Glossary
Every term used in the AuctionMate panel, defined. Sorted alphabetically. Spot a term that isn't here? Email auctionmatepro@gmail.com.
A
ACV (Actual Cash Value) The pre-loss valuation an insurance carrier assigned to a totaled vehicle. Visible on IAAI listings; useful as a sanity check against retail value but not as a sale-price comp.
Adjusted Retail What we estimate the lot can realistically resell for after accounting for the title brand and the vehicle class. The right-hand reference point on the profit bar.
Auction History Past times this exact VIN went through Copart or IAAI — sale dates, hammer prices, sold/unsold status. Patterns like "sold then relisted twice" usually mean the buyer defaulted.
Auction Reminder A notification before a watched lot's sale time. Configurable in your settings.
B
BIN (Buy It Now) A fixed price the seller will accept immediately, skipping the auction. We show projected profit against the BIN when no bid has been placed yet.
Bid Margin Your projected profit relative to your bid, expressed as a percentage. What the verdict thresholds compare against.
Bid Pin The vertical marker on the profit bar that shows where the current bid lands among the loss / tight-margin / healthy-margin zones.
Buyer Fee The commission Copart or IAAI charges the winning bidder. Calculated from the published tier tables. Editable per-lot if you've negotiated a non-standard rate.
Buyer Mode (in the report) A simplified, shareable view of the report that hides editable inputs. Use the Share button to send it to a co-buyer or partner.
C
Comps Recent sales of similar vehicles. Used as a calibration signal for the math over time.
CONSIDER The middle verdict — margin is real but tight. Worth a closer look before bidding.
Cross-Surface Sync Watch lists, notes, and overrides stay identical across the extension, the web app, and any other devices you sign into.
D
DD Tile A tile in the due-diligence grid (Title, Damage, Features, Odometer, Auction History, Recalls). Click any tile to expand the underlying detail.
Dealer (tier) The $30/month plan. Adds multi-seat support, custom adjustments to the math for your market, programmatic API access, and team usage analytics.
Damage Tier A severity classification that informs the recon estimate. Light cosmetic damage is treated very differently from major structural damage.
Drivetrain 2WD, 4WD, AWD, FWD, RWD. Affects market value and (sometimes) the recon estimate.
F
Fee Tier Which bracket of Copart's or IAAI's published fee table applies to a winning bid. Editable in Settings if your account is on a non-standard rate.
Flag A rule that fires when a lot exhibits a known-risky pattern. Examples: "Sold then relisted", "Title status doesn't match listing copy", "Odometer marked Not Actual". Shown as chips below the verdict.
Free (tier) The unpaid plan. Daily caps on the heavier features.
H
Hammer Price The actual price at which a lot sold at auction. Distinct from the current bid (real-time) and the asking price on a dealer relisting.
Highlights Selling points on the listing — premium package, navigation, leather, etc. Shown in the Features tile because they're a value lift on resale.
I
IAAI (Insurance Auto Auctions) One of the two major US salvage auction platforms. AuctionMate supports IAAI alongside Copart with platform-specific buyer-fee math.
L
Landing Cost Bid + Buyer Fee + Shipping. The cost of getting the car to your driveway, before any reconditioning.
Lot A single auction listing. Identified by lot number on Copart or stock ID on IAAI.
M
Margin Projected profit relative to your bid. The number the verdict compares against.
Market Avg The average price of recent listings for this exact trim. A sanity check for the adjusted retail value, not the headline number we use.
My Sales Price What you think you can resell the car for after recon. The red marker on the profit bar — drag it to model different exit scenarios.
N
NHTSA The federal agency that publishes vehicle recall and complaint data. We surface open recalls in the due-diligence tiles.
O
Odometer (Actual / Exempt / Not Actual) A status disclosed by the seller. Actual = the reading is reliable. Exempt = the vehicle is old enough that disclosure isn't required. Not Actual = the seller knows the reading is wrong (broken cluster, replacement, fraud). The Odometer tile reflects this.
P
P&D (Profit & Decision) The card in the side panel that contains the verdict, the profit bar, the cost rows, and the headline profit number. The center of the AuctionMate user experience.
PARTS The verdict that fires when reconditioning gets too expensive relative to the car's adjusted market value. The math is telling you to sell components, not rebuild.
PASS The verdict for thin margin. Skip this lot.
Pro (tier) The $15/month plan. Unlimited daily lookups, the comps research dashboard, auction reminders, cross-device sync, and a higher daily cap on title checks.
Profit Bar The horizontal three-zone visualization in the P&D card. Red = loss, yellow = tight margin, green = healthy margin. Bid pin and sales-price marker overlay the zones.
Q
Quota The daily or monthly cap on a feature for a given tier. Free tier has the most caps; Pro lifts most of them; Dealer is largely unlimited.
R
Recall An open NHTSA recall on the vehicle. Free, public data. Some recalls (airbag, brake systems) materially affect resale.
Recon Bundle Your default per-lot reconditioning estimate — cleanup, mechanical baseline, detail. Set once in Settings; override per-lot when you have better information.
Repair-to-Value The ratio of your reconditioning estimate to the car's adjusted retail value. When it gets too high, the verdict drops to PARTS automatically.
Reserve Price The minimum the seller will accept. Often hidden; sometimes surfaced from auction-history data.
S
Sale Time The scheduled auction date for a lot. Drives the watchlist countdown and the auction reminder system.
Salvage A title brand applied when an insurance carrier wrote off the vehicle as a total loss. Adjusted differently depending on the vehicle class.
Sales Intelligence Insights derived from auction history: highest bid offered, sell rate, BIN-vs-bid gap, consecutive rejection streaks. Surfaces as a 💡 line in the Sales History section.
Shipping Zone A zone-based estimate of transport cost from the lot's location to your zip code. Override per-lot if you have a real quote.
Side Panel Chrome's built-in right-side panel UI. The AuctionMate extension lives here while you browse Copart or IAAI.
Standalone A view in the extension where you can paste a VIN and get an audit without being on a Copart or IAAI page.
T
Theft Recovery A title brand applied when a stolen vehicle is recovered. Often less aggressive depreciation than Salvage — many of these cars come back with minimal damage.
Title Discount The downward adjustment to a car's market value when its title is anything other than Clean. The size of the adjustment depends on which brand and which vehicle class.
Title Type The brand on the lot's title (Clean / Salvage / Rebuilt / Lemon / Flood / Bonded / etc.). The most important non-numeric input to the verdict.
TOO EARLY A status that suppresses the verdict when the bid hasn't reached a meaningful percentage of the car's adjusted retail value. Prevents misleading early-auction calls.
Total Investment Bid + Buyer Fee + Shipping + Recon. The all-in cost of buying and prepping the vehicle for resale.
V
Verdict The headline call: BUY, CONSIDER, PASS, or PARTS.
VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) The 17-character unique identifier for a vehicle. On Copart, the displayed VIN is masked; the extension fills in the masked digits when possible.
W
Wholesale The lower bound of resale price — what a wholesale buyer would pay you for the car. Forms the left endpoint of the profit bar.
Watchlist A named collection of saved lots with sale-time alerts and bulk actions. You can have multiple lists ("Thursday auction", "BMW X5 candidates", etc.).
Window Sticker The original manufacturer's price-and-options sheet. Available for some VINs; useful for verifying as-built MSRP and trim packages.