Whether you’re doing a traditional sale or an auction, the number one priority between having the listing go live and having the title signed over is making sure nothing happens to the car. Partly because you still have a soft spot for the machine you’re selling but largely because you want the sale process to be as easy as possible. Fixing anything on a deadline already sucks, but fixing something on a deadline for someone else? Woof. As such, it’s not uncommon for cars up for sale to remain parked until they’re sold because the world is a wild place, as one Bring A Trailer seller recently experienced.
The subject of this tale is a Ford Econoline van. I know, you’re probably picturing the somewhat nondescript white fleet vehicle that launched thousands of bands’ touring careers and served as faithful fleet vehicles for hundreds of thousands. This isn’t that sort of Ford Econoline, nor is it one of those decked-out ’90s conversion vans with a VCR.
Instead, it’s a pristine 1972 Econoline E-200 Club Wagon Chateau, heavy emphasis on pristine. With just 1,800 miles on the clock when it went up for auction, this might’ve been the nicest van of its sort on Earth. From the blue paint to the gleaming chrome, this really was a case of find-another because genuinely, you won’t.
Understandably, with a vehicle of this caliber, the seller did everything right. An enormous image gallery of more than 370 photographs, paint meter readings, walkaround videos, basically the whole nine yards. The only thing that was missing was a driving video. Bidding quickly crept up past the $30,000 mark, but five days into the auction, disaster struck.
On May 9, the seller of this lovely Ford Econoline popped into the comments section and wrote the following:
Good morning, unfortunately yesterday when I had the van out to do a driving video, I was involved in an accident when elderly man pulled out in front of me. @BaT has been notified. Until we deal with the insurance company which should be fun, I have no idea at this time what the final outcome will be on what we do with the van. Thank you all for the bids and the kind comments it deservedly received! I’m sure after seeing this you all feel as sick as I do at the moment. To all the moms out there have a Happy Mother’s Day!
Oh. Oh no. Understandably, this update came with some photographic evidence and the pictures are as soul-crushing as you can imagine.
There’s some bad news and good news here. The good news is that if the van was on an agreed value policy, it’s unlikely to be totalled. The bad news is 1: Just look at it, and 2: It won’t ever quite be the same. Understandably, Bring A Trailer withdrew the auction on Monday, but that still leaves the seller with a dented van to fix.
Now, Bring A Trailer’s been around long enough and moved enough metal that this isn’t the first time a car’s been damaged before the hammer dropped. If you’ve been a reader for a while, you might remember that in 2025, a remarkably nice Corolla wagon got rear-ended while it was up for auction. That one really sucked, partly because it wasn’t a hugely valuable vehicle to begin with and partly because the crash rippled the quarter panel, making the necessary repair far more expensive than a light bumper cover tap.
In a similar vein, a DeTomaso Pantera that would go on to be owned by Ford CEO Jim Farley was damaged during a test drive in 2018 when it was up for auction on Bring A Trailer. As the seller wrote:
Full disclosure: a potential buyer was test driving it, and I was in the passenger seat. Going onto the highway, too much power was put down on tires that weren’t hot enough. We spun facing traffic and a van swiped the side at highway speed. No one hurt, and the damage is cosmetic only
Visually, it was a pretty unfortunate hit, denting the right door and quarter panel and trading some paint. Sure, sheet metal can be massaged back to its intended contouring and paint can be reapplied, but that doesn’t make this incident suck any less.
Anyway, let this be a periodic reminder of the risks that can surface when selling a car. Fingers crossed the owner of this Econoline can have it back in fighting form soon, with the sort of panel-beating and paintwork that suits such a well-kept example.
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer
This “pixelating the lead photo“ thing feels like a yucky cousin to “this one weird thing causes heart attacks in seniors“.
Well, at least he’s got some auction data to help establish a value for insurance (hopefully that’s not an issue and he had an agreed-value policy). Better to have a finished auction, but it’s better than nothing.
Is it any better if the accident happened soon after I won and registered my auction car? (Pouring one out for myself and the poor Mazdaspeed3 I won that got rear ended right after I got my vanity plates installed)
I think this is a perfectly reasonable excuse to respond to random people on BAT asking for driving videos to be told “No Thanks”
It’s not like people at Mecum or Sothebys get driving videos, etc.
Though if a seller declined a driving video, prospective bidders will suspect mechanical issues with the car (even if this is not the case). You have to imagine yourself on the other side, what would you be thinking if the seller said “no”? Ideally though, a driving video will be included in the initial auction filing.
There are many reasons to tell all the non-bidding know-it-alls in the BAT comments to STFU.
For the most part, their history only consist of joke bids (like $964 on a Porsche 911) and they criticize every car like they’re judging a concourse.
The dim light and angle in the garage really changes those colors—you cant even tell it’s two-tone.
I have a car going up for auction next week. I hadn’t even considered this possibility.
I’m going to go home tonight and wax that little thin spot in my trucks paint and tell it everything is going to be alright.
That’s doing it “right”? 😮
If we think of the six exterior sides and the six interior sides (front, back, left, right, top, bottom), that’s over 30 pictures for every. single. side. Yes, this is an unusually nice vehicle; it’s still excessive IMO.
Even if we skew toward more interior pics than exterior, and allow for some shots of the engine compartment, how in the heck could there be any utility after the 200th picture??
Archive pics for other restorers? Absolutely. Sentimental value? Sure. But in an ad? Get out of here with that nonsense.
I look at a lot of BaT auctions and for the most part, the more a seller wants, the more photos they post. This is not to say that “more photos = more money,” but the preponderance of photos is essentially saying “look at all the detail; I’ve omitted nothing, there’s no way I’m hiding a blemish.” Many auctions with single- or even double-digit images either fail to make reserve (in the case of absentee “I know what I’ve got” sellers) or end up adding photos to appease requests for additional detail in the comments.
If you expect to sell for top dollar, expect to jump through a lot of hoops to assure bidders that they’re getting a fair shake.
I understand that people want to know about the vehicles they’re considering, but again, what are they going to learn from photo #370 that they couldn’t have learned by photo #150?
This is An Van, not an aircraft carrier. There simply isn’t enough there to require so many pics. But let’s talk about the value angle.
Right now on a BaT featured auction there is a 1965 Porsche 356: 80 pictures.
A 1986 Ferrari 328 GTS: 206 pictures
A 2013 McLaren 12C Spider: 65 pictures
A Boattail Speedster-Bodied 1931 Cadillac 370A V-12: 70 pictures
Heck, there’s a 12k-Mile 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and even that has only 286 pictures.
If those sellers ^^^ can get their points across, surely Vanseller can do the same. Or are they all doing it wrong? 🙂
You’ve done your homework, so I’ll let the sellers defend themselves, but suffice to say “they must have their reasons” and then I’ll agree with you!
That’s rough. On the other hand, maybe I can afford it now that it’s damaged?
As someone who has it in their screename….think of the vans!!!
Well that’s a heart-breaking way to end my day.
I audibly gasped at my desk after I saw the damage.