treats it before you pick a route. Second, cancelling Verified Checkout does not cancel the purchase. If you cancel before the car is picked up, the purchase price is refunded, in seven to ten business days depending on your bank, and you still have to complete the deal with the seller directly.

Verified Checkout can also arrange financing, with loans of up to $1,000,000 and terms of up to 180 months on approved credit, and service contracts on cars from 1965 on. BaT is clear that you must pay in full whether or not a loan is approved, so get pre-approved before you bid, not after you win. If you are deciding between cash and a loan, the cash or finance tool runs both against your own numbers.

Watch for fake sellers

Once an auction closes, BaT gives the seller the contact details of the winning bidder only, and sellers can reach other users only through Contact Seller while an auction is live. So if someone emails you claiming to be the seller of a car you did not win, or of a car you never discussed with them on BaT, treat it as suspect. BaT asks you to check with it at mail@bringatrailer.com before replying. It also suggests a username that looks nothing like your email address, so nobody can guess one from the other.

Getting the car home

Shipping, taxes, registration and the other costs of buying the car are generally yours. BaT runs its own transport service, Bring a Trailer Shipping, across the contiguous 48 states. Listings with it show an instant quote, and if you win without getting one, the winning email and the bids and wins page in your account link to a quote. You choose open transport, which costs less and leaves the car exposed, or enclosed, which shields it. Motorcycles ship enclosed only. The transporter’s insurance covers the car in transit.

Shipping waits on payment: the seller must confirm your payment has arrived in full before BaT finds a transporter. The fastest deliveries come from a wire sent promptly and quick replies to the shipping team.

Be there, or send someone, at pickup and delivery. The driver records the car’s condition in an app and asks for a signature at each end. Take your own photos and a video of the loading and unloading. If the car arrives damaged, you have two weeks to get a repair estimate.

Insure the car before it moves. BaT points out that transporters must carry cargo insurance, but their insurers do not guarantee to cover every loss, and it strongly recommends your own policy is in place first. Call your insurer with the cars you plan to bid on before the auction ends, so cover is one call away. Insurance is the second payment explains what drives the premium on an enthusiast car, and if the car will not go straight into your garage, what car storage costs sets out the options.

For a car worth more than its book value, the kind of cover matters as much as the timing: Agreed value car insurance explains the difference.

Before you bid: a checklist

• Registered, with two-factor authentication set up and your email verified.
• A card whose limit covers the buyer’s fee at the highest price you might reach.
• The whole listing and comment thread read, and your questions asked in the comments or through Contact Seller.
• An inspection arranged, if you want one, while the auction is still live.
• Your all-in number set, with the fee, tax, registration and transport taken off it.
• Funds ready to wire within three business days, or a loan pre-approved.
• A payment route chosen: direct, or Verified Checkout if the listing offers it and your state’s tax treatment suits it.
• A shipping quote and an insurance quote in hand.

Fees and terms change. Every figure above was read on Bring a Trailer’s own pages on 8 November 2026, and the bid box shows the fee that applies to your bid before you confirm it. For anything else, BaT’s customer service team is on mail@bringatrailer.com.

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Mario Bailey

Founder, Driven Life

Mario Bailey founded Driven Life, which is published by Revlent LLC. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran and a tech founder, and has worked as a software engineer for more than ten years. He edits the site and is responsible for every page on it: the meet, club and rally guides, the metro and state hubs, the car and tool pages, and the magazine.