r/carsandbids

The people who demand the most, as in asking the seller for this document or more photos, more video footage, stuff like that, never end up placing a bid?! Most of the time, the seller gets exactly what they requested, usually whatever it is doesn't negatively impact the vehicle in anyway, so you'd think satisfying their request would earn a bid but nope. Just going thru the auctions that ended and skimming thru looking for the most demanding commenter (cant call them a bidder), and after their request is filled, nada. Not one bid... its so weird, nearly every auction has a demanding commenter thats broke I guess.. Are they curious or is someone from Cars & Bids, looking for incomplete documentation, posing as potential buyer?

Or maybe I'm the weirdo? Please help me out Ive stated up countless nights without sleep pondering the what ifs of this.

Thank you

Anyone considering cars and bids just stay away from the platform no matter how attractive it is. They have this stupid policy that buyers have to get a pre purchase inspection before bidding. They know that’s literally impossible to so especially no buyer would know if they would even win the bid. Nobody in their sane mind would spend $300 to get a ppi on something they don’t even know if they’ll win. Ebay is so much better, they have certified inspectors to thoroughly inspect everything.

Has anyone experienced this issue before? What is the recourse?

I have not used Reddit in months, I came here to post this review so you all can have the most information available when choosing a place to sell your own vehicle. I went with CarsandBids because I didn't want to do the facebook/craiglist dance. I thought everything would be a nice, simple process. It was anything but. It was more stressful and I got less than I probably should have for the car. I was just riding the failboat through the entire process.

The first thing that threw me off was their requirement to use a professional photographer. They told me cars of my caliber required it, that cost me $200, so not free to list. Then came the issue of actually making an appointment with the photography company. I initiated this in early June 2026 and the first availability they had was Feb. 2027. It took me two weeks to get that issue sorted, another week to schedule. The photographer showed up an hour early which rushed me and I didn't have time to do a final inspection on the car before photos and they didn't turn out as good as they could have.

The auction itself went OK although at this point the auction was running three weeks later than I had hoped. Which I do believe attributed to the lower price I got. I would have relisted but Carsandbids had already wasted 3 weeks of my time and I didn't have anymore time to relist so I accepted an offer that was a good $10k lower than what the car was appraised for by 3 different industry experts. I know a car is worth what someone will pay, but I do believe had this auction ran on the timeline I wanted it to, I would have had more bidders and possibly got more for the vehicle. But my complaint isn't really on what I got for the car, more the overall experience.

The buyer communication was poor. I had to ask multiple times what their plan was for shipping. The shipper they used text me telling me they were an hour away. So I left work on my break and went to the car to wait at the approximate time they told me. After waiting 30 minutes I got a text saying it would be another 30 minutes. It took another 45 minutes plus for the driver to actually show up.

Overall not a great time was had. I tried to stay positive throughout it all but now that it is over, I realize how much it sucked. Next vehicle I will go back to Facebook/Craigslist marketplaces.

For an assignment I decided to make a Wordle variant of past auction results and guessing the winning bid. Let me know what you guys think!

Hey folks, has anyone here purchased a used vehicle in person or online for $100k or more? I'm a user experience researcher with Amplified by Design – we're trying to talk to folks (anonymously) to understand how and where you tend to shop for a vehicle like this. It's a paid ($200) convo – Just seeing if there's interest or anyone applicable here? Hope this is okay to post!

One of the big points that C&B make to attract potential sellers to their platform is the idea of free listings. And through the process you're reminded of it.

I recently began the process of listing a vehicle and through the whole thing the only potential expense mentioned was for the option to have a professional photographer do your pictures, other than that I did not see any other expenses.

Well, I had some time to think on it and I decided the car means too much to me and to not sell. At this point the draft listing had been made with all the pictures and everything.

After communicating this to my listing agent I was asked to cover the listing fee of $250.

At this point in the process, we have already invested significant resources in creating/writing your listing, including a contracted professional writer and editor.

Would you be willing to help us offset those costs if you are no longer willing to proceed? ($250)

I brought up that such a fee is not mentioned anywhere on their site.

And the response was a loose suggestion that we may not be able to work together in the future if I don't pay this fee.

Anyone else experience this? I can't be the only one that's changed their mind before the auction went live.