A review of the largest auto auction - PLC Auction

Many people are talking about shipping cars from abroad and every day there are more and more people who have used such a service. As a journalist and just as a person interested, I have long wanted to explore this topic more deeply, especially since there are a huge number of companies on the market offering services for the selection of a used car from the USA, Europe and Asia. And here it is the right moment. Having used the services of one of such sites, which allows you to independently select a car, participate in the bidding, pay for services and track all stages of the delivery process, I managed to accumulate material, which I will gladly share in this review.

My choice, after a long search and study of this market segment, fell on the international car auction plc.auction. I will share with you my impressions and information about how the platform functions, delivery times and, of course, how profitable it is.

Brief overview on PLC.auction

According to the materials available on the website and user reviews, the company plc.auction, whose head office is located in Lithuania, has been operating on the market for more than 10 years. Despite the presence of a large number of functions, the interface of the platform is clear, the site is multi-lingual and can be used by speakers of English, French, Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian, Bulgarian, Polish and even Arabic. And this is worthy of respect. 

In order to become a user of the platform, you need to register on the site. This gives you the opportunity to participate in auctions, perform any other actions provided in the system. To access the auction, you need to make a deposit of 10% of the value of the car. 

An important step in buying a used car is to check it. You can do this on the platform in two ways. You can check the car's operating history by VIN-code and order a "live" inspection of your chosen car by the company's inspectors.  

The platform is an aggregator and provides access to lots offered at 55 different auctions operating around the world: in Canada, the USA, South Korea, the UAE, and Europe. The scale is impressive: the platform's database contains about 2 million offers, so there is always something to choose from. 

If there is no desire to wait and participate in the bidding, you can consider lots that are offered at a fixed price. In general, the advantage of the site is obvious - you register once, but you get access to the lots exhibited at dozens of different auctions. I am not talking about those of them that are available only to dealers - we are talking about the most interesting offers, the so-called "insurance" cars, which are the most profitable to buy.

For the user, the process is extremely simple: he chooses a car in the catalog, makes a deposit, bids and starts participating in the auction, regardless of which auction the car is on. By the way, it is possible not to participate in the auction, because the platform has many offers available for purchase now. The price of such cars is fixed, meaning you just choose and buy the car. It's a very cool option. If at an auction there is a chance that the car will "go" to another bidder, then with buy buy now, the car is guaranteed to be yours.

Car delivery

If your bid was the highest, you win the lot. The company not only delivers your car to its destination, but also draws up all the documents necessary for export. Transportation is carried out by sea: in containers or on deck, if the car you bought is intact. 

The cost of transportation depends on the method of delivery. As for the timing, the car I bought was delivered on time. According to feedback from other users, we can conclude that the deadlines are met in most cases. After a dialog with the manager it turned out that now container transportation is carried out with enviable regularity and ships leave the ports once every 1-2 weeks. After my car was delivered to the port, the company organized its delivery to me in Krakow. 

The delivery time depends on where your car is coming from. In my case, it was South Korea and it took almost two months for delivery (the ship itself took 46 days to reach its destination). According to the feedback from users of the platform, who ordered a car from the USA, the delivery time depends on the port from which the cargo is sent, its workload. The average delivery time in this case is 3 months. 

In the case of Europe, the timeframe is shorter, but not as long as it might seem. It is all about the specifics of the work of Europeans. In total, it will take 1-2 months to deliver a car. The time frame of course depends on the location of the car and the destination.

The date of shipment and arrival at the port of destination, the route - all these data are available in the user's cabinet. And what is very important, after each stage that involves loading/unloading, the vehicle is photographed. 

Is it difficult to buy cars at auction

When I was just getting acquainted with the work of PLC Auction, I certainly had questions regarding the work of the platform. In this case, I contacted support and we solved them together. How to search, how to check the history of the car - you will always find the answer to these and other questions, and if necessary, the administrators will pick up the vehicle for you based on your budget and wishes.  True, I coped with the selection of cars myself, and for an accurate search there are a lot of filters. Description of lots is as complete as possible: condition, photo materials. 

I liked the fact that a potential buyer can immediately access information about the full cost of the car, taking into account all the fees associated with delivery, fees, paperwork, etc. This can be done directly in the lot card with the help of a special calculator. That is, everything is as transparent as possible, there are no hidden costs, you know what you are paying for, you understand the algorithm of the whole process. 

The invoice includes the cost of the car, sea freight, loading and unloading, port charges, transportation to the recipient country by car carrier, etc. By the way, PLC Auction has lower final prices in comparison with other sites, which is most likely achieved due to large volumes of transportation and well thought-out logistics. 

If you are new to this type of auction, it is likely that you will not immediately win the item you like. I became a winner only in the second auction, so it took me about two weeks to bid. It is not always easy to evaluate a car, but for this purpose there is a special service to check the history of the car by VIN-code and of course the inspection of the car by inspectors of the platform itself, in any country, wherever you decide to buy a vehicle. 

It will take 2-5 days for a "live" verification and the results in the form of additional photos and videos will be added to your profile. 

This time I used the vehicle history checker by unique identifier, which shed light on a lot. To do this, there is a "Vin Report" button at the top of the lot card. 

The cost of the check is only 9,99 euros, but the amount of data you get access to is worth much more than that. You can see an example report here https://checkcar.vin/report/simple, and in brief, this:

• detailed technical specifications, including the original equipment and its modifications;
• the car's involvement in the accident, its damage;
• maintenance;
• odometer readings as of a certain date (possibility to find out whether there have been interventions in the operation of the device);
• vehicle recalls by the manufacturer;
• operating conditions of the car (whether the car was not used, for example, in cab services);
• auction sale history and more.

How much you can save when buying a car at auction

Despite significant shipping costs (I paid almost 3000 dollars for transportation of the car from South Korea), I managed to buy the car 25% cheaper than in my city. And I very much doubt that I had a chance to find a copy in a similar technical condition and configuration. By the way, the car is equipped with a factory 5-generation HBO, which is an undoubted plus.

Conclusions

PLC.auction platform offers the best, in my opinion, functionality among similar platforms, and in many service functions they have no competitors. For me, as a buyer, the main criterion was the ease of purchase and transparency of the whole process. My first purchase at the auction was incredibly successful and this despite the fact that my experience as a motorist was very modest. And there are many others like me, as evidenced by the testimonials page at https://plc.auction/reviews.