AutoBidMaster Review: What You Pay and Who Sells You the Car

AutoBidMaster is a Portland, Oregon company that lets people without a dealer license bid on Copart’s salvage and clean-title cars, and what it charges is in its contract, not its marketing. On 9 October 2026 we read its Member Terms and Conditions (last updated 1 July 2026), its Website Terms of Service, the “Rules and Policies” those terms make part of the contract, 29 other help-center articles, its About, Copart Broker and shipping pages, and Oregon’s business registry. Copart’s side comes from the documents behind our Copart fees guide, read 7 October 2026. We did not register, bid or request a quote, and this site has no relationship with AutoBidMaster, Copart or any broker.

What a Copart broker is, and why the public needs one

Copart lets only its own members bid: “Only registered and active Basic and Premier Members are permitted to bid on vehicles.” Even then, the state where the car sits decides who may buy it. Copart’s State Licensing Overview, which we counted for the Copart guide, lets a private individual bid without a broker on both titled and salvage lots in 15 of 50 states and requires a broker for both in 25; by our arithmetic the public needs a broker for at least one title type in 35 states. See the state-by-state breakdown.

A broker lends its licenses. Copart’s help center says a broker “will let you borrow them for a fee,” and Copart is clear about who you deal with: “When using a Broker to purchase vehicles, you are buying vehicles through the Broker and not Copart.” Its annual report calls this “the Registered Broker program through which the public can purchase vehicles through a registered member.” See what Copart says about brokers. SalvageReseller, another broker for Copart cars, names Inloher Corp as the seller; see our SalvageReseller review.

AutoBidMaster says it is that broker: “AutoBidMaster is a licensed Copart broker,” and “At AutoBidMaster, we hold the license so you don’t need one.” A broker gets you the bid, not a car you can register, and the Member Terms still say “you must verify with your DMV what your limitations are regarding registration of any vehicle you wish to purchase.” AutoBidMaster also advertises access to Alabama, Michigan and Wisconsin, which it calls dealer-only. Copart’s own grid marks Michigan titled lots as open to private individuals and only its salvage lots as needing a broker.

Who sells you the car, and who owns AutoBidMaster

AutoBidMaster does not buy the car for you, and Copart does not sell it to you. The Rules and Policies explain: “our software places a corresponding bid directly with Copart on your behalf via one of our Dealers. If your bid is the winning bid, that Dealer is obligated to purchase the vehicle from the auction seller for the amount of your bid (plus applicable fees). More importantly, you are obligated to purchase that same vehicle from the Dealer for the amount of your bid (plus applicable fees).” The contracting companies “only sell Membership Services”; the Dealers sell everything else. No document we read names a Dealer.

The Dealers “are not owned or controlled by Copart, IAAI or otherwise affiliated with or endorsed or recommended by Copart or IAAI,” and every page footer says AutoBidMaster “is not owned by or affiliated with Copart, Inc, or its subsidiaries.” Copart’s rules still reach you: the Member Terms make you “also subject to the Copart Member Terms and Conditions and Terms of Service.” The July 2026 terms cover Insurance Auto Auctions inventory as well; see our IAA auction guide.

Your contract is with AutoBidMaster, LLC (a Dover, Delaware mailing address) if your account is in the USA, Canada, Mexico or Central America, and with AutoBidGlobal Limited of Limassol, Cyprus, anywhere else. Membership claims fall under Delaware law; claims about the car under Oregon law.

Oregon’s business registry lists AUTOBIDMASTER LLC as a domestic Oregon limited liability company (registry number 49495096) registered on 13 May 2008, with its principal place of business at the Portland address of the Buyer Services Center. CLEARVIN LLC, the vehicle-history brand on AutoBidMaster’s About page, is registered at the same address (18 November 2016). The rows name a registered agent and addresses, not owners, and Delaware’s register uses a CAPTCHA we did not attempt, so whether the Delaware-addressed contracting party is the Oregon company is not established. The About page claims operation “Since 2009,” “over 1,000,000 members” and status as “a registered Copart broker and a global operator of Copart Lounges”; the shipping arm is EasyHaul.

We found no regulator action. Google searches for AutoBidMaster limited to the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission sites returned no page from either, one limited to the Oregon Department of Justice site returned nothing, and the court opinion a search for “AutoBidMaster lawsuit” surfaced does not mention the company. That is not proof of a clean record: court dockets could not be searched, and the Better Business Bureau blocked our requests, so no BBB rating appears here.

Registration and the four membership tiers

Registering takes a name and an email. Bidding takes more: “a copy of your driver’s license, passport, or other government-issued form of identification,” the $600 deposit below, and an age of at least 18. “Each individual or organization may only have one membership,” and a spare Guest account costs the Basic annual fee “for each additional account.”

A Guest may have “one active preliminary bid at a time” and “one vehicle purchase total.” Basic “only allows live auctions for the current vehicle lot.” Premium is “the only Membership level with a Dedicated Buyer Services Agent and Extra Payment Days (additional 1 day),” and gets “a five percent (5%) discount on all shipping services.” In-person inspections arranged with AutoBidMaster’s credentials require “Maintaining an Advanced or Premium Membership,” and most yards charge “approximately $25” to enter.

Paid tiers renew automatically; you “must cancel the renewal at least one day prior.” Cancelled Basic and Advanced accounts revert to Guest, Premium to Basic. Refunds are narrow: cancellations “within fourteen (14) days from the date of a Member’s initial registration may be eligible to receive a full refund if the Member has not used any of the Membership allowed services and or benefits.” Otherwise “Membership fees are not refundable.”

Arithmetic, not advice: Premium costs $160 a year more than Advanced, and its transaction fee is $149 lower on a $1,000 car, $99 lower at $5,000 and $200 lower at $20,000.

The $600 deposit, Buyer Power and getting it back

“Your initial Security Deposit of at least Six Hundred Dollars ($600) is required before you are able to bid on any vehicle,” on every tier. On Advanced and Premium the deposit is 10% of your maximum bid: “the minimum Security Deposit of Six Hundred Dollars ($600) enables you to bid up to Six Thousand Dollars ($6,000).” By our arithmetic a $10,000 bid takes $1,000 and a $20,000 bid $2,000. The minimum covers being high bidder “on a maximum of one (1) vehicle at any given time”; each extra car needs “a separate Security Deposit,” so two simultaneous high bids need at least $1,200. AutoBidMaster may change the deposit rules “at any time for any reason.”

A card deposit is usually a hold, and “This hold lapses every 30 days and must be renewed to continue bidding.” A wired or MoneyGram deposit is real money that stays on the account. Either comes back on request if you have no unpaid balance, no pending bids and no breach of the terms, after which you cannot bid. The help center says card holds are released automatically “after 30 days provided a vehicle is paid for and picked up.” For wired deposits the documents disagree: the Rules say U.S. refunds are “made by ACH transfer” once you supply “routing and account numbers,” with “up to thirty (30) business days” to process; the help center says “wire transfers are refunded by a mailed check within the U.S. and Canada.” International wire refunds lose “a $30 outgoing wire fee.”

They also disagree on paying for the car with it. The Rules: “You cannot use your Security Deposit to pay for any vehicle (or any portion thereof).” The help center: “Only Security Deposits paid by wire transfer or MoneyGram can be applied to the cost of a vehicle.”

AutoBidMaster’s fees on top of Copart’s

Every purchase carries fees “charged by AutoBidMaster” and fees “by Copart.” For Copart’s auction fees AutoBidMaster points to Copart’s schedule “under Standard Pricing”; our Copart guide sets out that schedule and adds it up for real bids, so it is not repeated here. AutoBidMaster’s own charges per car:

• Transaction fee by tier: $349, $299, $299 or 5%, or $150 or 4%. By our arithmetic the Advanced percentage takes over above $5,980 and the Premium one above $3,750.
• Website processing fee, which “varies from One Hundred Fifty Dollars ($150) to Three Hundred Sixty-Nine Dollars ($369)” with “the buyer’s location and the title or ownership document.” AutoBidMaster publishes no table for that $219 spread and says to ask “before bidding.”
• A $50 “Broker Fee” and a $10 environmental fee “(when applicable),” both filed under Copart’s fees. Copart’s public fee pages print no broker fee and put the environmental fee at $15; we could not see Copart’s logged-in schedule.

We treated the purchase price as the bid and left out the membership fee. Copart’s buyer, virtual-bid and gate fees, tax, storage and shipping come on top of every row; on a $1,000 Basic win, AutoBidMaster’s layer alone is about half the bid or more. The per-lot Fees Calculator is an estimate (“we cannot guarantee that the Fees Calculator is accurate or complete”), and “If you dispute the amount on your invoice, you must notify us before you pay.” You may also owe tax twice over, since you “must reimburse us for all sales, consumption, use, and other applicable taxes” on the Dealer’s own purchase. International buyers add a $25 incoming wire fee and intermediary bank charges of “$20 or more.” Our out-the-door price guide explains why the all-in figure is the one to compare.

Paying, and what happens if you win and don’t pay

The clock is short. Payment, fees included, “must be received before 5:00 pm (Pacific) on the next business day after the auction sale date”; international buyers get until the second business day and Premium members one extra day. AutoBidMaster takes “Wire Transfer, MoneyGram, or Zelle, only. No other payment methods are accepted.” Cards, PayPal, Venmo and trade-ins are refused for the car. Payment from someone else’s account “could delay payments and result in rejection of the payment,” and bank cut-offs are your risk: “It is your responsibility to ensure that we have timely received the payment.” Miss the deadline and the fee list charges “Late Fees = Fifty Dollars ($50), per day,” or $150 after three days by our arithmetic; one help article says “For every business day” instead.

If you never pay, the Dealer cancels the sale, Copart relists the car, and you owe a relist fee that is “the sum of Copart’s Fee plus the Transaction Fee”: the greater of $600 or 10% of the price, plus your tier’s transaction fee, because “you still must pay your Transaction Fee.” The help center adds: “You will forfeit your deposit and be charged a relist penalty fee.” The Rules only say AutoBidMaster “may (in our sole discretion)” use the deposit.

The smallest possible charge is $750 ($600 plus Premium’s $150 minimum), so the $600 deposit never covers it, and AutoBidMaster has other ways to collect. It may charge your card “even if it exceeds the amount of your existing Security Deposit,” add “the reasonable collections fee of at least One Hundred Dollars ($100),” suspend bidding and offset anything it owes you. Through the Limited Power of Attorney in your sale documents, a Dealer may also list itself “as a security interest holder” on the title, a lien it “may perfect in accordance with ORS 803.097” and that “may prevent you from selling or transferring the vehicle.”

Two rules apply even when you pay on time. A payment may go first “to any pre-existing unpaid account balance,” and AutoBidMaster has “no duty or obligation to release any vehicle or any vehicle title or ownership document, even if you have sent full payment,” while signed sale documents or any balance are outstanding.

Pickup, storage, titles and the 10-day rule

“No vehicle may be driven away from the Copart facility”; it must leave “by an approved transporter,” and the pickup point can move, with a car in Sacramento collected in a place that “may be Portland, OR.” Nobody inspects for you: “Copart, AutoBidMaster, and our Dealers do not inspect vehicles,” and for off-site and “Go App” listings “you will not be able to inspect the vehicle prior to its purchase.” See our guide to inspecting a car you cannot drive and the Copart damage codes.

Storage is charged by the yard and passed to you, and the documents give three free periods: “3-5 days after the auction” at “up to forty dollars ($40) per day” (Rules); two days for Buy It Now and three for auctions at “up to thirty dollars $30 per day” (fees article); “2-3 days from auction end (day of the sale is included)” (storage article). Plan on the shortest. A driver is assigned only once car and shipping are paid, and “members are responsible for paying storage regardless” of who ships. Optional Unlimited Storage Coverage “must be ordered before bidding.”

The hard deadline is ten days. A car not removed “within ten (10) days from the date bid acceptance (regardless of payment status and for whatever reason)” may be declared abandoned and sold, and “Buyers do not get any say in how, when, or for how much abandoned vehicles are sold.” Check the car before it leaves: claims that it does not match the listing “must be brought to the attention of Buyer Services before the vehicle leaves the Copart facility,” after which you accept it “AS IS” and “WITH ALL FAULTS.” Until then the yard holds it as bailee, and damage from theft, vandalism or weather is your loss.

The title arrives later and may differ from the listing. A clean-titled car “may have a salvage, junk, or other history,” and an Idaho buyer of a Nevada car “may receive an Oregon salvage certificate of title,” which “may take five to seven weeks and result in additional fees.” A Californian buying in California gets “an Acquisition Bill of Sale” instead of the listed title. See salvage and clean titles compared and when a salvage car makes sense.

Shipping, damage coverage and export

AutoBidMaster arranges transport through “our preferred vendor, EasyHaul.com, LLC,” but says “neither AutoBidMaster nor any of our Dealers ship vehicles or other items”; the shipping contract “is a contractual agreement between you and EasyHaul,” and we did not read it. You may use your own transporter, and either way AutoBidMaster is not liable for “any damage to or loss of your vehicle (or any part thereof) that occurs in transit.” Our car shipping guide explains brokers and carriers.

Damage cover is sold separately as a share of the lot’s final price: Total Loss Coverage at 1.5% (minimum $75); Full Coverage Essential at 5% (minimum $250), paying on claims above $400; and Complete at 7% (minimum $350), paying above $100. AutoBidMaster’s example: “$600 in assessed damage pays $200 under Essential, or $500 under Complete.” On a $10,000 car the three cost $150, $500 and $700, by our arithmetic. Payouts are “AutoBidMaster account credit, not cash,” for used or aftermarket parts, and cover “can’t be added or changed after payment is complete.” Older articles give Full Coverage a “Deductible: $500” and require damage reports “within 24 hours of delivery”; the newer one allows “within 1 week of delivery.” Report within 24 hours to be safe.

For export, the help center says its price covers pickup, delivery to port, loading, US customs clearance and ocean freight, but not destination duties or auction storage. Cars with documents that cannot be exported need extra paperwork “for extra cost ($50-$650 + depending on the vehicle documents available),” containers wait until “4 vehicles with valid docs” are ready (usually “1-3 weeks,” possibly “4-6 weeks or more”), and after “30 days of free storage” the warehouse charges “$10/day; $25/day for boats and oversized cargo”: $150 for a car that waits 45 days, by our arithmetic. Severely or flood-damaged electric and hybrid cars, cars marked “POLICE” and cars with internal cages are refused. For international buyers, ownership “does not transfer until arrival of your automobile at the international port of delivery.” One claim does not fit: the international page says “We are a licensed NVOCC” (an ocean carrier), while the Member Terms say AutoBidMaster does not ship and the About page gives that license to EasyHaul.

The terms of use and the arbitration clause

The Website Terms of Service (last updated 6 January 2025) give you “a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access the Website for your personal and non-commercial use,” bar scraping and “robots,” and send disputes to section 9 of the Member Terms and Conditions. Those terms incorporate the Rules and Policies, which call themselves “part of the binding, legal agreement.” Cars are sold “AS-IS,” “WHERE IS” and “WITH ALL FAULTS”; you agree “not to rely on any Vehicle Information” in deciding what to bid; and cars are not guaranteed “to have a catalytic converter” or keys. AutoBidMaster’s liability is capped at the fees you paid it for the car, or $500 if none, and the release covers its own “sole and/or partial negligence.”

• A one-year limit. “ANY CLAIM MUST BE PROPERLY COMMENCED WITHIN ONE YEAR AFTER THE DATE ON WHICH SUCH CLAIM ACCRUED OR BE FOREVER BARRED.”
• Notice first. A Notice of Dispute by certified mail, then 30 days to resolve it.
• Two arbitration bodies. The American Arbitration Association for membership claims (remote, Delaware law); the Arbitration Service of Portland for everything else, including the car (Portland, Oregon law). Oregon Unlawful Trade Practices Act claims are expressly covered, and both sides waive a jury.
• Modified rules. A hearing within 120 days; claims of $10,000 or less decided on documents; claims above $20,000 heard in person; legal-error challenges in court only where $100,000 or more was claimed.
• No court, no class. No lawsuit in any court, “including small claims,” and claims “ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS.” Recoverable attorney fees include in-house lawyers at “no less than Five Hundred Dollars ($500) per hour.”
• A 30-day opt-out. A signed notice by certified or registered mail, “NOT LATER THAN 30 DAYS AFTER THE DATE ON WHICH YOU ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT FOR THE FIRST TIME.” Opt out and disputes go to the courts for Dover, Delaware (membership) or Multnomah County, Oregon (the rest), still excluding small claims court.

The Rules call this “a more generous arbitration policy” than Copart’s, whose arbitration “does not apply to vehicles not purchased directly from Copart.” The opt-out is the one choice the contract leaves you.

Where AutoBidMaster’s own documents disagree

All were live on 9 October 2026. The Member Terms and Rules are the contract; ask in writing before relying on either.

The marketing figures do not match either: the About page claims a “95% Customer satisfaction rate,” the registration page “96%.” The core terms (the deposit, the transaction and processing fees, the next-day deadline, the 10-day rule and the arbitration clause) were stated the same way wherever they appeared.

Before you bid: the printed terms side by side, and a checklist

Searchers often weigh AutoBidMaster against A Better Bid, another company that bids at Copart for the public, and against buying from Copart directly. The table sets their printed terms side by side; it is not a ranking. Copart’s column comes from documents read on 7 October 2026; A Better Bid’s from its Member Terms (updated 8 September 2026), read on 9 October 2026.

Copart’s advice applies to any broker: read “the Broker’s additional terms, including payment terms and conditions.”

Common questions

Are Copart and AutoBidMaster the same company?

No. AutoBidMaster’s footer says it “is not owned by or affiliated with Copart, Inc, or its subsidiaries.” An affiliated Dealer that is a Copart member bids for you and resells you the car, though Copart’s own terms still apply to the sale.

Can anyone buy from AutoBidMaster?

Anyone 18 or older with a government ID and a $600 refundable deposit can bid, without a dealer license. Whether you can register the car depends on your state, so check with your DMV first. A free Guest account buys one car at up to $1,200.

How much does AutoBidMaster charge?

Membership is free, $35, $189 or $349 a year. Each car adds a transaction fee ($150 to $349, or 5% or 4% on bigger cars), a $150 to $369 processing fee and a $50 broker fee, on top of Copart’s fees. By our arithmetic AutoBidMaster’s part is $499 to $718 on a $1,000 Basic win and $600 to $819 on a $10,000 Premium win.

Is the AutoBidMaster deposit refundable?

Yes, on request, with no unpaid balance or pending bids. Card deposits are holds that are released; wired deposits come back by ACH or mailed check, depending on which document you read, and international wire refunds lose $30.

What happens if you don’t pay AutoBidMaster?

A $50 late fee per day after 5:00 pm Pacific the next business day. If you never pay, the car is relisted and you owe $600 or 10% of the price plus your transaction fee, at least $750 by our arithmetic, and the help center says the deposit is forfeited. AutoBidMaster may charge a card on file, add a collections fee of at least $100 and suspend your account.

Can I trust AutoBidMaster?

We make no recommendation. Oregon’s registry lists it as an Oregon company registered in 2008, and our searches of federal and Oregon enforcement sites found no action naming it, though court dockets could not be searched. Its terms are strict: a one-year claim limit, binding arbitration unless you opt out within 30 days, liability capped at the fees you paid it, and documents that sometimes disagree.