Want to dive deeper into any of these listings? Just click on the car to take you directly to the listing.

On Wednesday, we covered the one-owner E30 M3 sold on Cars & Bids for $120,000, the highest price any M3 has made on that site. It got me wondering how Cars & Bids is doing more broadly, so I went to Sam's numbers. (we have a treasure trove)

From January to August this year, Cars & Bids sold 5,239 cars, up from 4,004 over the same eight months of 2025. That's growth of 31%. Bring a Trailer sold 25,663, up 7%.

What makes this interesting is that it's new. Look at the last few years:

Cars & Bids had a big 2023, then two quiet years: up just 2% in 2024 and 6% in 2025. Meanwhile BaT was growing 19% and 14%. This year the pattern has flipped. Cars & Bids has taken off again, and BaT's growth has more than halved. (thus far)

And it isn't one good month skewing the total. Cars & Bids grew faster than BaT in every single month this year:

Its best month was May, with 802 cars sold, its busiest month since inception and up 55% on May last year. As of this week it has sold 5,749 cars this year, against 6,224 in all of 2025. At its current pace, it will pass last year's full total in October, with two months still to go.

Let's keep this in perspective, though. BaT is still roughly five times bigger. It sold nearly 37,000 cars last year, and its August this year was its busiest August yet, with 3,793 sales, which we covered here in more detail. This isn't a story about BaT struggling. It's a story about the online market getting big enough for a serious number two, and the number two winning back ground.

One thing I'll be watching: Cars & Bids' lead has narrowed through the summer. After gains of 30% or more through the spring, August was up 16%. Is that a pause or the new normal? Ask me again in December.

What it means if you're selling

These are the two biggest online platforms in the US (the UK and Europe are a story for another day), but they're far from the only choice. You might be surprised how often the others are the better fit. Hagerty, Hemmings, SOMO and the rest each have their own audience, and for certain cars that audience is exactly who you want bidding. And if you have something truly special, the live auction houses may be the right room for it.

So where should your car go? It depends on the car: its era, its price, and who's likely to want it.

There's only one place that looks at all of them and tells you, and that's goasksam.com.

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