First of all is registration with AuctionExport as a dealer. Usually with your email address and contact information
“REGISTRATION
First of all is registration with AuctionExport as a dealer. Usually with your email address and contact information,once your registration is approved,they will send you your dealer number and login password through your email.
DEPOSIT
The next phase is placing a deposit on your dealer account. This can be done using money bookers online or by sending wire transfer. For us in Nigeria,they accept wire transfers and you can find their bank wire details in red text on the right hand side of profile when you log in. The minimum amount you can deposit is $400 which enables you to use ‘bid option’ or ‘buy now option’ for vehicles whose purchase cost is not more than $4,000. If you intend to participate in Go-live bidding (Live online auctions), you must have a deposit of $1,000 or more which enables you to bid for vehicles up to $10,000 on Go-live auction.
Once your deposit is received, AuctionExport will credit your dealer account with the amount they received which is usually $35 less than what you sent due to bank charges. So if you want them to credit your account with $400, you have to send $435. Wire transfer can be done using a swift transfer through domiciliary account. Always include $35 bank offshore bank charge to what you are sending and tell the bank you are bearing the onshore charges. The onshore charges is usually $25 fixed telex charge + 0.05% of the total amount you are sending.
For example I funded my domiciliary account with $10,000 and authorized transfer of $9,800 to AuctionExport with me bearing the onshore charges, AuctionExport credited my account with $9,765 and my local bank deducted $9,918 from my account. So because of these bank charges you might want to send your total estimated purchase cost (vehicle cost,AuctionExport charges,ground and ocean transportation) at one transaction.
When you are done with deposits which usually takes about two days to get to AuctionExport due to the intermediate bank, you are now ready to purchase a car.
CARS
You have to search a find your preferred vehicle. This part is very crucial and you need to pay attention. There are clean cars and salvage cars. There also ‘bid now’ and ‘buy now’ cars.
BID NOW cars are vehicles that you can bid on. All biddings on AuctionExport site is pre-bidding and they will submit the highest bid amount on their site to the auction on behalf of the bidder. For Go-live auctions you can bid directly for the car by yourself at home. Some bid now cars also have buy now options.
BUY NOW cars are vehicles that you can buy immediately without bidding. Just submit a buy now request and once it is processed the car becomes yours CLEAN CARS are vehicles that doesn’t have any documents issues,accidents or loan records and problems. They are always as good as new.
SALVAGE CARS are vehicles that may have had loan records,title check problems,damages,accidents,flood, mechanical problems, minor dents and scratches, failed inspections and stuffs like that. These category of cars are usually the cheapest on AuctionExport but requires much caution when buying to avoid mistakes. There are subcategories under salvage cars
1: Run and drive- cars that are readily drivable. They may have body damages or not but once you start the engine and engage the transmission you are good to go
2: Engine starts- cars that only the engine starts and it cannot drive independently on its own.
3: Non drivable- cars that neither start nor drive.
On salvage car auctions, there are private and public auctions. On PUBLIC auctions you can participate directly online but on PRIVATE auctions AuctionExport will bid on your behalf and notify you if you win the car.all you need do is to set a maximum bid price on their site or request live-on-the phone bidding. Their representative will contact you shortly before the auction is started. You can also request for live on the phone bidding for PUBLIC auctions if you can’t participate live.
So once you determine the car you are buying you can request an autocheck report on the vehicle history after which you proceed. You need to be fast and decisive on purchase because good offers on vehicles are quickly grabbed as AuctionExport has over 200,000 active buyers all over the world.
BEFORE YOU BUY
Before you hit that bid now or buy now please ensure the following;
1. That you have checked out the vehicle pictures and details to ascertain the level of damage for salvage vehicles.
2. That you check the type title document the vehicle has. Don’t buy if the vehicle has dealer only title or bill of sale as the former is for dealers in North America while the latter cannot be shipped as a whole vehicle but cut into parts.
3. That you check the AuctionExport fee,paperwork fee, auction buyer fee,internet fee, gate fee as applicable to the vehicle to see if it matches with your budget when added to vehicle cost
4. Also check the location of the vehicle in the USA. If the vehicle is salvage run and drive without visible major damage, it can be shipped RoRo but if it has extensive damage it will go containerized. If the vehicle is salvage engine starts or non drivable then it most be containerized. Now pay attention.
A: All containerized vehicles are consolidated in a 40 feet container containing between 3-5 vehicles
B: All consolidated containers must exit through New Jersey/New York exit port. ( in this case always pay attention to locations of vehicles)
C: All containerized vehicles must be cleared and unloaded by AuctionExport authorized agent at Lagos, Perfect Touch shipping solutions, 54 ibafo road, by coconut bus stop, olodi Apapa Lagos
D: RoRo vehicles can exit from New Jersey , Jacksonville, Georgia, Texas and California
Please note the following States with high and low ground transportation costs so as to make your vehicle purchase cheaper and quick to deliver to the exit port.
New York NY . $400
New Jersey NJ. $400
Pennsylvania PA. $450
Connecticut CT. $425
Maryland MD. $450
Massachusetts MT. $450
Maine MA. $500
Indiana IN. $550
Georgia GA. $550
North Carolina NC. $550
Louisiana LO. $600
Florida FL. $650
Michigan MI. $650
South Carolina SC. $650
Texas TX. $675
Minnesota MS. $750
Colorado CO. $800
California CA. $1,100
Nevada NV. $1,300
Washington WA. $1,400
Utah UT. $1,400
PURCHASED A CAR
when you have successfully purchased a car, AuctionExport will send you a notification containing the purchase agreement/invoice which you will sign and scan back to them. They will also require you to download and fill out the vehicle release form and scan it back to them. You also need to upload your government identification (Intl passport page,national ID card or drivers license). Once this is done and your full payment of (vehicle cost,charges,ground and ocean transportation costs) the vehicle has been deducted, they will commence shipping. Time between purchase and receiving your car in Lagos is approximately 6-8 weeks depending on the location of your car in the US, availability of tow liners, congestion at US customs and shipping lines schedules.
AuctionExport uses Grimaldi lines mostly for autos due to the speedy delivery and clearance of cargo at their dedicated terminal at Tincan port. It is usually 5 days after arrival of vessel.
Once your vehicle is loaded on a container you will get the container number and once the bill of lading is uploaded on your profile, you can commence tracking of the vessel through fleetmon.com or marinetraffic.com
USEFUL TIPS
1: Always be sure before you click buy now as a buy now request cannot be cancelled and all sales are final. Cancellation of buy now attracts a penalty of $400 or 10% of buy now cost whichever is higher and all the charges and discounts towards the resale of the car will be billed to your account.
2: You can always cancel your pre-bid if the auction is not yet started by calling AuctionExport sales department but once auction starts it cannot be cancelled.
3: Do not submit multiple bids if you intend buying only one car, because if you do and eventually win both vehicles, you will end up buying both
4: Always bid reasonably.
5: Remember to send an email for payment confirmation with your wire transfer evidence to info@auctionexport.com to credit your account. It is important you state your AuctionExport dealer account number on the wire transfer document at the bank to enable ease of payment.
6: If you are using a third party domiciliary account to send them a wire transfer, please send them an email containing the photo identification cards of both of you and wire transfer evidence.
7: Never buy a car if don’t have enough money as they will be charging you 0.125% of total vehicle cost until fully paid or they may even charge you a penalty and relist your car as a repossessed vehicle and block your account. They will only give you 4 working days to clear your outstanding balance.
8: If your vehicle is coming containerized,ensure you have the clearing cost ready to avoid penalty or your vehicle being listed on repossessed vehicle list
9: If your vehicle is non drivable never accept the shipping option of Towable RoRo designated for Apapa port as it will take longer time and higher cost to clear your vehicle plus towing van. Tincan island port is best for non drivable or containerized cars.”