Docs/The math

Title types

TL;DR: Every title brand AuctionMate recognizes, what it implies for resale, and how the discount applied to the car’s clean market value scales — adjusted by vehicle bucket.

What a title brand actually is

When a car’s title gets “branded,” the state DMV stamps a permanent record on the title document explaining why. Brands carry forward — once a car has been a salvage, every state DMV that re-titles it must keep that brand visible.

For buyers at auction, the title brand is the single most important non-numeric factor. A Clean BMW X5 and a Salvage BMW X5 with identical photos can have a $20,000 spread in resale price — because the buyer market for clean and salvage cars are essentially different.

The brands AuctionMate recognizes

Clean

The default state. No insurance write-off, no rebuild, no flood, no prior-loss disclosure. Resale is at clean retail; AuctionMate applies no discount.

Salvage

The vehicle was declared a total loss by an insurance carrier — usually because the cost to repair exceeded a state-defined threshold (often 75-80% of pre-loss value). The car is sold at auction with the salvage brand permanently attached.

Salvage is the most common branded title at Copart and IAAI. AuctionMate applies a meaningful discount to salvage cars, scaled by vehicle bucket — A-bucket trucks lose less, C-bucket luxury loses more.

Rebuilt

A car that was Salvage, then went through reconditioning, then was re-titled by the state with a Rebuilt or Reconstructed brand. Rebuilt cars sell for somewhat more than Salvage (the buyer doesn’t have to do the rebuild themselves) but well below Clean.

Lemon / Manufacturer Buyback

The car was repurchased by the manufacturer under state lemon laws — chronic unfixed defects. Often relatively cosmetic-clean cars but the resale market is permanently spooked.

Flood

The car was submerged or saturated in water. Two sub-categories:

  • Fresh-water flood — significant damage but not as catastrophic for long-term reliability as saltwater
  • Saltwater flood — corrosion that progresses for years; AuctionMate applies the heaviest discount of the standard brands

Theft Recovery

The car was reported stolen and later recovered. Often comes back with minimal physical damage — sometimes none. AuctionMate applies a much smaller discount than Salvage because most theft-recovery cars don’t need rebuilding.

Bill of Sale (no title)

The car is being sold without a title — buyer must obtain a bonded title or run the title process from scratch. Two sub-cases:

  • Bonded — the buyer can post a surety bond and get a clean-equivalent title
  • No bond available — the title is permanently un-cleanable in some states; resale is much harder

Parts Only / Non-Repairable

The state has determined the car cannot legally return to the road. It’s sold for parts only. Resale ceiling is the parts value — usually 15-25% of clean retail.

How the discount works

For each brand, AuctionMate applies a multiplier to the clean market value to compute the adjusted retail. The multiplier is bucket-adjusted — the same brand applies a different discount to a Lexus than to a Civic, because their parts ecosystems and resale demographics differ.

You can see the active multiplier in the side panel’s Profit & Decision card next to the title-type dropdown. If you disagree with our default for a specific lot — say, your title check shows a different brand than the auction listing claims — change the dropdown and the math recalculates instantly.

Overrides

The title type comes from the auction listing (Copart or IAAI). Sometimes that’s wrong — particularly:

  • Title arrived after the listing was created (status starts as “Title Pending,” updates later)
  • Auction listing rounds up (a Rebuilt is sometimes listed as Salvage)
  • Your DMV check shows a different brand than the listing

If you have better information, override the title-type dropdown in the panel. The verdict recalculates immediately. Anything you override gets a yellow background so you don’t confuse your override with the auto-pulled value.

Verifying titles

For a serious bid, run an actual title check:

  • The Pro tier includes a daily quota of title-check lookups inside the panel
  • Your state DMV can issue an authoritative title check for any VIN (often paid, but it’s the most reliable source)
  • The title-check feature in the panel returns brands and major events from a third-party data provider — useful as a research signal, but not a substitute for a state DMV check on a vehicle you’re seriously bidding on

We disclose this in the panel and in the footer of every page: AuctionMate is a research tool, not an inspection or a guaranteed title certification.

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