Used Car Website, Bring A Trailer, Sold $829 Million in Cars in 2021

The online car auction site Bring a Trailer’s (BAT)  sold $828.7 million worth of cars in 2021. This marks up 108 percent from $398 million in 2020 and nearly a quarter billion dollars more than its nearest live-auction-house competitor.

The news outperforms Mecum Auctions’ total sales of $578 million reported on Dec. 28. It’s more than double RM Sotheby’s total auction sales of $407 million for 2021.

Further down the list, Barrett-Jackson announced $191 million in annual sales for 2021, while Gooding & Co. made $150 million. A request for comment was not returned by a representative for Bonhams.

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“Big auctions will always have a business. They put on a big show,” says BAT President and Co-founder Randy Nonnenberg. “But people are finding that we are a highly effective way to [buy and sell cars] if you want to do it in a more personalized, streamlined way.”

According to data from Hagerty, a classic car insurer and data firm, online auctions surpassed live auctions for the first time in 2021, with 20,000 cars sold online versus 16,000 cars sold live across North America.

Bring a Trailer’s (BAT) recent big news includes a record-breaking $1.9 million Porsche sale.

According to Kevin Fisher of Hagerty, online car sales increased by 107 percent year over year, from $492.5 million in 2020 to $1.02 billion in 2021.

“Online and live auctions were on fire last year,” Fisher says. The recent Porsche Carrera sale represents another threshold crossed in the popularity of such online sales, he added via email about the trend.

The rise of BAT signals a significant shift in the collectible and vintage car market, which has traditionally been dominated by Champagne-fueled auctions in white tents overseen by men in suits with lofty accents: Pebble Beach, Amelia Island, Scottsdale, Paris, and Lake Como. At Pebble Beach alone, the five major live auction houses sold $343 million worth of cars last year. In an inherently opaque industry cloaked by back-door deals, insider favors, and clubby agreements between power brokers, going online eliminates the middlemen.

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