r/BringATrailer

I drove the GTI 20th Anniversary and it was incredible! I have def been sleeping on the hot hatches and I was so wrong. I loved the Mk4, so tossable, looks great, had so much fun!

Well - there's only 2 days left on my completely dead listing on BaT and my vehicle has 4 bids and is basically at scrap metal price right now... ok its not THAT bad - but it's going to not get an actual fair market value.

You cant write your own ads, and for some reason, the college girl that wrote my ad kept insisting on adding flaws that didnt exist. On my initial entry video (required before they agree to accept your vehicle), I noticed a smudge on the fender - I wipe it off in the video and say "thatll come off" (bird crap? I dont know) - anyhow - I wipe it off and she takes that and writes "there is a noticeable ding on left front fender."

So trying to prove that didnt exist was like pulling teeth.

Well - we go back and forth for weeks.

Finally I have a script that isnt ideal, but it's servicable. I agree on condition they remove a few pictures and some other disparaging remarks (that aren't true!)

They told me when I approve it, they'll schedule my listing and let me know when it will go live.

Well I hit approve and then 30 minutes later, I get a ping that I have a $100 bid.

I was blindsided first of all. They didnt message me.

I just noticed yesterday (Sunday) that they wrote in the ad "An exhaust leak is noted."

I hadn't caught that before. I literally think they added that afterwards. I specifically told them (and have screen caps/emails) that there was no exhaust leak. (More phantom BS the ad writer dreamed up!

So this was Sunday I discovered this - afternoon. I'm furious. 3 days left of the auction. I start putting in the comments "WTF - THERE ISN'T AN EXHAUST LEAK!"

Go out and make a video proving there's no exhaust leak. Not even remotely possible. Every angle, etc.

The high bidder comments "Thank you for proving there is no exhaust leak."

Now its Sunday NIGHT. Zero action on my ridiculously low auction and 3 days remain. I emailed BaT.

This morning I get a response from some rando "BaT has been really bad about stuff like this."

I thank the guy in the comments and show how they've kept trying to add stuff that isnt true.

BaT never responds to me in email or message - they just put in the comments: "An exhaust leak noted has been removed from the ad"... the only problem is - there's only 2 days left of the auction... how many people clicked off when they read "An exhaust leak is noted"???

The damage is done. The weekend is over and zero bids came through on Saturday and Sunday on my stupidly low priced car.

I'm FURIOUS. I've been furious with BaT the entire time.

I'm betting a lot of potential buyers passed because of mechanical issues. 😡

This auction is completely compromised. Maybe a few last minute bids come in, but its looking grim. And it doesnt seem BaT cares.

Edit: I may post it. I hope I'm overreacting. (First listing on BaT) . I've heard so many horror stories (here), and it took a month to negotiate the listing. And truth be told, I'm not trying to get top dollar for this - just thought based on others I watched that it'd be farther along. Thanks for the encouragement "Action is all last day" stuff (I thought lack of sniping +2 minutes would've cured that)

Edit 2: In my head, I just figured they could re-start the auction and people can choose to keep their bids or not. It was just so blasé "we fixed the ad"... with 2 days left. I'm probably over reacting, but this subbreddit has made me super nervous 😄

Edit 3: Ok some people are making fun of the car... It's ok. I wanted a low reserve. $3500. They refused. I offered $3000 reserve. They refused. If you pull the comps on the car, 2 others (1 worse condition than mine) sold for $6000 and the other for $5000. I didn't think a $3000 reserve for a 68,000 mile car was ridiculous at all. Seems people are making fun of the car as if it has ZERO collector value. True, it's nothing stellar - I didn't really want to share what it was, because it's not a highly collectible car - but it DOES have value - and a $3000 reserve isn't out of the norm for this AT ALL. I understand this is Reddit, and people are gonna laugh and rip things to shreds, but good grief man! "This is a Marketplace car" - Actually - YES! I agree with you! I would much rather sell it there than deal with BaT for something I want $3500-5000 for. I told them in email I wanted to RETAKE and REDO all the photos before it went live, and they listed the car before I was even ready. They told me they would give me a date, making it seem I had time, and listed the car immediately after I said "OK" to the writeup (without the exhaust leak. Maybe I'll post the leadup to me stressing out about the car when this is done. The exasperation about this has been a month of frustration... NOT trying to "hide flaws and get away with it." Who thinks my reserves aren't reasonable?

Edit 4: For those who laughing at the car. It solde for $9191 ($8500 sticker price) in July 2025 and there are two comps within 5-11 months on BaT sold for $5000 and $6000. I know it ranks very low on collectibility- but it does have value... maybe not what you're used to. I dont think me asking for a $3,000 reserve was unwarranted.

Am I the only one that feels B.A.T. needs to modify rules/regulations/fees to bring profit equality to similar vehicles listed by a PRIVATE PARTY vs DEALER?

What are your thoughts?

Kind of shocking

This one is a classic:

Text from the seller: "My brother, a metallurgical engineer with more than 40 years of experience in the aerospace industry, has advised me that the cylinders must be pulled to obtain an indisputable measurement of the pistons." ...

Every time I spot a terrific deal on a car I want, here comes someone that pumps up the price and only has 1 or two bids per vehicle in their history. All doing the same thing. Is this a thing?

I dont know if the developers look at this subreddit but kudos to you. The 5 seconds to load each page has always been my sore point for BaT. Now it feels lighting quick. Good job y'all.

I just wish you didn't sign me out every 5 seconds and also require 2FA every time I sign in....

So I sold my old 87 Nissan Sentra (vin JN1PB22S6HU518379 ) to a guy 3ish weeks via Facebook. I had to make room for a manual RHD. Trying to find all the components to make the Sentra a manual was becoming impossible also wife's dream RHD was listed on Beforward. ***Also Beforward is an amazing site to buy and import cars with.

Dude talked a good game, thought he was a lover of 80s cars. Turns out he is a flipper, had the car for sale in Texas FB listings before he even had the car in his possession. Then listed it for sell on BAT, he isn't being fully truthful about the car so just a heads up for possible bidders.

Edited to add vin

My FB listing

https://www.facebook.com/share/18dTrFtnD7/

Current BAT listing

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1987-nissan-sentra-5/

Shipping from Wisconsin to Colorado.

I figured that I would solve a problem that I deal with daily. BAT does not show locations until you drill down to the individual listing. This now shows the location on the thumbnail pages.

Let me know if you use it and like it please.

Release notes:

BaT Listing Locations is an unofficial helper for Bring a Trailer browsing. It adds each auction's seller location directly to listing cards on search and category pages, so you can compare listings without opening every auction page first.

The extension runs only on bringatrailer.com. It reads the auction links already shown on the page, fetches those linked auction pages in the background, extracts the public location from the BaT Essentials section, and displays it on the listing card.

Locations are cached locally in your browser for faster repeat browsing. No analytics, tracking, accounts, ads, or third-party services are used.