Copart vs IAAI: which auction is right for your lot?

If you flip cars or run a small used-car lot, Copart and IAAI are probably where a good share of your inventory comes from. Both sell insurance, repairable and used vehicles online across the U.S. and Canada, and on paper they look almost the same.

They are not the same, and the differences show up in your margin: who is allowed to bid on a given car, how the auction runs, which fees land on the invoice and how long you have to pay before storage starts. This guide compares Copart vs IAAI on exactly those points, then shows how to turn them into one number: your maximum bid.

Copart vs IAAI at a glance

The practical takeaway: do not pick one auction and ignore the other. The same kind of car can be open to you at one yard and closed at another, and the fees on a $3,000 car and a $15,000 car behave very differently.

How bidding works on each platform

Copart: preliminary bids, then a live online auction

Copart runs its sales on VB3, the third generation of its virtual bidding technology. Each auction has two parts. First comes preliminary bidding, where you can leave a maximum bid and let the Bid4U feature raise your offer in steps up to that limit. Then the car goes into a live online auction where bidders compete in real time.

Copart’s online auctions run Monday through Friday across more than 170 locations in the U.S. and Canada, on the website and in the Copart mobile app.

IAAI: AuctionNow, Timed Auctions and Buy Now

IAA sells through several formats. IAA AuctionNow is its main online bidding platform. IAA Timed Auctions put a car up for a set period, so bidding and sale can happen before the scheduled online auction. IAA Buy Now offers a car at a fixed price between auctions.

For a small dealer, Buy Now and Timed Auctions matter more than they sound. A fixed price lets you run your numbers before you commit, instead of deciding under the pressure of a live countdown.

Who can buy: licenses, states and brokers

This is where many first-time buyers get stuck. Both auctions sell some vehicles to anyone and restrict others to licensed dealers, depending on state law.

At Copart, the requirements of the state where the vehicle is located govern the purchase, not the state where you live. So a car in one state may be open to you while a similar car two states over is not.

IAA works the same way in practice. Every vehicle page shows which buyers can bid, and you can filter search results to “Available to Public”. When a car is not open to public bidding, IAA points buyers to its list of approved licensed brokers, who can also help with payment, title paperwork and shipping.

What this means for you: before you spend time inspecting photos, check that you are allowed to buy the car. If you regularly want restricted inventory, compare broker fees against the cost of getting your own dealer license.

Fees: the part that decides your margin

The hammer price is only the start. On both auctions the final invoice includes a buyer fee that rises with the sale price, plus several per-vehicle charges.

IAAI fees you can plan around

IAA publishes separate fee schedules for licensed and non-licensed buyers and for different vehicle segments. On its standard non-licensed schedule, alongside the buyer fee table and the internet bid fee table, IAA lists fixed charges:

• Service fee: $105 per unit for handling, including imaging, pull-out and loading, effective October 1, 2026
• Title-handling fee: $20 on every purchase
• Premium Imagery Set fee: $10 per unit, only on eligible vehicles with that image set
• EH&S and fuel surcharge: a variable surcharge for energy, fuel, utility and waste-handling costs
• Storage: charged per day once the payment window has passed; the daily rate is set by each branch

Copart fees

Copart’s fee schedule depends on whether you are a licensed or non-licensed member, and it is split again into clean title and non-clean title vehicles. Look up the schedule that matches your account type before you bid, not after you win. A non-licensed buyer bidding on a non-clean title car sees a different set of fees than a licensed dealer bidding on a clean-title car.

Fees you add yourself

The auction invoice is not your total cost. Add towing or shipping from the yard, any storage if you cannot collect in time, title and registration costs in your state, and the repairs and detailing the car needs before it can be listed. We break down every one of these lines in the true cost of a car.

Payment, pickup and storage

IAA is explicit: U.S. domestic buyers must pay by 5:00 p.m. local branch time two business days after the vehicle is awarded, and non-U.S. buyers within four business days. Once that window closes, a daily storage fee is added. Vehicles can be picked up on sale day, and IAA Transport lets you book a tow at checkout.

Copart sets out its own payment and pickup windows in its member terms. Read them before your first win, and have transport lined up before the auction ends.

Storage is the quiet margin killer. A few days of fees on a cheap car can wipe out a meaningful part of the profit, and the longer a car sits anywhere, the more it costs you. The same logic applies once it is on your lot: see days on the lot.

Set your max bid before the auction starts

The best protection on either platform is a maximum bid you calculate in advance and do not move. Work backwards from what the car will actually sell for:

1. Start with a realistic retail price for the car once it is fixed and clean.
2. Subtract the margin you need on this car.
3. Subtract repairs, parts, detailing and listing costs.
4. Subtract towing or shipping from the yard.
5. Subtract the auction fees for that price bracket from the current schedule.

What is left is your maximum bid.

For example, with purely illustrative numbers: a car you can sell for $14,000 with a $2,000 margin target, $1,800 of repairs and detailing, $400 of towing and $900 of auction fees leaves a maximum bid of $8,900. Bid $9,500 in the heat of the moment and you have handed away almost a third of your target profit before the car reaches your lot.

So, Copart or IAAI?

For most independent dealers the honest answer is both. Use them this way:

• Search both for the make and model you know how to sell, within the distance you can tow cheaply.
• Check eligibility first, car by car, then decide whether a broker is worth it.
• Price each car on total landed cost, not on the hammer price.
• Favor fixed-price listings like IAA Buy Now when the numbers work, because you know the cost before you commit.
• Track what each source really earned after the car sells, so next month you buy more of what pays.

That last step is where most flippers lose the thread. The auction invoice lives in one inbox, the towing receipt in another and the parts receipts in a glovebox. Deelary keeps every one of those costs on the car it belongs to and shows your profit and days held by source, so you can see whether Copart or IAAI cars actually make you more money.