Has anyone ever heard of/done this?

The process works something like below:

-Dealer posts the vehicle for sale through an auction company

-Dealership CANNOT sell the vehicle without owner authorization

-Process protects the dealership from purchasing vehicle at a price for which they can't resell it

-If for example, the auction company offers $XX,XXX, owner can say no and nothing happens (too low)

- If for example, the auction company offers $XX,XXX and the owner accepts, the dealership pays the owner for the truck, sells it to the bidder from the auction company for $XX,XXX, and the auction company pays the dealership $XXX for finding the truck. (acceptable offer)

Thanks for the help!

Auctioning on consignment?

I suppose? With no obligation to sell.

The whole thing sounds fishy/scammy to me, which is why I'm asking.

I've seen it done but this completely benefits the dealer. He has no skin in the game meanwhile you have to put up your car and wait for it to sell before you get paid. I assume you will have to wait for arbitration period before getting paid incase something is wrong with the car. In many instances buyers throw cars into arbitration just to delay payment or even negotiate the price down.

If car sells for $10k the auction will take a fee, then the dealer will take his cut. I'd rather sell it outright and let them deal with everything else.

Yeah, there's always a catch. Thanks for the information!

What's the motivation for either party on this? Why wouldn't the dealer want the car in his inventory to make profit on it? Used cars are the biggest profit center for a dealership when you take into account service and recon. Why would the customer wait the time it will take to get a car prepped and ready for the sale, rerunning it when doesn't sell the first time, etc?

My gut tells me either the dealer doesn't really know what the car is worth and doesn't want to assume risk (terrible dealer) or the customer has unreasonable expectations of their trade in value and the dealer is tired of dealing with them.