We car geeks like to discuss the goings-on over at car auction site Bring A Trailer. Often those discussions revolve around price — things like how a pile of rust roughly in the shape of a Porsche 911 can sell for almost $9,000 or how someone accidentally bid $100,000 on an Acura NSX. And now I think something just happened at Bring A Trailer that is very worthy of discussion: an International Scout – actually, wait, it’s technically two International Scouts, sort of (a project frame and a parts car) just sold for the incredible sum of $10.
Yes, $10. The auction was listed as having no reserve, and damn, was that proven accurate. Ten bucks. That’s less than the cost of a McDonalds Quarter Pounder Meal. With cheese, I mean. And instead of a floppy burger the winner of the auction gets the frame and front tub of a 1980 International Scout II, along with a complete – if quite rusty – 1976 International Scout equipped with a 345 cubic inch V8 and a four-speed manual transmission.
Here’s what the auction description says about what’s included in the auction:
This project vehicle includes the frame and front tub from a 1980 International Harvester Scout II as well as a 1976 Scout II body and drivetrain. The 1980 frame remained under original ownership until the seller’s purchase in 2025, and it was refinished and fitted with Rough Country leaf springs within the same year. The 1976 vehicle is equipped with a 345ci V8, a four-speed manual transmission, and a dual-range transfer case, and it featured faded red paint over beige upholstery. Additional equipment includes 15″ steel wheels, a white hardtop, and a tow ball. This non-running project is offered at no reserve with a clean Michigan title for the 1980 vehicle and a bill of sale for the 1976 donor vehicle.
This has to be the lowest BaT auction sale price ever, right? There’s been some cars that have sold for $100, like this Fiat 124, but that’s still ten times as much money as this one. It’s definitely the lowest price an International Scout II has sold for on the site, as you can see on this chart:
Ten bucks. By weight, that would be, let’s see, a Scout II is about 3,600 pounds, and I figure there’s what, maybe a few hundred pounds of frame and tub from the “project” Scout? Let’s call it 4,000 pounds of Scout to keep the math easy, which means that the winner of this auction spent $0.0025 per pound of International Scout II, which is, as you may have guessed, a hell of a deal.
Just in scrap metal prices, which range from six cents to 22 cents per pound for steel, the buyer would make a killing (the project is worth a few hundred bucks in scrap, though shipping prices will eat into that). I hope the buyer doesn’t decide to do that, of course. Far better would be to make one running Scout II from this frame and the parts Scout and just tell every single person you encounter in the car that you paid $10 for the car at auction.
There’s a tow ball included in this auction. That tow ball alone is probably worth $10. Same with a single one of these wheels:
Bring A Trailer charges a flat fee of $99 to list the car, so the seller is already in the hole for $89 with this sale. Then, on top of that, the buyer pays a 5% (that’d be a nickel in this case) or 10% (a dime), but there’s also a minimum fee of $250, 25 times the sale price.
I can’t imagine the seller feels great about this, but I imagine the buyer is pretty delighted. Maybe the seller is just happy to have it all gone without having to scrap it?
I hope both of them, together, at least feel a bit of pride in undertaking what has to be the lowest Bring A Trailer transaction ever in the site’s 245,000-auction history. Sales like this give unreasonable hope for all of us unrealistically cheap bastards with terrible impulse control, and that’s worth more than even $10 can buy. Maybe even $20.
We’ll be seeing this at MOAB soon. David still has contacts in Michigan with storage space.
Was the buyer’s name Tavid Dracy? So his wife didn’t find out?
I’ve given away vehicles and accumulations of parts nicer than this for free and was happy to see them go, so it’s quite possible.
Still, in the spirit of helping with cost recovery I’m prepared to offer the lucky buyer the entire $10 just for the 345 engine, as long as that includes shipping.
I have been following scout auctions on bring a trailer for years and years. I expect a shoot up in value once people start seeing new Scouts on the streets. I think that this price with the minimums and fees is about right for a trashed old scout even with the new frame.
I bet I could get all the parts to finish the project on eBay! I’d even take pictures and write articles for you guys!
Conspiracy theory: someone sold this to their buddy so that they can come in under the $500 limit for 24 Hours of Lemons
Nobody in Lemons would give half a crap if someone paid $1K for a Scout if it raced.
And yet they said no when I wanted to bring a Travelall. Blah, blah, blah, Rule 2.1 maximum factory curb weight of 4200 pounds, blah, blah, blah. Not that I’m still bitter about this or anything.
I didn’t mention weight since the claimed weight of the Scout was 3600 lbs so it’d be legal.
“…let’s see, a Scout II is about 3,600 pounds…”
Not that Scout. I think it lost about 600 pounds on the Michigan fe2o3 + h2o diet.
The fuel economy goes up after every speed bump.
Wow, if the buyer didn’t really want it and isn’t local, it’s gonna cost them a lot more to get rid of it.
Should’ve just scrapped it.
I’m surprised the opening bid wasn’t higher than that, like at least $99 or $100 or something. Otherwise, it would’ve been the first no-reserve auction on BaT to not even sell LOL
The $250 minimum suxxx tho
In comes David claiming “it’s nearly mint!”
Rust free.
Ain’t this right up Andrew Collin’s alley? What happened to that guy? He was the Scout owner at Jalopy-peanuts right?
Will the sale actually go through? I’m skeptical. The secret BaT (and C&B) don’t want you to know, is that lots of auctions don’t go through, despite being won by someone.
And the seller? They just get banned. That’s it. If the buyer backs out, they get banned and lose their buyers fee. So the “cost” of the seller to back out here, isn’t exactly a big deal.
The seller should be required to pay BaT the $250 buyers fee in that case.
Personally, I think the sellers credit card should be charged the same exact dollar value as the winning bid buyers fee, which then gets refunded upon successful completion of the sale. Keep it fair for buyers and sellers.