The auction is now voided, and BAT refunded the winning bidder
Imagine sealing the deal on a close to record winning bid for a car most of the internet says shouldn’t be worth that much anyway and wrecking it within hours. According to a recent sale on Bring A Trailer that wrapped up bidding on May 25, that’s exactly what happened. Seller Del Rey Motors secured a $51,000 winning bid for his 1998 Acura Integra Type R but ended up wrecking it within a day of the auction’s ending, the car never making its way to the winning bidder.
Here’s what the Acura Integra Type R looked like before.
And, here’s an after-accident shot obtained by Vistec Imports.
Checking out the bid history, bids rapidly picked up towards the end, as they naturally do. In 14 minutes, the price went from $40,000 to $51,000, mostly because of a bidding war that broke out between bidders swind74 and JPracinginc.
If you didn’t already know, limited edition 90s era JDM cars, like the Integra Type R, are fetching a lot of money as of late. Take a peek at BAT’s price chart and prices have increased over time, the top 5 bids placed within the past three years. Del Rey Motors Integra Type R would’ve been the sixth highest bid ever.
Details are few and far between on the accident but, from the photo, it’s obvious he rammed into, or, underneath something head on. As per Vistec, the ITR was “wrecked the night before it was sold” which leads me to believe Del Rey was handling the BAT sale on behalf of the seller, news of the wreck reaching Del Rey before he could pull the plug on the auction. Supposedly, no one was seriously injured in the wreck.
While there are no winners in this unfortunate accident, BAT user UncleBen provides this sliver of a silver lining.
“Hate to say this, but this might have been for the best. There was a lot of history that came out about this particular car on the USDM ITR Owners FB group. IMHO the winning bidder paid too much and may have regretted it if the full story on the car was out in the open.”
I’ll add details about what this means once I’m accepted to their FB Group.
Even a cursory glance at the Car Fax reveals this wasn’t the most pristine Type R, suffering a “minor accident” during its time with its 4th and most recent owner. Here’s a screenshot of the Car Fax below.
BAT later added,
“We have confirmed with the seller that the car was damaged following the end of the auction. This is obviously quite unfortunate and we are relieved to hear that no one was hurt. We have refunded the buyer’s fees accordingly.”
Just like a contract law 101 lesson, an auction isn’t fully completed until the seller successfully delivers the vehicle to its new owner in the condition it was listed.
Let this be a cautionary tale to sellers, don’t take your cars out for a joy ride after securing that winning bid. Murphy’s law will probably rear its ugly head at you.
