Whats the point of the auction house?

[Satanpolly89]

So what exactly is the point of the auction house if u dont bid on it cars go really cheap as soon as you start bidding the AI just keeps bidding. Its completely useless even having it in the game if you can't use it efficiently ever, or even sell cars on it.

[GameOverRIP]

agreed, only once did i win a car and that was considerably more then its value if i bid the AI just rebids again regardlee, If i don't bid the cars go for Value at most if not alot cheaper.

[BonPadre]

The point of auctions, unless you modify the car's files, is that some cars can only be found at auction and salon (and 1 car can be even found only at salon if I understand correctly)
So unless you have changed anything from base game, most if not all those recent 4x4 and SUV's will never spawn in barns nor junkyard...

Please remember that I speak only for someone that plays TOTALLY VANILLA, no workshop cars, no modified files...

Originally posted by Satanpolly89:

Its completely useless even having it in the game if you can't use it efficiently ever, or even sell cars on it.

Now... what's exactly can't be used efficiently ??? The exact same 4x4 or SUV's I just mentionned I could buy for anything around 100k $ and 120k $ sold for 180k$ to near 200k $
what is not exactly efficient from your point of view there ?
I was able to get any of those cars around estimated price (once you unlock the perk that is) +/- 2000$... so If I pay 2000$ over estimated price and I sell it with a nearely 45k to 55k $ turnover... I find it reasonable. Now ofc that's only a point of view...

On more "regular" cars, I could make between 20k to 30k $
Some cars I made 4k to 6k just between buy, and direct sell into garage... without me touching anything.
I also sometimes just play the "rise the bid" game for the AI... and ended up with cars I didn't really want, as the AI stopped bidding under estimated price.... so yeah....

Now, again, that's only playing purely vanilla. Results may differ as soon as you start to add mods and so on (probably when peeps complain about cars selling for way more than estimated price.... I personally never witnessed that with base game cars)

[Sabarok]

I had been wondering this too, and after reading through some of the guides here, I think I have a good idea on that. Mileage is a significant factor in the price of a car. The junkyard is mostly cars over 200,000, and you're lucky to get one that's 100-200k. At the auction house, you can find cars with much less mileage on them, making them far more valuable when restored.

The first car I bought at an auction earlier was a 3-star Echos Cobra with 35,000km on it for $150,000. After restoring it, it's now worth $288,000 with a $48,000 restoration bonus.

Based on the guide, unless you want to refer to it to see the price indexes of the different models for mileage, I'd say a good rule of thumb at the auction house is to go for 3-star vehicles with under 50,000 on them. I haven't seen any 2-star vehicles worth buying there yet.