We have staff at several auction houses including USS Yokohama, USS Tokyo, USS Nagoya and can also cover JU Aichi, JU Gifu and CAA Chubu.
When the auction houses open (early AM!) their first task is to find the cars they are bidding on that day and carry out a thorough inspection and feed that report back to us.
As many older cars are now Grade R it is absolutely vital to inspect prior to bidding. Although Grade R doesn't always mean "Repaired", it can mean a car that is highly modified, had a minor accident which resulted in panel replacement. Without an accurate grading identified a Grade R car would be to the standard of a normal Grade 4, but without inspection, it is impossible to determine.
The speed in which cars go through auction is mind-blowing. They aren't listed like ebay with days to bid. The car comes up, the person bidding uses a joystick (in-house) or a device connected to a laptop/PC with an encrypted dongle to allow bidding remotely.
USS Tokyo has 10 lanes and gets through a whopping 300 cars an hour.
If the reserve isn't met within the time alloted, it goes into negotiation or "nego" whereby the highest bidder gets first refusal. "Nego" starts from an amount set by the seller. At times you can win a car via "nego" for a few thousand yen over the start price.
The entire process is fast, frantic and successful bidding is an art. There is no "if i am not winning, let me know, I'll increase my bid". There is simply no time to adjust or increase a bid!
Following our guidance on a maximum bid is the safest way to ensure you aren't overpaying and being realistic with the cars value.