Discussion
Hi guys,
I am looking to start selling cars as a side business and would like to know if any of you guys have done or are doing this currently?
The one I am considering is BCA as I live not far from the biggest one in Europe (Brighouse). I am aware that there is not much profit to be made using a standard account or worse without one, what I would like to know is if any of you share memberships to save on fees? I mean it makes sense both ways as you are adding vehicles onto the membership which is better for the membership owner and the third party saving on the fees?
Is this possible? Any of you guys do it? Reviews? Same for other centres like Mannheim or any other major auctions that are good value?
Thanks
I am looking to start selling cars as a side business and would like to know if any of you guys have done or are doing this currently?
The one I am considering is BCA as I live not far from the biggest one in Europe (Brighouse). I am aware that there is not much profit to be made using a standard account or worse without one, what I would like to know is if any of you share memberships to save on fees? I mean it makes sense both ways as you are adding vehicles onto the membership which is better for the membership owner and the third party saving on the fees?
Is this possible? Any of you guys do it? Reviews? Same for other centres like Mannheim or any other major auctions that are good value?
Thanks
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/the-...
Not a trade I'd recommend getting into now and zero margin by buying at auction (they are full of private buyers)
Webuyanycar,com (owned by BCA) and similar have the best business models
I'd strongly advise doing something else, unless you like working evenings, weekends and being messed around by timewasters!
Most BCA auctions as still heavily dominated by trade buyers, I have worked at two so know this to be true. The profit margins are very small though, a lot of the smaller dealers are making less than £200 per car. It is not a business I would go into.
I haven't come across any buyers who share membership fee's. Most traders prefer to manage their own accounts as it avoids any confusion.
I haven't come across any buyers who share membership fee's. Most traders prefer to manage their own accounts as it avoids any confusion.
Don't do what the defendant did on Judge Rinder....saw a BMW that he thought was worth £18K being advertised for only £10K, tried to make a quick buck so borrowed £10K from friends, bought the car, registered it in his name, then got a letter from a bank saying it had finance on it and don't sell the car... he threw the letter away, sold the car for £6.5K, the bank sued him for £20K and he was then sued by one of his friends for his £5K back. 
Over the last few years I've sourced all my own cars from bca. Drove them for a few months and then sold on. Along the way I've found a few that I thought I would pass on straight away. Ford Focus bought for 450 inc fees and sold for 900. Vauxhall corsa bought for 700 inc fees and sold for 1200. Both just needed elbow grease to clean. Both sold within a week.
If a few hundred quid here and there help you along with a hobby or as a side interest it's not bad, just go to lots of auctions first and go regular.
I bought a 2004 Audi all road 2.5tdi for £1700 inc fees with 10 month mot that was a p/x somewhere around London. 93k on it. I put 15k on over the 10 month period and the new mot had no advisories and it cost me an oil service. Sold it on for £1900. Free motoring in my eyes.
I've had a few that I lost a few hundred on. One being 2004 a4 3.0 Quattro that needed a little work and lost £200 when I sold it on after a few months.
1.0 corsa will fly out if sold locally through gumtree. Phone rang and rang for that corsa. People asking if I knew anyone else with them. Insurance friendly for new drivers I guess.
I still wouldn't buy and sell as a business. Other than the two above I've always enjoyed picking up a daily driver for myself.
If a few hundred quid here and there help you along with a hobby or as a side interest it's not bad, just go to lots of auctions first and go regular.
I bought a 2004 Audi all road 2.5tdi for £1700 inc fees with 10 month mot that was a p/x somewhere around London. 93k on it. I put 15k on over the 10 month period and the new mot had no advisories and it cost me an oil service. Sold it on for £1900. Free motoring in my eyes.
I've had a few that I lost a few hundred on. One being 2004 a4 3.0 Quattro that needed a little work and lost £200 when I sold it on after a few months.
1.0 corsa will fly out if sold locally through gumtree. Phone rang and rang for that corsa. People asking if I knew anyone else with them. Insurance friendly for new drivers I guess.
I still wouldn't buy and sell as a business. Other than the two above I've always enjoyed picking up a daily driver for myself.
Simpo Two said:
Flooble said:
Wait a minute, he sold an £18K car for £6.5K? Even without the finance that would have been a disaster ...
Yep. I can only think that the buyer said 'Hang on, my HPI check says this car has outstanding finance so I'm only going to give you £6.5K'.kpeter202 said:
Over the last few years I've sourced all my own cars from bca. Drove them for a few months and then sold on. Along the way I've found a few that I thought I would pass on straight away. Ford Focus bought for 450 inc fees and sold for 900. Vauxhall corsa bought for 700 inc fees and sold for 1200. Both just needed elbow grease to clean. Both sold within a week.
If a few hundred quid here and there help you along with a hobby or as a side interest it's not bad, just go to lots of auctions first and go regular.
I bought a 2004 Audi all road 2.5tdi for £1700 inc fees with 10 month mot that was a p/x somewhere around London. 93k on it. I put 15k on over the 10 month period and the new mot had no advisories and it cost me an oil service. Sold it on for £1900. Free motoring in my eyes.
I've had a few that I lost a few hundred on. One being 2004 a4 3.0 Quattro that needed a little work and lost £200 when I sold it on after a few months.
1.0 corsa will fly out if sold locally through gumtree. Phone rang and rang for that corsa. People asking if I knew anyone else with them. Insurance friendly for new drivers I guess.
I still wouldn't buy and sell as a business. Other than the two above I've always enjoyed picking up a daily driver for myself.
Quoted because popcorn may be needed. If a few hundred quid here and there help you along with a hobby or as a side interest it's not bad, just go to lots of auctions first and go regular.
I bought a 2004 Audi all road 2.5tdi for £1700 inc fees with 10 month mot that was a p/x somewhere around London. 93k on it. I put 15k on over the 10 month period and the new mot had no advisories and it cost me an oil service. Sold it on for £1900. Free motoring in my eyes.
I've had a few that I lost a few hundred on. One being 2004 a4 3.0 Quattro that needed a little work and lost £200 when I sold it on after a few months.
1.0 corsa will fly out if sold locally through gumtree. Phone rang and rang for that corsa. People asking if I knew anyone else with them. Insurance friendly for new drivers I guess.
I still wouldn't buy and sell as a business. Other than the two above I've always enjoyed picking up a daily driver for myself.
kiethton said:
Simpo Two said:
Flooble said:
Wait a minute, he sold an £18K car for £6.5K? Even without the finance that would have been a disaster ...
Yep. I can only think that the buyer said 'Hang on, my HPI check says this car has outstanding finance so I'm only going to give you £6.5K'.Edited by Simpo Two on Monday 11th September 19:02
kpeter202 said:
Still going 3 years after sale. Corsa also still going 1 year after sale.
Hard to see how anyone can have a problem with 2 cars sold like that over 3 years.
i think if you are instantly flipping some cars on from auction, how can you say its anything other than a business transaction? Hard to see how anyone can have a problem with 2 cars sold like that over 3 years.
it sounds like you've been lucky so far but if one of those cars falls to bits i'd fully expect you to lose the inevitable legal issue when you start shouting 'PRIVATE SALE, NO TAKEBACKS!'
From an earlier thread:
"Hi, I'm afraid a lot of you are behind the times with BCA's fee's etc but first things first. One of you guys hit the nail on the head when they said BCA do not want "private buyers" at their auctions and the card scheme IS designed to deter them. Without any sort of card, blue, silver, gold, platinum or black, the fees are astronomical. The most common trade card is the gold card, obtained by buying 12 plus cars a year, and the fees on that on average are £190-£200 per car under £2000, the fee does vary depending on the value of the car bought, so for a couple of hundred quid banger you would pay less, around £100-£120. By law BCA cannot ban private buyers so they deter them with high fees for the private one off buys, which I have to say I totally agree with, private buyers are a pain in the bum for various reasons and should really stick to the small "local auctions". I will justify that comment if anyone is interested or offended by it.
The other thing you should all know is that BCA own the notorious "We Buy Any Car .com" and their auctions are full of those vehicles branded as UK Car Group and grade the cars from Premium to Select to Trade and to No Reserve, UKCG Premium being late, low mileage expensive cars down to UKCG No Reserve which is the real bargain basement and involve some right animals. To use an example BCA Blackbushe near Camberley, which I think is the largest auction site in the country, has for sale on average 1000-1200 cars 3 days a week plus a huge commercial sale and a specialist sale, on the Monday, Weds and Friday which are the general sales nearly half the cars sold are We Buy Any Car.com cars, a great little business, rip of desperate members of the public by buying cars for a fraction of their true value then a quick polish and rebrand them UKCG and then flood their own auction houses up and down the country and resell at top dollar with a hefty commission on top, brilliant eh.... good old BCA !
One last thing and its a word of warning to any private punters thinking of venturing into one of BCA's many outlets, be very very careful, you will be swimming with sharks, every trick in the book is employed to hide, mask, disguise and cover up the many defects these cars carry. Not of all of course and in an attempt to balance my comments a lot of decent cars do go through those halls and bargains can be had, so if you like playing Russian Roulette I wish you all the best. "
"Hi, I'm afraid a lot of you are behind the times with BCA's fee's etc but first things first. One of you guys hit the nail on the head when they said BCA do not want "private buyers" at their auctions and the card scheme IS designed to deter them. Without any sort of card, blue, silver, gold, platinum or black, the fees are astronomical. The most common trade card is the gold card, obtained by buying 12 plus cars a year, and the fees on that on average are £190-£200 per car under £2000, the fee does vary depending on the value of the car bought, so for a couple of hundred quid banger you would pay less, around £100-£120. By law BCA cannot ban private buyers so they deter them with high fees for the private one off buys, which I have to say I totally agree with, private buyers are a pain in the bum for various reasons and should really stick to the small "local auctions". I will justify that comment if anyone is interested or offended by it.
The other thing you should all know is that BCA own the notorious "We Buy Any Car .com" and their auctions are full of those vehicles branded as UK Car Group and grade the cars from Premium to Select to Trade and to No Reserve, UKCG Premium being late, low mileage expensive cars down to UKCG No Reserve which is the real bargain basement and involve some right animals. To use an example BCA Blackbushe near Camberley, which I think is the largest auction site in the country, has for sale on average 1000-1200 cars 3 days a week plus a huge commercial sale and a specialist sale, on the Monday, Weds and Friday which are the general sales nearly half the cars sold are We Buy Any Car.com cars, a great little business, rip of desperate members of the public by buying cars for a fraction of their true value then a quick polish and rebrand them UKCG and then flood their own auction houses up and down the country and resell at top dollar with a hefty commission on top, brilliant eh.... good old BCA !
One last thing and its a word of warning to any private punters thinking of venturing into one of BCA's many outlets, be very very careful, you will be swimming with sharks, every trick in the book is employed to hide, mask, disguise and cover up the many defects these cars carry. Not of all of course and in an attempt to balance my comments a lot of decent cars do go through those halls and bargains can be had, so if you like playing Russian Roulette I wish you all the best. "
dmsims said:
From an earlier thread:
"Hi, I'm afraid a lot of you are behind the times with BCA's fee's etc but first things first. One of you guys hit the nail on the head when they said BCA do not want "private buyers" at their auctions and the card scheme IS designed to deter them. Without any sort of card, blue, silver, gold, platinum or black, the fees are astronomical. The most common trade card is the gold card, obtained by buying 12 plus cars a year, and the fees on that on average are £190-£200 per car under £2000, the fee does vary depending on the value of the car bought, so for a couple of hundred quid banger you would pay less, around £100-£120. By law BCA cannot ban private buyers so they deter them with high fees for the private one off buys, which I have to say I totally agree with, private buyers are a pain in the bum for various reasons and should really stick to the small "local auctions". I will justify that comment if anyone is interested or offended by it.
The other thing you should all know is that BCA own the notorious "We Buy Any Car .com" and their auctions are full of those vehicles branded as UK Car Group and grade the cars from Premium to Select to Trade and to No Reserve, UKCG Premium being late, low mileage expensive cars down to UKCG No Reserve which is the real bargain basement and involve some right animals. To use an example BCA Blackbushe near Camberley, which I think is the largest auction site in the country, has for sale on average 1000-1200 cars 3 days a week plus a huge commercial sale and a specialist sale, on the Monday, Weds and Friday which are the general sales nearly half the cars sold are We Buy Any Car.com cars, a great little business, rip of desperate members of the public by buying cars for a fraction of their true value then a quick polish and rebrand them UKCG and then flood their own auction houses up and down the country and resell at top dollar with a hefty commission on top, brilliant eh.... good old BCA !
One last thing and its a word of warning to any private punters thinking of venturing into one of BCA's many outlets, be very very careful, you will be swimming with sharks, every trick in the book is employed to hide, mask, disguise and cover up the many defects these cars carry. Not of all of course and in an attempt to balance my comments a lot of decent cars do go through those halls and bargains can be had, so if you like playing Russian Roulette I wish you all the best. "
This."Hi, I'm afraid a lot of you are behind the times with BCA's fee's etc but first things first. One of you guys hit the nail on the head when they said BCA do not want "private buyers" at their auctions and the card scheme IS designed to deter them. Without any sort of card, blue, silver, gold, platinum or black, the fees are astronomical. The most common trade card is the gold card, obtained by buying 12 plus cars a year, and the fees on that on average are £190-£200 per car under £2000, the fee does vary depending on the value of the car bought, so for a couple of hundred quid banger you would pay less, around £100-£120. By law BCA cannot ban private buyers so they deter them with high fees for the private one off buys, which I have to say I totally agree with, private buyers are a pain in the bum for various reasons and should really stick to the small "local auctions". I will justify that comment if anyone is interested or offended by it.
The other thing you should all know is that BCA own the notorious "We Buy Any Car .com" and their auctions are full of those vehicles branded as UK Car Group and grade the cars from Premium to Select to Trade and to No Reserve, UKCG Premium being late, low mileage expensive cars down to UKCG No Reserve which is the real bargain basement and involve some right animals. To use an example BCA Blackbushe near Camberley, which I think is the largest auction site in the country, has for sale on average 1000-1200 cars 3 days a week plus a huge commercial sale and a specialist sale, on the Monday, Weds and Friday which are the general sales nearly half the cars sold are We Buy Any Car.com cars, a great little business, rip of desperate members of the public by buying cars for a fraction of their true value then a quick polish and rebrand them UKCG and then flood their own auction houses up and down the country and resell at top dollar with a hefty commission on top, brilliant eh.... good old BCA !
One last thing and its a word of warning to any private punters thinking of venturing into one of BCA's many outlets, be very very careful, you will be swimming with sharks, every trick in the book is employed to hide, mask, disguise and cover up the many defects these cars carry. Not of all of course and in an attempt to balance my comments a lot of decent cars do go through those halls and bargains can be had, so if you like playing Russian Roulette I wish you all the best. "
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