Buying from Copart & IAAI

baustin

Well-Known Member
Sup friends,
I'm looking at a local Copart Cobalt, SC doesn't let me bid without a license so I'm looking at Better Bid, I have some questions that I haven't seen answered in researching. If there's a better/cheaper/easier more-local broker that someone's used or could recommend, feel free to do so!

I know there are signup fees for both Copart and A Better Bid, but do I have to register and pay for both?
IE: Since I have to use a broker, do I have to sign up for both my broker and Copart? Do I pay the fees to sign up and deposit with Copart as well as ABB? Do I have to pay the "increase your buying potential" deposit as well? in Copart before I bid or do I handle all of it with ABB?

ABB is located in Florida, the vehicle I'm looking at is in SC. ABB says they don't charge sales tax unless you're in Florida, but would Copart attach sales tax to my invoice to be paid anyway?

Do I incur the internet/gate fees if i use ABB? I am assuming yes on Gate fees if I physically pick it up... with that being said, in using a broker is there anything different about picking up a vehicle?

With an arbitrary final price of $2,000, ABB estimates the price breakdown to be:
Documentation Fee$50
Transaction Fee$250
Auction Fee$543
Total Price2,843 USD

Is the Auction Fee the Copart fee or an additional ABB fee of which Copart will add to? Copart fees for a 2k bid are $325, $415, $470, and $590 for a/b/c/d brackets.
If I bought privately it'd be C at 470, but does the broker being used cause Copart A bracket to bill me 325? Or is this just ABB making a few extra bucks off me and the listed fees are all that I'll incur (unless I am late paying or late picking up)

I've done my best to find these answers prior to writing, but there isn't much out there with different scenarios. Neither Dan nor error unknown's ABB post go in to detail on the fee structure combo with copart and ABB.
I've got some info that should help since I recently bought my donor through A Better Bid, from the Charleston, SC Copart location.

While Copart is the original seller, you are effectively a customer of A Better Bid, you're only dealings are with them. Even during the live auction you can view it from either website but your chance to up bids only comes through A Better Bid. Just a heads up though, if you buy from a lot in NC instead, you can buy direct through Copart since NC doesn't require licensed company middle men for private purchases.

Here's what my costs turned out to be for a 2006 Cobalt SS/SC w/76k miles and driver side wheel/fender impact damage:
deposit with ABB: $400 (minimum allowed to bid beyond $1k, technically allows bidding up to $4k, no need to increase this) - this gets refunded after the buying/title process is completed
winning bid at auction: $1450
auction fee: $438
, on my invoice from ABB this was combined with the bid value on a single row to show $1888
transaction fee: $250
documentation fee: $50


You might think you're done here and if you were buying in NC yourself then this might be true but when I asked ABB if I could pick it up myself when they called to discuss transport, they said a tow company had to remove it from Copart, I couldn't trailer it myself directly. So I would've had to pay a tow company to drive it 1/4 mile off the premises. I opted to pay the reasonable $520 transport fee they offered to have it dropped at my driveway just north of Raleigh, NC.
transport fee: $520 (varies by distance but this was on the absolute low end of pricing when I check to schedule it myself.

Total before arraigning transport: $2188
Grand total (including the transport fee): $2708

After I received the car at my house, they had electronic sale documents ready for me on ABB's website to sign and then they FedEx'd me the title. SC title, signed to ABB in Florida, signed to me as the end buyer.

No sales tax from Florida. All the underlined costs are what I paid, after receiving the title I submitted the request to refund the deposit, that was processed fairly quickly and since I did it within the 60 day limit of when I paid the deposit, it went straight back to my credit card (would've been a check mailed if it was over 60 days since deposit).

Notice that I never listed a fee to sign up with ABB, I just used their free account option since I was only buying 1 car. Hope this helps your understanding. A couple of the ABB info forum postings I had as reference were from before they offered a free membership level. I bought my donor at the beginning of May 2019. I appeared to me that there was 1 other person bidding on the same car and they stopped at $1400, so my limit of $1500 bumped the bid to $1450 and then won.

Other thing I noticed is there is a delay pre-live bid through ABB's website. I set my pre-bid limit at $1200. There was a pre-bid at the minimum of $200. ABB said I was winning at $250. A couple hours later Copart bumped the pre-bid to show that $1250 was winning, but ABB didn't update for another 1-2 hours. Once it updated I was no longer winning and decided to bump my limit to $1500. Again, ABB's website was slow to update but I could see from Copart that the bid stepped up to $1450 (and increases by $50 increments at that range) so I assumed that meant I was winning. I was at work at turned on the live auction and put on headphones to hear when my watchlist item was on the block. They had an estimate timer to show how long till it went active. Well. some of the cars prior to my interest must've sold without a fight cause I checked back since I hadn't heard it pop up (distracted by actually working) and my Cobalt had already been sold. I had no idea what it sold for or who won since I wasn't watching. 1-2 hours later I got a call from ABB about winning and setting up transport. Really they were pretty fast with info and paperwork, my mind was just wanting it to go faster. The live-auction page from either ABB or Copart was dead-on same timing, no need to worry about that, it was just the current winning pre-bid that was delayed in updating.
 

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
BAustin, thank you for clarifying. You've cleared up all my concerns, I especially appreciate your local-to-me experience.
 

JSATX

Goblin Guru
You do not pay both. If using ABB they have a little calculator that shows how much you’ll pay.

The only thing not shown is the $50 “gate fee” to pickup and load the vehicle. I have used both services for two different vehicles.
 

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
Okay so small bit of concern, I am bidding on a Cobalt going up for sale soon.
It's on Copart and I'm bidding with ABB.

I had originally set my pre-bid to a certain amount. As other pre-bids got close, I figured I'd increase my bid to fight off any other folks to make sure I won the car.

In doing so, it looks like ABB disregarded my original high-bid, and bid against myself. Immediately upon increasing my high bid, the new high bid was exactly $50 past my previous high bid, signaling that I outbid myself. I never got an email saying I was outbid, though. The page said "enter maximum bid" and I was logged in as the same account on the same car.

In looking at Copart, the car's immediately at my maximum bid, as if the moment that I bid someone else immediately bid the same amount... this seems super unlikely and I basically shot myself in the foot by using ABB. I feel like this was done in error, but being that bidder info and timing isn't provided I have no idea if it was coincidence or a fluke.

I reached out to ABB via email and will call in the AM as well.

PS... just remembered the other day there was a rogue bid on a random Chevy SUV that I've never even looked at. I emailed ABB to ask about it and they said it was an error and it would be fixed that day, but it's still showing up in my list of current bids. Anyone else have that issue?
 

baustin

Well-Known Member
Okay so small bit of concern, I am bidding on a Cobalt going up for sale soon.
It's on Copart and I'm bidding with ABB.

I had originally set my pre-bid to a certain amount. As other pre-bids got close, I figured I'd increase my bid to fight off any other folks to make sure I won the car.

In doing so, it looks like ABB disregarded my original high-bid, and bid against myself. Immediately upon increasing my high bid, the new high bid was exactly $50 past my previous high bid, signaling that I outbid myself. I never got an email saying I was outbid, though. The page said "enter maximum bid" and I was logged in as the same account on the same car.

In looking at Copart, the car's immediately at my maximum bid, as if the moment that I bid someone else immediately bid the same amount... this seems super unlikely and I basically shot myself in the foot by using ABB. I feel like this was done in error, but being that bidder info and timing isn't provided I have no idea if it was coincidence or a fluke.

I reached out to ABB via email and will call in the AM as well.

PS... just remembered the other day there was a rogue bid on a random Chevy SUV that I've never even looked at. I emailed ABB to ask about it and they said it was an error and it would be fixed that day, but it's still showing up in my list of current bids. Anyone else have that issue?
I can't speak for ABB but one thing to remember about the bidding is that when someone else has a pre-bid in and you pre-bid. It's going to go back and forth at the minimum increments until 1 of you no longer are bidding due to hitting your pre-bid limit. How I was losing at $1250 (limited myself to $1200) but winning at $1450 with a limit of $1500 (if $50 increments and I assumed 1 other bidder) didn't matter to figure out on my end.
 

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
Right, I just think it's peculiar the second that I increase my bid, ABB shows the current bit AT my previous max bix +50 (as if I outbid myself) and then Copart had the current bid at my new max bid, which ABB shortly caught up with and showed as well.
 

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
I am on the phone with ABB now and they've confirmed with me that I was the only bidder and the fact that the bid rose was because I bid against myself. In trying to convince the rep that this goes against logic and not what should have happened, she did not fully understand and quickly lost patience with me. She just kept saying I won the bid and no one else bid on it over and over. I've asked to be transferred but she said she couldn't, and just hung up on me.

So I essentially lost my chance at getting my car for $1,900 because ABB automatically bid on my behalf, against my original max bid (rep confirmed no one else bid after me)
 

baustin

Well-Known Member
Not cool, but not entirely unexpected given the feeling that car auctions and brokers give. I prefer to think this didn't happen to me: if I don't ask I won't know, if I do ask then I might find out they don't know either.
 

Mayor West

Goblin Guru
I won it, just paid. $3,708 shipped with fees. Feels like I got stabbed a little after calling both copart and ABB and being hung up on, absolutely 0 customer support, the few people I did get to talk to were really, really angry and barely spoke English. Made explaining the problem so much worse. Copart didn't even pick up the phone, called my local branch and they main office.

I know I paid a good bit more than most of you guys, which makes me sorta feel sick given that the cars only an hour away and I was only bidding against myself according to them.

I hope I can recoup some of the cost in reselling parts.
 

BaltimoreHokie

Goblin Guru
I won it, just paid. $3,708 shipped with fees. Feels like I got stabbed a little after calling both copart and ABB and being hung up on, absolutely 0 customer support, the few people I did get to talk to were really, really angry and barely spoke English. Made explaining the problem so much worse. Copart didn't even pick up the phone, called my local branch and they main office.

I know I paid a good bit more than most of you guys, which makes me sorta feel sick given that the cars only an hour away and I was only bidding against myself according to them.

I hope I can recoup some of the cost in reselling parts.
Sorry to hear you paid more then you wanted, but at least you have a donor. I also used abetterbid when I purchased my cars. What are the details of your car? Any pictures?
 

ToxicBill

Well-Known Member
So I reached out to IAAI about the process since I'm a noob. Here is what they told me:

Thank you for your inquiry. Unfortunately Texas does not sell to the public, you would need to have a Dealer or Salvage license.

While I have no reason to doubt them, does anyone share this understanding? Based on the prior conversation here, looks like something may have changed.

Thanks
 

JSATX

Goblin Guru
So I reached out to IAAI about the process since I'm a noob. Here is what they told me:

Thank you for your inquiry. Unfortunately Texas does not sell to the public, you would need to have a Dealer or Salvage license.

While I have no reason to doubt them, does anyone share this understanding? Based on the prior conversation here, looks like something may have changed.

Thanks
Texas does not sell clean titled vehicles to the public. Salvage titles are available to anyone with no license. Copart is where I got mine.

Also Oklahoma and Arkansas sell salvage vehicles with no license so you can broaden you search a little bit. The copart arraigned delivery was pretty cheap and quite quick.
 

Karter2026

Goblin Guru
See this post earlier in the thread.
 

ctuinstra

Goblin Guru
Here is a coupon code for IAA to save $100 on the annual membership. I don't know how long this is good for or when it will expire.

Legitstreetcars
 

Prop Job

Member
Edit: Created a thread to get more visibility. No need to address my question in both locations.

I'm not seeing IAAI cars show up on abetterbid. Did they cease their partnership or something? There seems to be a much larger selection on IAAI than Copart.


Update for anyone that comes across this in the future, abetterbid only deals with Copart and cars are not listed on salvagebid until they get an auction assigned. This info is directly from the customer service reps for each broker
 
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