FAQ

Twenty questions, no marketing fluff.

If you found a question that isn’t answered here, email auctionmatepro@gmail.com. We read every message.

What is AuctionMate?

What does AuctionMate do?

AuctionMate turns a Copart or IAAI listing into a bid-ready research view. The Chrome extension reads the lot you’re already on and shows you the projected profit, a verdict, and a due-diligence checklist — in one panel. The web app lets you research any VIN without being on a listing, manage watch lists across devices, and review history.

Who is it for?

Independent dealers, flippers, and rebuilders who source from Copart and IAAI for resale. If you’re trying to figure out whether a salvage lot will clear after fees and recon, you’re the audience.

Is this a Chrome extension or a website?

Both. The extension is the live product today — install it and the side panel populates the moment you open a listing. The web app is the research surface for everything else: paste a VIN to research a car that isn’t currently listed, manage watch lists across devices, and review history.

Does it work on mobile?

Yes — the web app is mobile-friendly and installable as a Progressive Web App from your phone’s browser. There’s no separate mobile binary; the same site adapts to phone, tablet, and desktop.

What auction sites are supported?

Copart and IAAI in the US, plus the international Copart sites (Canada, UK, Germany, and a few others). VIN lookup works for any 17-character VIN, regardless of the source site.

How the verdict and profit math work

What's a verdict?

The verdict is the headline call on a lot: BUY, CONSIDER, PASS, or PARTS. It’s based on your projected margin after fees, shipping, and reconditioning, with adjustments for the title brand and vehicle class. Every input is editable, and the verdict updates as you change them.

What's the profit bar?

A horizontal visualization in the side panel. Three colored zones map loss → tight margin → healthy margin. The blue marker is the current bid. The red marker is your projected sales price — drag it to model different exit scenarios and watch the verdict update live.

Why does the verdict sometimes say PARTS?

When the reconditioning cost gets too high relative to the car’s market value, the math is telling you to sell components rather than rebuild. The threshold is conservative on purpose — rebuilding a car that’s underwater on parts is a coin-flip even when everything goes right.

What if I disagree with a number?

Override it. The bid, buyer fee, shipping, recon estimate, title type, and projected sales price are all editable in the panel. Anything you change gets a yellow background so you don’t confuse your override with the auto-pulled value. The verdict recalculates as you go.

How accurate is the math?

It depends on inputs you control (recon estimate, sales price target) and inputs we pull (market value, title brand). We’re transparent in-product about what’s auto-pulled vs. user-overridden. The product is a research tool — verify the title with your state DMV before bidding, and treat the verdict as input to your decision, not a guarantee.

Pricing & tiers

Is there a free version?

Yes. Free covers basic browsing with daily caps on the heavier features. Most active dealers outgrow Free within a week and upgrade to Pro.

What does Pro unlock?

Pro is $15/month. You get unlimited daily lookups, a higher cap on title checks, the comps research dashboard, unlimited watch lists with sale-time alerts, cross-device sync, and auction reminders before sales.

What's Dealer for?

Dealer is $30/month per seat. Adds multi-seat support, custom adjustments to the math for your specific market segment, programmatic API access, and team usage analytics.

How do I cancel?

Account → Billing → Cancel. Your access continues to the end of the current billing period.

I'm in closed beta — what changes at public launch?

Every tier is free for invited testers during the beta. We’ll email you 30 days before public-launch billing starts. Nothing transitions to paid silently — every change requires your explicit click. This is in writing in the Terms of Service.

Privacy, data, & compliance

What data do you collect?

When you use the product, we record the lots you visit so we can sync them across your devices and surface them in your watch lists. We also keep aggregate signals (anonymized) about auction outcomes to improve the math for all users over time. The full handling policy is at /privacy.

Do you share my data with third parties?

We don’t sell user data. Like any web service, we send VINs to data providers when you look them up — that’s how lookups work. We don’t share your watch lists, notes, max bids, or account details with anyone.

Is the title check a verified report?

The title-check feature returns the brands and major events that a third-party data provider gives us for a VIN. It’s a research signal — useful, but not a substitute for an official state DMV check on a vehicle you’re seriously bidding on. We disclose this in the product and in the footer disclaimer on every page.

How do I delete my account?

Account → Security → Delete account. Your data is removed on a regular schedule after deletion. If you might come back, cancel instead — that pauses access while preserving your data for a window before permanent deletion.

Is AuctionMate an inspection or a guarantee?

No. AuctionMate is a research tool. We don’t physically inspect vehicles, we don’t issue title certifications, and the verdict is the math’s opinion based on inputs you can change. We say this verbatim in the in-product disclaimer and in the footer of every page.

Need more? The deeper writeups live at /docs — getting started, the verdict engine, the glossary. For anything not covered, email auctionmatepro@gmail.com.