With the strong growth and widespread presence of eBay, the titan of online auction houses, buying and selling through auctions has become more acceptable, more commonplace and more accessible to millions. Even though there have been auto auctions for many years for liquidating repossessed and seized cars, used car auctions are becoming used for more general purposes, partly because of the influence of eBay.

In general, people who are ready to make an auto purchase love to shop at auctions because they can very often pick up an exceptional deal that they might not have ever been able to get through any other avenue. At the same time, sellers also like selling their products through auctions.

Once a prospective buyer makes a decision to bid on an item, even if it is a low bid, they have mentally made the decision that they want the item and they become attached to the idea of owning it. When another bidder comes along, it can be easy for this mindset to translate into a bidding war and often the ultimate price is better than the seller could have hoped for.

The same basic principles are always in play, no matter what type of goods or services are being auctioned off. When it comes to auto auctions, a bidder can get a tremendous deal if there are few bidders in attendance. For the seller of an auction car, if they happen to be participating in a used car auction and have several people bidding on the same vehicle, then they might enjoy even more profit that they might have expected.

For many years, buying a car through an auction meant that the buyer was purchasing a model from a selection of repossessed cars, or cars that had been seized and were made available through government auctions. There were also many types of specialized car auctions that were not open to the public.

But, today, things have changed considerably and now there are more options than ever in automobile auctions that the public can take advantage of, as well as dealers and other industry insiders. These days it is not unusual for banks, credit unions, and finance companies to hold public car auctions to deal with the growing inventory of repossessed cars that they have on their property.

Salvage yards, body shops and auto repair shops are also known to engage the services of car auction houses to help them sell vehicles that have been abandoned or seized because the owner could not pay a repair bill.

One of the primary things that people need to keep in mind when buying vehicles through auto auctions is that all sales are final and the vehicles are sold "as is." This means that no matter what kind of problems crop up as you drive the car home from the used car auction, the buyer has no legal recourse. For later model cars this might not be a problem, but it means that older cars at auctions might be best left for mechanics.