Here is a walk-through of a typical police impound auction

Let me walk you through a typical police impound auction so you have an idea about what to expect.

Once you have located all the auctions that are listing the vehicle you want, you simply go and attend one. You will register your name with an id card at the entrance. If you want to participate by bidding, you will need to provide some kind of proof of funds, either with a deposit, or a letter of your bank, or through a credit card. You will get detailed information about when each vehicle will be auctioned off.

You can inspect the vehicle yourself (or a mechanic/expert that you brought along), and you will get shown proof of title and the vehicles certified history (Carfax). The only thing you will not get to do is test drive the car. But you are given a 90 day warranty to the vehicle.

Once bidding takes place for your vehicle, you will raise your hand announcing the bid price you want to place for a given car. If there are not many other bidders, and the auctioneer has announced that the vehicle's auction is closed, your final bid price can be the winning bid. Once you settle payment with the administrative clerk at the auction, you are asked to remove the car from the premises by the end of the auction day.

Voila. You have just won your new car with local police impound auctions, at a deeply discounted price.

How to profit with police impound auctions

OK, police impound auctions let you save piles of cash if you know how and when. Do you?

In essence, simply knowing about local police auctions will not necessarily allow you to maximize your savings when buying a car.

What you are trying to achieve by going to impound auctions is to save time and a lot of money.

So, to save time, you need to be able to easily search for the specific cars or trucks or item you are looking for, then you need to sort out the live auctions that are held in your area for these vehicles. Even better if you can find online auctions featuring these.

To save money, you will need to participate in the auctions and effectively bid and win your favorite car, truck, boat, jewelry, without exceeding your target price... To do that, you will need a some guidance about how the auctions work and the little tricks and know-how on how to win your vehicle at the lowest price possible. Some internet services offer an auction guide for free.

Where do you find police impound auctions?

Ok, you know about getting bargains at police impound auctions, but where do you find them?

The police usually advertises in local newspapers to let people know about the event, so your first option is to continuously check the local classified ads in your counties or state's main newspaper. If you don't want to miss any announcement, you should also check local TV stations.

A more convenient and efficient way is to subscribe to an internet service collecting all national, state, county and city auction listings. There are several available, however in my research not all of them deliver a quality service that lets you easily access police impound auctions for the cars, trucks, vehicles or other items you are interested in. So it pays to know which service is reliable and worth the fee they are charging. If they have a free trial, make sure to check it out so you know if their service is good and lets you use their access and tools to save money.

Why should you care about police impound auctions

Police impound auctions are held to get rid of impound vehicles, houses or other property items very quickly. Because the police or government agency intention is not to generate a profit by selling these items but to cut their costs, the auctions all start with very low starting bids, often $100 for even like-new cars.

That's where you can save thousands on your next vehicle purchase: know the "where, when and what" about these local and state auctions and go get your car at a price you will not be able to get nor through classifieds nor through car dealers - never. And don't make the mistake of thinking these cars are not road worthy, as you will see that many vehicles at the auctions are actually the luxury type, and almost new.