Merlin Car Auctions to go live online

carrielou

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Heard this evening that Merlin Car Auctions are going to start doing their auctions live online. Anyone else hear this?
 
Sorry, had another look at the side and realised my point was invalid! :p

it's a nice site, should be interesting to see what things are going for.
 
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Had a look at some of it today . . . looks really well done. Even if you didn't buy something off it, you can at least see what stuff is really going for. There's probably loads more that can be done (eg virtual tours) but its a good start.
 
Heard it on today fm, they seem to get good publicity from them! Tried to look at the website but was having problems with pluging (didn't try very hard).
Fair play to them, they seem to be going for an "ebay" approach, using the current crisis to change how people think about shopping for cars.
 
Don't understand how anyone could buy any car without seeing it in the flesh. :confused:
 
tried to sign on as a bidder and they wanted a €1,000 refundable deposit so I could bid ----------------no way
 
tried to sign on as a bidder and they wanted a 1,000 refundable deposit so I could bid ----------------no way
I think it is fair enough. The fact that you can view without bidding is handy. If there were no deposits anyone could go on and COMPLETELY mess up the auctions by bidding like a million euro on every car, haha.

Only thing I don't agree with is the use of PayPal. I have a terrible experience with them, and for that reason alone - I'd never, ever use Merlin online bidding :p
 
I can understand the need for a large upfront deposit before you can bid. I logged in last week just to see what was on offer and the video link performed fine albeit at low resolution. I would say that about 10% of the cars were interesting enough to warrant a 2nd look. There were a few ones with a long list of problems, which was good to see e.g. "does not start, mark on bumper, window broken, engine trouble, noise from gearbox" etc. I noticed 2 or 3 cars had to be towed around the viewing area. Smashing concept but would prefer higher resolution. I liked the idea that additional photos were posted along with the live video of each car. You could tell the vehicles that were good by seeing the reaction of the bidders on the floor. I would recommend taking a look online and viewing the online catalog a few times before making the trip in person, especially if you have some distance to travel.
 
Watched the 11am one today and was quite impressed. Also, half the cars did not meet their reserves which was quite aggravating to watch!
 
very little on spec of car in catalogue,cant see diesel/petrol,reserve price or co2 emissions ? are you supposed to bid based on that info only ?
 
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