Bidding options
Auction types
We offer five different types of auctions to provide a wide range of bidding experiences. Understanding how these auctions work will help you choose the most effective bidding strategy and increase your chances of winning.
Most auctions on our marketplace are Dynamic auctions. They are simple, straightforward and run like regular auctions: you bid against other bidders until the auction finishes, you can always see what the current highest bid is, and bidding stops when the auction ends.
You can enter a maximum bid manually or let the bid agent do the work for you. You decide which approach works best for you.
After the auction finishes, you will be informed if your bid was accepted within two business days.
A blind auction offers you a very specific advantage: no one other than you can see the bid you’ve placed. And you can’t see other customers’ bids either. As always, it will be up to two business days after the end of the auction before you’ll know whether the seller has accepted your offer or not.
In a ‘Buy Now’ auction, you can immediately reserve a car by bidding the ‘Buy Now’ price. In other words, when you bid the ‘Buy Now’ price, the vehicle is guaranteed to be assigned to you at the end of the auction.
You can also try your luck at tempting the seller by bidding less than the Buy Now price. In that case, the same process applies as in our dynamic auctions: you will find out if the car has been assigned to you within two business days of the auction ending.
In a target auction, you are guaranteed to get the vehicle you bid on. But only if you’re the highest bidder and your bid is equal to—or higher than—the target price. You can find the target price near the ‘Bid’ button.
In a ‘24/7 stock sale’ you can buy stock cars at fixed prices. Discover a wide range of cars that are available for immediate purchase at the ‘Buy Now’ price, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Stock cars are added on a daily basis, making it easy to find new options regularly. This stock sale is the perfect solution if you prefer not to buy in an auction setting, offering a straightforward and efficient way to acquire vehicles.
There are two additional options for how the auction ends: the Ultimo phase and the x-Time phase.
1. Ultimo
If you are the winner of an auction, Ultimo gives you five extra minutes after the auction ends to make your best and final offer. This can dramatically increase your chance of being assigned the vehicle.
2. x-Time
Worried about auction snipers? They’re the people who wait until the last moment to suddenly outbid you. x-Time gives you a chance to put your best bid in. It’s special phase that starts after the auction has ended. During x-Time, you get crucial seconds in which to update your bid, after which the timer resets. Once the timer runs out for the last time, it’s almost certain that the highest bidder will be assigned the vehicle.
TIP: Use “My Bids” to follow up and improve your offer during x-Time and win the auction!
Bidding tools
Discover these tools to help you improve your chances of winning OPENLANE auctions.
The OPENLANE app is the perfect tool for tracking your bids. You can also discover and bid on cars anytime, anywhere.
Discover the OPENLANE app benefits:
- Find cars quickly
- Browse auctions and place bids when it suits you
- Win more auctions!
More than 20,000 downloads and counting!
You can download the OPENLANE app to experience maximum convenience.
⇒ Go to Google Play (Android)
⇒ Go to App Store (iOS)
After an auction closes, Ultimo gives you five minutes to submit your best and final offer.
- Maximize your chance to get the car assigned by the seller!
- You’ll receive an email or browser notification with a link to the car detail page. Only you have access.
- The car detail page shows whether Ultimo is available for an auction. It’s not available for x-Time auctions.
The Price Barometer shows how attractive your bid looks compared to the estimated sales price. Our three-colour system shows you how attractive your bid is to the seller. It works in relation to the estimated price.
Red: You haven’t reached the Estimated price for a vehicle and run every risk of being outbid.
Yellow: You’ll need to cross your fingers to win … or increase your bid.
Green: This is where the action is! You’ve passed the Estimated price and there’s now a good chance your bid will be the winning bid.
You’ll see the Price barometer on the right of the car detail page whenever we have an Estimate Price for the vehicle. While it doesn’t guarantee you a win or a loss, it does indicate how attractive your bid is. It’s a great way to help you win more cars!
Keep track of all your bids in different auctions and maximize your chance of winning with price guidance tools.
- A full overview makes it easier to win auctions.
- Go to ‘My Bids’ via the navigation menu at the top of the website.
- The Bid Agent is not available from ‘My Bids’.
Enter your maximum bid. The Bid agent bids for you – never more than is necessary to keep you in the highest bidder’s seat.
- You’re free to work, knowing you’ll bid no more than is absolutely necessary and will never go beyond your limits.
- Activate it using the switch on the car detail page. You can set it as your default bidding method from ‘My account’.
- Pressing the ‘Buy now’ button always wins the car, even if you set the bid agent first.
As a car trader, you probably know your vehicle makes and models by heart. And you likely know the price of every vehicle you sell. But what if you’re dealing with a make and model you’ve never sold before? The consumer market price is the average price a vehicle sells for in your local market.
While it doesn’t take damage into account, it gives you a very good idea of whether or not you’ll be interested in bidding on a car. Especially when you factor in the estimated price.
- This helpful guide tells you how little or how much to bid. It includes VAT, but doesn’t take damage into consideration.
- You’ll find the consumer market price on the right of the car detail page.
- Please note that it’s not available for all cars in all countries.
A message that pops up in your browser or on your mobile phone, to let you know what you need to know.
- You’re free to go about your business, knowing you’ll be informed about the most crucial auction events.
- You’ll need to allow your browser and phone to show these pop-ups. Adjust the settings in ‘My account’ to make sure you only receive the notifications you want.
- Available for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, iOS and Android.
Exactly how well do our sellers perform? It’s time you found out. For quite some time, OPENLANE has been monitoring their performance in four key areas:
- The quality of their vehicle descriptions.
- How often they accept the highest bid on a vehicle – and how likely you are to receive it if you have the highest bid. (We only look at bids which are close to the Estimated Price).
- How long they take to assign a car after the auction.
- How long they take to release a car that’s been paid for.
After each auction, we give them a score out of five in each category. Afterwards, we dive into the data and calculate a total seller score. You’ll see a seller score on all cars for which we have enough data. If you would like to know how well a seller performs in each specific area, click on ‘Score details’ and you’ll have your answer in seconds.
Want to know how long you’ll be waiting for your car to arrive? Then we have great news. OPENLANE has standard transport arrangements for our most common routes. This means we can give you a good idea of when your car will arrive. There are certain variables that are difficult to predict, so our estimated transport times are, without any doubt, estimates. However, they make life that little bit simpler by giving you a date range for expected delivery.