The bottom line: Cars & Bids is the one well-known online car auction that charges a private seller no listing fee and no commission. You list for free, pay nothing when the car sells, and keep 100% of the final price.
The catch is that it turns most cars away. It takes enthusiast cars from the 1980s to today, and will not accept an ordinary commuter car.
For any other car, eBay Motors is the flat fee auction to fall back on. Since April 15, 2026, it charges $34 to list a car at $15,000 or less and $79 above that, and takes no percentage of your sale price.
Bring a Trailer and Hemmings take no commission either, but Bring a Trailer starts at $99 to list and Hemmings at $99.95. None of these listing fees come back if your car doesn’t sell.
The buyer’s fee still lowers your price. Cars & Bids, Bring a Trailer and Hemmings all charge the buyer 5% on top of the winning bid, and buyers count that when deciding what to bid.
You can compare offers from multiple buyers before you pay anything to list.
Enthusiast and modified cars
Auction, free for sellers
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Audience match 30% 5/5
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Sale price potential 25% 4/5
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Listing cost / fees 20% 5/5
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Process transparency 15% 5/5
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Time to sell 10% 4/5
How it works and what it costs
How you sell
- Submit the car, and its team replies within a business day
- Its team writes the listing for a 7-day auction
- Free history report on every listing
Cost to you
- Free to list, and nothing taken from the sale
- Buyer pays 5%, from $250 up to $7,500
Watch out for
- Ordinary daily drivers are turned down
- Bidders bid less to cover their 5% fee
Everyday cars, at a flat fee
Auction or fixed price, flat fee
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Buyer reach 25% 3/5
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Safety features 25% 4/5
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Listing cost 20% 3/5
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Time to sell 15% 4/5
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Ease of listing 15% 3/5
How it works and what it costs
How you sell
- Any car, with no approval, listed within a day
- Auction or fixed price, open to buyers nationwide
- You handle the photos, listing and buyer questions
Cost to you
- Lists for $34, or $79 over $15,000
- No cut of the sale, but 2.8% of any deposit
Watch out for
- The listing fee is kept if the car doesn't sell
- A reserve over $15,000 moves you to the $79 fee
Collector and enthusiast cars
Auction
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Audience match 30% 5/5
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Sale price potential 25% 5/5
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Listing cost / fees 20% 3/5
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Process transparency 15% 4/5
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Time to sell 10% 3/5
How it works and what it costs
How you sell
- Submit your car, and BaT picks which cars it lists
- A specialist writes the listing for a 7-day auction
- You and the winner arrange payment, usually by wire
Cost to you
- A $99 listing fee, or $429 with its photos
- You keep the whole winning bid
- Buyer pays 5%, from $250 up to $7,500
Watch out for
- Bids may not reach your lowest price
- No backing out, and no other ads, once it's live
Classic and collector cars
Auction, Make Offer or classified ad
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Audience match 30% 5/5
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Sale price potential 25% 4/5
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Listing cost / fees 20% 4/5
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Process transparency 15% 2/5
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Time to sell 10% 2/5
How it works and what it costs
How you sell
- Submit free, and Hemmings picks the cars it auctions
- A specialist writes the listing and sets the reserve with you
- Unsold cars move to a free six-month Make Offer listing
Cost to you
- A $99.95 listing fee, only if your car is accepted
- No commission taken from the sale
- Buyer pays 5%, from $500 up to $10,000
Watch out for
- Backing out once terms are agreed costs $500 to $1,000
- Selling to a bidder off the site can cost you their fee
Automated assistant: general info, not legal advice
Answers come from our state paperwork data and published guides. Confirm anything binding with your state DMV.
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Cars & Bids: The Online Car Auction with No Seller Fees
1. Cars & Bids
Cars & Bids auctions cool modern and late-model enthusiast cars
- Sellers keep 100% of sale price
- Over 80% sell-through rate
- SafePay handles money and title
- Listing help from the team
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Audience match 30% 5/5
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Sale price potential 25% 4/5
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Listing cost / fees 20% 5/5
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Process transparency 15% 5/5
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Time to sell 10% 4/5
Platform
On Cars & Bids a private seller pays nothing to list and keeps 100% of the final sale price. Founded by Doug DeMuro in 2020, it focuses on enthusiast vehicles from the 1980s to today.
Fee Structure
Listing is completely free and sellers keep the full sale price. Cars & Bids makes its money from the buyer instead, charging 5% of the winning bid with a $250 minimum and a $7,500 maximum.
Listing Process
You submit your car through a short online form, and Cars & Bids says its team reviews it within one business day. If approved, they build the listing with you from your photos and details. Every listing includes a free vehicle history report, and all auctions run for seven days, starting at $0.
What We Like
The audience is made up of serious buyers who know the cars they’re bidding on, which is what lifts prices on the right vehicle. The platform also extends the clock in the final minutes, so a last-second bid cannot win the car on timing alone.
What You Should Know
Most submitted vehicles are turned down. Everyday commuter cars and economy vehicles will be rejected, and you can only list the same car once per year even if it doesn’t sell.
On a high-value sale, Cars & Bids offers SafePay, an optional service that holds the buyer’s money until the car is picked up. It costs $198, which the buyer pays unless you agree to split it, plus $99 if there’s a loan, and it’s worth using when you are dealing with a distant buyer.
Best For
Enthusiast vehicles from the 1980s to today: sports cars, imports, modified builds, rare trucks, and special-edition models with collector appeal.
Those are also the cars that hold their value best, which is the argument for a patient auction rather than a quick sale. On iSeeCars’ five-year depreciation study, a Porsche 911 loses 11.1% of its original price against a market average of 41.8%.
The cars that hold their value best The 15 lowest of 950,000 five-year-old carsShow the numbers
Model Five-year depreciation Porsche 718 Cayman 9.6% Porsche 911 11.1% Chevrolet Corvette 18.7% Toyota Tacoma 19.9% Toyota Tundra 21.2% Honda Civic 22.9% Subaru BRZ 23.7% Toyota GR Supra 24.0% Toyota RAV4 25.2% Toyota Corolla Hatchback 25.5% Toyota 4Runner 25.5% Lexus RC 26.6% Ford Mustang 26.8% Toyota Corolla 27.6% Toyota Sienna 28.5% 
eBay Motors: The Flat Fee Car Auction for Everything Else
2. eBay Motors
eBay Motors lists your car to buyers nationwide
- Listing fee is $34 or $79
- 40 photos with either fee
- No percent fee on sale price
- 2.8% fee on deposits via eBay
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Buyer reach 25% 3/5
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Safety features 25% 4/5
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Listing cost 20% 3/5
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Time to sell 15% 4/5
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Ease of listing 15% 3/5
Platform
eBay Motors is not a zero-fee platform. It charges a flat listing fee based on what you list the car for. But unlike most platforms, it takes no percentage of your final sale price, and a buyer using its Secure Purchase checkout pays a flat $25 service fee rather than a buyer’s premium.
That flat structure makes it the most affordable paid option for private sellers who don’t qualify for Cars & Bids.
Fee Structure
eBay changed how it charges sellers on April 15, 2026. Vehicles listed at $15,000 or less cost $34 and vehicles above $15,000 cost $79. No percentage is taken from your sale price; the only percentage you pay is 2.8% of the deposit, which every listing eligible for Secure Purchase must ask for.
On auction listings, the price that sets your fee is the highest of your starting bid, your reserve, or your Buy It Now price. Either fee gets auctions up to 10 days and fixed-price listings up to 30 days, with 40 photos and an AutoCheck report on cars and trucks.
If you set up an auto-relist before April 15, 2026, the older package prices of $19, $34, and $79 still apply to those listings.
What We Like
eBay Motors accepts all vehicle types with no approval process, so you can list within a day. You choose between auction-style and fixed-price format, and cars and trucks include a vehicle history report.
What You Should Know
The listing fee is non-refundable even if your car doesn’t sell. There is also a 2.8% fee on the deposit your buyer pays through eBay, and a listing eligible for Secure Purchase has to ask for one.
You handle the photos, listing description and buyer questions yourself, and eBay leaves shipping to the buyer.
Best For
Any vehicle type that doesn’t qualify for Cars & Bids. Everyday cars, older vehicles, high-mileage cars, and anything outside the enthusiast niche.
Every Major Auction Platform Compared on Seller Fees
Cars & Bids is a genuine outlier. Every other major auction platform charges sellers something upfront, and three of the four charge your buyer a percentage on top. An auction is only one route, and the selling options set side by side puts it against a private sale, a dealer and an instant offer.
Things to Watch Out For on Both Platforms
Buyer Fees Can Affect What People Bid on Cars & Bids
On Cars & Bids, sellers pay nothing. But buyers pay a 5% fee on top of their winning bid, with a $250 minimum and a $7,500 maximum. Buyers often factor this extra cost into how much they’re willing to bid.
On a $20,000 winning bid that fee is $1,000, so the winner pays $21,000 in all. Buyers bid with that total in mind, which means the fee comes out of your price even though you never pay it.
Example amounts.
The minimum matters more than the percentage on cheap cars. At $250 on Cars & Bids and Bring a Trailer, and $500 on Hemmings, the fee works out well above 5% on a low-priced vehicle.
Most Cars Won’t Be Accepted by Cars & Bids
Cars & Bids turns down most of what is submitted to it. They want cars with genuine enthusiast or collector appeal, so basic commuter cars, high-mileage daily drivers and anything without a story will be declined.
If your car is rejected, eBay Motors is the most practical next step, because it accepts all vehicle types with no approval process at all. That includes a car with damage, mechanical problems, or one that won’t start.
For a car in that condition, it’s worth checking what buyers who specialize in damaged cars would offer before you pay a listing fee at all.
eBay Motors’ Fee Is Upfront, Not Conditional
The $34 or $79 listing fee on eBay Motors is non-refundable. You pay it when you list, whether or not your car sells.
This is different from a percentage-based model where you only pay after a completed sale. If there’s any chance your car won’t sell, factor that upfront cost into your decision before listing.
The same applies on Bring a Trailer, where the fee starts at $99, and on Hemmings at $99.95. Both are gone if the car doesn’t sell, though Hemmings does roll an unsold auction into a six-month Make Offer listing at no extra charge.
Compare instant offers before you accept one
Compare instant offers before you accept one
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a flat fee car auction?
eBay Motors is the flat fee option. You pay $34 to list a vehicle at $15,000 or less and $79 above that, once, upfront, and eBay takes no percentage of the sale price. A buyer who checks out through Secure Purchase pays a $25 service fee, not a percentage.
The other three auction platforms here all work differently: Cars & Bids charges the seller no listing fee or commission, and Bring a Trailer and Hemmings charge a listing fee and then add a percentage to the buyer’s bill.
What does it cost to sell a car at auction?
It depends entirely on the platform, and the range runs from nothing to a few hundred dollars before the car has sold.
Cars & Bids charges the seller nothing to list, though its optional photo shoot costs $199 to $329 and isn’t refunded. eBay Motors charges $34 or $79 to list. Bring a Trailer starts at $99 and Hemmings at $99.95. None of those listing fees is refunded if the car does not sell.
The cost that is easy to miss is the buyer’s. Cars & Bids and Bring a Trailer add 5% to the winning bid with a $250 minimum, and Hemmings 5% with a $500 minimum. You never pay it, but bidders subtract it from what they are willing to offer.
Can I auction a modified or custom car online?
Yes, and a modified car is one of the things Cars & Bids actively wants. Its remit is enthusiast vehicles from the 1980s to today, and modified builds sit squarely inside that alongside sports cars, imports and rare trucks.
Bring a Trailer and Hemmings also take modified and custom cars, though both lean older and more collectible. If all three turn the car down, eBay Motors has no approval process at all.
What if my car doesn’t qualify for Cars & Bids and I don’t want to pay a listing fee?
Facebook Marketplace is free to list on, and Craigslist charges $5 for a car. Between them they reach far more ordinary buyers than any auction site does. The trade is your time: you handle the inquiries, the viewings and the payment yourself.
If you would rather not, an instant offer from an online car buyer costs nothing to get and comes with free collection.
Can I set a reserve price so my car doesn’t sell for too little?
Yes on all four platforms. On eBay Motors the reserve has a cost attached that is easy to miss: the fee tier is set by the highest of your starting bid, your reserve or your Buy It Now price, so a reserve above $15,000 moves you from the $34 tier to the $79 one.
Set the reserve at the lowest number you would genuinely accept. A reserve well above what the car is worth wastes the listing fee, because the bidding stops and you pay anyway.
What documentation do I need to sell through an online auction?
A title in your name is the minimum everywhere, and eBay Motors also lists a salvage or rebuilt car if the listing says so. Beyond that each platform asks for photographs, a written description and an honest account of any faults, and the enthusiast sites expect more detail than eBay Motors does.
Service records, any restoration receipts and a vehicle history report all help on a collector car, where bidders are buying the documentation as much as the car. If your car is electric or hybrid, Cars & Bids also asks for a battery health report.
Article Update History
Depreciation now comes from the iSeeCars value study, and every fee from what each platform publishes about itself.
Each platform's seller fees checked against its own website, including Cars & Bids, eBay Motors and Hemmings.
Originally posted and shared with our readers.
Sources
"11.1%, five-year depreciation, Porsche 911" Accessed Sep. 11, 2026
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