Hidden Trigger Auctions

The Hidden Trigger Auction works similarly to the regular Trigger Auction, except that the reserve is hidden, and any potential bidder will see either an RRP or Guide Price.

Bidders can place a bid at the level they choose and see if their bid triggers the start of the auction.

Once the auction begins, only the highest bidder and the seller will see the live price, all other bidders will only be aware that they are no longer the highest bidder.

The minimum increments of £250 on new bids, and all other functionality will remain the same as in a simple Trigger Auction.

The Trigger Auction model works as follows: each vehicle is posted onto selectinggear.com with a hidden reserve, allowing potential bidders to put a “watch” on a car or to simply place a bid that they feel will meet the hidden reserve and start then auction. Nothing will happen until one of two actions occurs:

  1. A buyer bids the hidden reserve, in which case all watchers are alerted and an auction is started that will run for approximately 72 hours.
  2. A bidder places a bid within 5% of the reserve. This will alert all watchers, but also send a message to the seller advising them of the bid.

The seller then has three options:

  1. put a counteroffer against the bid
  2. lower the reserve to the bid level and begin the 72-hour auction
  3. leave the reserve where it is and wait for the auction to commence in the future.

In all Hidden Trigger Auctions, only the bidder and seller are aware of what a live high bid is and the final winning bid amount.

Timings

All auctions when triggered will run for approximately (but no less than) 72 hours and will be timed to finish at 7pm as soon as possible after 72 hours has expired.

For example: an auction is triggered at 4pm on Monday 23rd, will run for 72 hours until 4pm on the 26th but will then extend until 7pm on the 26th, in order that ALL auctions end at a standardised time.

Fees

The Fee structure is very straightforward: all vehicles sold below £49,999 attract a buyer’s commission of 3% + vat; any vehicle sold at £50,000 or more attracts a buyer’s commission of 2.5% + vat.

The seller pays nothing, no listing fee, no commission; the buyer pays the very low fees listed above.

At conclusion of a successful purchase, the buyer pays his fees to selectinggear.com and is then introduced to the seller to complete the transaction.