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Getting started

Time required: minutes to your first verdict. Prerequisites: a Google account. That's it.

1. Sign in at the web app (free)

Open app.auctionmate.app and sign in with Google. Free — no credit card. Fresh audits: 5 a day.

Signing in is what makes the rest work: your audits, watchlists, max bids, and notes save to your account and sync to every surface you use — the web app, the iPhone app, and the Chrome extension.

2. Open a lot

Three ways in, pick any:

  • Paste a VIN into Look Up — any 17-character VIN, whether or not you're looking at an auction page.
  • Paste a Copart or IAAI lot link — we pull the lot from the URL.
  • Browse live inventory — search current Copart and IAAI lots and open one from the results.

The audit runs server-side: VIN decode, market values, damage read, auction history. The very first audit of a VIN takes the longest because everything is fetched in parallel; once a VIN is cached, re-opening it loads from the cache and doesn't count against your daily audits.

3. Read the verdict

The top of the lot page shows the verdict banner: Strong Margin, Thin Margin, Below Cost, or Parts Only.

  • Strong Margin — projected margin is healthy at the current bid.
  • Thin Margin — margin is positive but tight. Double-check the title, damage, and your assumptions.
  • Below Cost — projected margin is negative at the current bid.
  • Parts Only — reconditioning is too expensive relative to resale value. The math is telling you the value is in components.

The number next to the verdict is your projected profit at the current bid and a suggested sales price. Both are editable below.

Just under the verdict, the profit bar visualizes where your potential exit prices land — red is loss territory, yellow is tight, green is healthy margin. The blue line is the current bid; the red ▼ marker is My Sales Price. Drag the marker to model different exit prices; the verdict updates live. Click the bid value to override it if you're modeling a different bid.

For more on what goes into the call, see How the verdict works.

4. Check the due diligence

Below the profit bar, the due-diligence checks cover the questions you'd otherwise chase down by hand:

  • Title — clean, salvage, rebuilt, etc.
  • Damage — front end, side, rear, undercarriage, water, etc.
  • Features — premium packages, AWD, sunroof, etc. (value lift)
  • Odometer — actual vs. exempt vs. not actual.
  • Auction history — has this lot been listed before? Sold then relisted?
  • Recalls — open NHTSA recalls, click for details.

A green ✓ means the check is OK. A yellow △ means there's something to look at. A red ✕ means we'd skip this lot. Open any check to expand the detail.

If anything looks wrong — say the odometer says "Not Actual" but the listing claims 75k miles — that check flips red and the verdict adjusts.

5. Save it to a watchlist

Save any lot you want to track — pick an existing list or create a new one. The card keeps the analysis with it and syncs across your devices.

When the auction sale time approaches, you'll get a push notification (15m, 30m, 1h, or 2h before — pick in Settings).

For the full watchlist deep dive, see Watchlists.

6. At the auction: add the extension or the iPhone app

When you're browsing Copart or IAAI live, the Chrome extension puts the same verdict in a side panel right on the lot page:

  1. Open the AuctionMate Pro listing on the Chrome Web Store.
  2. Click Add to Chrome, then Add extension.
  3. Open any lot on copart.com or iaai.com — the side panel reads the page and runs the audit.

Edge, Brave, Arc, and other Chromium-based browsers install from the same Chrome Web Store URL. On Safari or Firefox, use the web app.

On the lot in person? The iPhone and Android apps carry the full workbench in your pocket — both in final testing now; the store links land on the apps page the day they're live.

Tune your defaults (one-time)

The verdict math depends on three things you should set once and forget:

  1. Your zip code — drives the shipping calculator. Settings → Calculation defaults → ZIP.
  2. Your buyer fee tier — Copart's tier table is the default; if you're at a different fee tier or you've negotiated something custom, override it. Settings → Fee tiers.
  3. Your default recon bundle — what you typically spend per lot on cleanup, mechanical baseline, and detail. We default to $350. Settings → Recon bundle.

You can override any of these per lot when you have better information.

What's next

Common first-day issues

Market value shows zero. The VIN decoded but the market-value provider returned no comps for that exact trim. This happens on rare or new vehicles. You can manually override the Wholesale value in the Profit & Decision card.

Recon bundle is way too low for this car. The default $350 covers basic cleanup. For lots with significant damage, override the recon estimate per-lot. The verdict recalculates immediately.

The verdict feels wrong. Read How the verdict works and check whether the title type matches what your DMV check would show. If you disagree with the title brand on the listing, override it in the dropdown — the math recalculates instantly.

The extension panel says "Awaiting VIN enrichment" forever. The lot page loads its data a few seconds after the page looks done, so the VIN sometimes arrives late. Wait 30 seconds and refresh the page. If it persists across multiple lots, reload the extension at chrome://extensions/.

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