What Kinds of Auction Fees Does Copart Charge?
The devil is in the details, and details often determine what fees Copart charges and for what amount. Let’s take a look at some of the main fees and how they’re calculated.
What Are Bidding Fees And How Are They Calculated?
Bidding fees cover the cost for Copart to operate and maintain our 220+ vehicle processing and storage locations and online marketplace that sells around 4 million vehicles annually. Copart determines this fee based on the winning bid for a vehicle and a few other factors.
Clean title vehicles carry slightly lower fees than salvage title vehicles because the latter has more safe storage & handling requirements.
Copart offers fee discounts when buyers pay with secure methods like debit cards, wire transfers, MoneyGram and E-Pay. High-volume buyers may also enjoy additional fee reductions.
Fees for clean-title vehicles usually start at $25 and average around 7.25% of the final sales price with a secured payment method. By comparison, fees for salvage title vehicle purchased with an unsecured payment method start at around $27.50 and usually run around 12.5%.
Does Copart Charge Higher Fees for Heavy Equipment?
Since large equipment requires more resources to process and handle, Copart charges higher Bidding Fees on them. This category includes medium duty and box trucks, heavy duty trucks, trailers, RVs, farm machinery and construction equipment.
Fees for these vehicles average around 15% with secured payment methods and 20% with unsecured payment methods. This higher fee schedule applies to the vehicles sold in our Specialty Vehicle Auctions held every weekday.
What Is a Virtual Bid Fee And How Much Does It Cost?
The Virtual Bid Fee covers the cost of processing bids, payments, and maintaining our online monetary exchange tools. This fee is based on the winning bid for a vehicle, with a maximum of $129 for vehicles sold outside of a live auction, like Buy It Now purchases, and $149 for vehicles won during live online auctions.
What Is a Gate Fee and How Much Is It?
A Gate fee of $79 is charged to cover the administrative costs to store the vehicle and safely prepare and move it where it’s ready to be picked up by the new owner or transporter.
What is the Environmental Fee for and How Much Is It?
We charge a flat $10 fee to cover the cost of the precise handling & care of vehicle waste products & fluids as required by state and federal environmental regulations. This often includes the safe disposal of potentially dangerous chemicals.
Title-Related Fees
Copart charges fees related to Members getting their vehicle titles. You can order up to 10 titles to be mailed from a single vehicle storage facility for $15 by the US post office, and up to 20 titles for $20 by FedEx.
Our vehicle storage facilities charge a $20 handling fee for titles picked up in person, and Members may experience long waiting times. To have your titles shipped to you, be sure to have your Limited Power of Attorney on file.
Other Fees
Copart also charges fees to cover additional costs in certain situations, including:
-
Late Payment Fee – After three days, including the day of sale, Members accrue fees of $50 a day until payment is received. Copart charges the total fee as a one-time payment.
-
Storage Fee – This fee is charged if the buyer doesn’t pick up a vehicle within three days, including the day of the auction, and varies by location.
-
Vehicle Relist Fee – If a vehicle isn’t paid for within 8 calendar days, Copart will charge a fee of 10% to relist it, with a minimum charge of $600.
-
Third-Party Finance Fee – When someone borrows the money to pay for a vehicle, Copart charges a $69 fee to cover the additional payment processing requirements.
Discounts & Other Factors To Keep In Mind
Copart sells so many different types of vehicles in all kinds of conditions that many factors can move fees a small amount, up or down. These include how many vehicles a Member regularly purchases, what kind of licenses they hold, how they pay for their vehicles, and the types of vehicles they purchase.
Hopefully, this brief overview will give you a clearer picture of what fees we charge and how they’re calculated. For more information, visit our Fees Page.
