Online auctions have put cars for sale in front of more people than ever before, but they can also come with pitfalls you likely wouldn’t encounter from the old-school local classifieds. Cars that don’t show up quite as nice as they looked online, shill bidding, AI-altered Cadillacs, that sort of stuff. But what about typos? Let’s say you accidentally type a wildly wrong number in the bid box online. What will happen? We just found out thanks to a recent Bring A Trailer auction.
Let’s set the scene: It’s May 10, and Bring A Trailer bidding has opened on a truly stunning Acura NSX. While not everyone’s a fan of the facelift model’s fixed headlights, this one stayed with the original owner all its life and racked up just 4,200 miles over the past 26 years. What’s more, it’s Rio Yellow Pearl over yellow leather. Yes, yellow leather. Finding another example anything like this is going to be tricky, as Acura only made six.
At first, it seems like smooth sailing. An opening bid of $42,000 quickly gets supplanted by a bid of $212,345. The seller posts more photos showing the paint protection film, the leather, and the exterior. A few days pass, and bidding jumps up to $236,000, then $237,000, then the real fun starts. From a high bid of $238,000 to one of $292,000 in nine minutes. The $293,000 mark arrives and the lot seems red hot, but then a problem arises.
The next bid hits and it’s a whopping $394,000, followed by a comment from the new top bidder: “Typo, $294,000”. Uh-oh. Cue the comments claiming this was an underhanded tactic.
One commenter wrote “Good ploy to stop the clock and have a private negotiation going. Gotta try that next time!” Another commented “Or the bidder did this on purpose to get a 1 on 1 with the seller to reach a price away from everyone else, its a 2 step process to bid.”
Now, Bring A Trailer does have a two-step confirmation process for bidding, but typos can still happen. Even though fraudulent bidding can be an issue, ‘2’ and ‘3’ are right next to each other on a keyboard, and they even have the same curve at the top. This seems like it’s likely an honest mistake, and Bring A Trailer saw it that way. However, instead of an immediate retraction, the auction closes. For about two days, it looked like a lapse of judgement led to a nigh-on $400,000 NSX. Then, on Thursday, Bring A Trailer posted an update in the comments.
Thanks for all the interest and comments on this great NSX. The car sold to bidder @turbotroy for $310,000 and we have updated the listing to reflect that. Here is a recap of what happened:
@turbotroy had advanced the bidding to $293k and @RR767 mistakenly bid $394k instead of his intended $294k bid. It was an honest mistake that our team should have caught in regulation, but we missed it and the auction ended at the erroneous $394k sale price. We then worked with all parties to find a fair resolution. We gave the seller the option to engage with both top bidders offline, or reopen the auction. Both bidders were courteous and diplomatic during these discussions, and ultimately the seller decided to move forward with the sale to @turbotroy.
Thanks to @The_Dude_Abides for bringing this great car to BaT and working through this unusual post-auction situation in a professional way.
Howard Swig
Head of Auctions
Right, so I see a few points of contention couple things here. Firstly, in the space between crossing the $290,000 mark and the unintentional $394,000 bid, there were actually three bidders. I probably wouldn’t have been happy if I was the third-place bidder and lost out because of an error and the way it was dealt with. Secondly, it’s generally quite common for auctions to be re-run if something’s obviously wrong. That should probably be the default action instead of an offline resolution because once an auction restarts, the playing field’s truly level.
At the same time, there likely aren’t many people looking to pay $310,000 for an Acura NSX. That’s a lot of money to be throwing around, and while the golden era NSX is a proper collector car now, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Some people like faster cars, some like older cars, it takes a specific sort of well-heeled buyer to splash the cash.
If this auction was any precedent, it seems like if you accidentally make an egregious but logical typo in a bid, Bring A Trailer can sort things out. It might not always be in the fairest way for everyone, but you likely won’t be left holding the entire bag. Great news if you’re a little sleep-deprived, or need a slightly bigger phone to suit your thumb size, or what have you.
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer
They could have got this very nice one today (also yellow) just for the erroneous jump in bid!
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1997-acura-nsx-t-28/
I sold my car, a nice one, on Cars & Bids a few months ago. It was a TERRIBLE experience due to their incompetence. No one should ever use an auction site.
On the one hand I agree BaT should have maybe reopened the bidding to make it fair for everybody but on the other hand I can’t even conceive of spending $300K on a car so this is all make-believe money anyways.
That’s a lot of bananas
That yellow leather is amazing. How ridiculously cool would it feel to step out of this, dressed in all black, before taking the arm of your supermodel husband/wife to walk up the red carpet to receive the Nobel Prize for Chemistry you received for your acting, nevermind the pile of Oscars, while George Clooney and Anne Hathaway try to squeeze in for a photo of you standing behind your birthday cake, because it’s your birthday after all and after passing vital bipartisan legislation to end homelessness and renew critical infrastructure – for public and private transit, not least among that – don’t you deserve a slice of cake?
Pretty cool, I bet. Pretty cool.
A banana cake, of course.
Yes, but my Husband and I would be wearing white/cream linen suits.
Lemon cake, please.
It would be cooler if you’re dressed as Jim Carey from the Mask.