What Actually Happens When You consign to MeKum
Most people who have never sold at auction think the process is straightforward. You bring the car, they take photos, it goes on the block, and if it sells you send them a check. That is not how it works. The reality involves a chain of dependencies that can easily take six to eight weeks from the moment you sign the consignment agreement to the day you see money, and half of those weeks are completely out of your control. I consigned a 1969 Camaro SS last fall. It had a fresh engine build, original interior, and the paperwork was clean. MeKum loved it during intake. They gave it a prime catalog position, full-color photos, and a detailed description. The reserve was set at $52,000. It sold for $48,500, which triggered the no-sale fee because it did not meet reserve. I lost $850 in seller fees and waited another three months before selling it privately to the same buyer for $50,000. The lesson was not that the car was bad. The lesson was that I did not understand how the reserve system actually functions inside their auction model.
Secrets To Selling At Mecum Auctions The Ultimate Guide To Success
The reserve is the single most important number you will set. It is not the minimum you would accept. It is the mathematical point where the auction economics still make sense. MeKum charges a seller a base consignment fee that ranges from roughly $500 to $2,500 depending on the vehicle category and tier, plus a buyer's premium pass-through that can run 10 to 15 percent of the final sale price. When a car sells below reserve, you still owe the base consignment fee and sometimes additional marketing or photography surcharges. That is why a $52,000 reserve on a car that realistically fetches $48,500 costs you real money even though nothing was wrong with the vehicle. Here is the counter-intuitive part that nobody mentions casually. Setting a reserve too high is more damaging than setting it too low. A low reserve gets the hammer down. A high reserve gets you nothing but a fee. The bidders at MeKum are mostly serious dealers and private collectors, not speculators flipping on a whim. They bid where the number makes sense, and if the reserve is above market they simply do not bid. You cannot shame a room full of buyers into paying more than the market value. I learned this after watching a $78,000 Ford Bronco sit unsold at a Phoenix auction with a $65,000 reserve when the dealer market was already pricing similar examples in the $58,000 to $62,000 range. The owner still paid his fees. The car came back to his lot three weeks later and sold at a lower reserve for $61,000. Photo quality matters far more than you expect. MeKum handles this in-house, but the quality depends heavily on which facility handles your auction and the current staffing workload. A poorly lit photo of a rust-free frame can look worse than an honestly lit photo of a car with surface rust. I had a 1971 Charger that came back from intake with photos that made the undercarriage look darker than it actually was. The catalog description said everything was solid underneath. Three separate buyers asked me directly why the photos looked inconsistent with the description. The car sold, but the reserve was trimmed by $3,000 because the photos created doubt before the hammer even moved. The workaround was simple: I went to the next auction with my own supplemental images and sent them to the catalog editor ahead of time. The updated photos matched the actual condition and the reserve held.
The buyer's premium is not a hidden cost. It is a visible line item, but most first-time sellers miscalculate it. If your car sells for $40,000 and the buyer's premium is 12 percent, the buyer pays $44,800 total. Your commission is calculated on the $40,000 hammer price, not the $44,800. This distinction matters because some sellers try to price their car at a round number and forget that the premium pushes the total above what a competitive bidder is willing to spend. A bidder looking at a $40,000 car with a 12 percent premium is effectively bidding $44,800. That number can knock them out of a direct comparison against another car priced at $38,500 with the same premium. The lower-priced car wins because the total out-the-door number is smaller, even though the hammer price difference is only $1,500. Auction timing is another variable that people treat as arbitrary. MeKum runs events monthly in most major markets, but not every event is equal. A large Denver event with 600 cars draws a different crowd than a smaller Tucson satellite auction with 180 cars. If you are selling a niche vehicle, such as a early Bronco or a Fox body Mustang with a solid rebuild, a smaller focused event can sometimes produce better results because the right buyers show up specifically for that category. A crowded mega-auction scatters attention across hundreds of similar cars and your example becomes background noise. I moved a 1994 Cobra R replica from a 900-car Atlanta auction where it got lost to a 200-car Houston event two months later where it sold in the first half-hour of its category. The condition report MeKum provides is useful, but it is not a substitute for your own honest assessment. They rate vehicles on a scale that ranges from poor to pristine, and that rating influences how the catalog markets the car. If they grade something as excellent and a buyer shows up expecting concours-level presentation, the gap between expectation and reality can result in a no-sale. I once signed up a 1978 Trans Am that the intake team graded as excellent because the paint was shiny and the interior looked new. The engine had been rebuilt two years earlier but had 40,000 miles of stop-and-go driving since then. The carburetor was original equipment, not performance tuned, and the transmission slipped under hard acceleration. The reserve was set at $38,000 based on that excellent grading. It did not sell. The car ended up selling at a later auction where the grading was corrected to good, and the reserve was set at $29,500. It sold at $31,000. The moral is that an inflated grade hurts more than a realistic one.
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There is also a practical limitation to consider. MeKum is optimized for certain types of vehicles. Muscle cars, classic trucks, and recent performance projects tend to move well. Standard sedans, daily drivers, and vehicles without clear appeal face a harder path. If you are selling a 2012 Accord with 90,000 miles and no special features, the auction model works against you. The overhead costs, the travel expenses for buyers, and the buyer's premium all make small-ticket items uneconomical. In those cases a private sale or a platform like Bring a Trailer or even a local dealership trade usually produces better net returns. Auctions have a threshold below which they stop being viable. That threshold varies by market but it generally sits somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 hammer price for most regular events. If you are going to consign, prepare your paperwork before the intake appointment. Title issues are the most common reason a car fails to sell after it crosses the block. A lien that was not disclosed, a brand on the title that was not communicated clearly, or a missing odometer disclosure form can delay payout by weeks or trigger a complete resale requirement. I had a buyer ready to pay $34,000 for a 1967 Mustang fastback and then discovered the title had a rebuild brand that I had not checked carefully. The buyer walked. The car sat another four months. I spent $400 in storage fees and missed the optimal selling window for spring inventory. Communication with the consignment manager is not optional. You should know which auction you are assigned to, what day your car goes on the block, and whether it will be featured in the online preview catalog. The preview catalog is where most serious buyers make their initial decisions. If your car is not included in the digital preview, it receives significantly less attention from out-of-state buyers. A phone call or email to your consignor contact 10 days before the event asking about catalog placement usually takes two minutes and can change the outcome entirely.
Set your expectations around what the market actually pays, not what you hope it pays. Check recent sold listings on multiple platforms, not just the auction catalog. Auction results are one data point. Private sales and dealer transactions are other data points. Cross-reference them. If MeKum results show similar cars selling in the $45,000 range, but you are trying to hit $55,000, you are not being ambitious. You are being disconnected from the actual market. Adjust the reserve or adjust the car. There is no third option that preserves both the price and the likelihood of a sale.
