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Auction Profit Calculator

The car looks cheap in the lane — but what's left after the fee, transport, recon, and the days it sits? Enter the deal and see your net margin, break-even resale, and the most you can bid and still hit your number.

The buy
Carry & resale
Numbers stay in the URL — bookmark a scenario or send it to your buyer.

The lane doesn't show you the all-in number

A car that's “cheap” at the block is only cheap if the buy fee, transport, recon, and the interest you carry until it sells still leave your margin intact. DealerVLO keeps this math on every car automatically — acquisition cost lands when you add the vehicle, recon and transport post when you spend, days-in-inventory counts itself, and the gross hits your dashboard the moment you mark the deal sold.

  • Per-vehicle cost ledger — bid + fee + transport + recon rolled up automatically
  • Aging report flags units past 60 days so holding cost never sneaks up on you
  • Bill of Sale, FTC Buyers Guide, Federal Odometer Disclosure on every deal
  • Public dealer website + inventory feeds (CarGurus, Facebook, Cars.com)
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Common questions

How do I figure the most I should bid on a car at auction?▾
Work backward from the resale, not forward from the bid. Start with the price you can realistically retail the car for, subtract your target gross, then subtract every cost that isn't the bid — the buy fee, transport, recon estimate, and the floor-plan interestyou'll carry until it sells. What's left is the most you can pay and still hit your number. That's the “max bid” figure above.
What is a typical profit margin on a car bought at auction?▾
Dealer-survey data from NIADA and NADA generally puts average front-end gross in the $1,800–$2,400 range, or roughly 12–18%of the sale price as total gross once F&I is included. On an auction buy those numbers only hold after you subtract the buy fee, transport, recon, and holding cost — which is exactly what erases the margin on cars that looked cheap in the lane. Net margin under about 8% after all-in cost is a warning sign.
How much are dealer auction buy fees?▾
Buy fees are tiered by sale price and vary by auction house — Manheim, ADESA, and independent auctions each publish their own schedules — so a low-dollar unit might carry a couple hundred dollars in fees while a higher sale carries more. Because the schedules change, enter the actual fee for your auction and price band rather than trusting a default, and add transport separately.
Why does the URL update with my numbers?▾
So you can share or save a scenario. Copy the page URL after you calculate — it carries every input, so a partner or your buyer can open the exact same breakdown. Nothing is stored on our servers.