Offers

Offers is where you set what your site pays. Every offer a seller gets is worked from the prices on this page, the answers they gave on the form, and your bid multiple. You set the numbers once; your site does the arithmetic on every quote.

The page has four cards, the lever you'll move most first:

• Bid multiple, with Try a car to see an offer worked before you save.
• Metal prices: what you're paid per pound, and the weights each price is paid on.
• Add-ons and deductions: the diesel truck add.
• Enthusiast add-ons: extra dollars for particular vehicles.

Each card has its own Save and saves only its own numbers, so saving one card never changes another. After a save the page says "Saved." at the top and takes you back to that card.

The Downturn hedge has its own page in the sidebar.

How an offer is made

Each offer is worked the same way, in this order:

1. The car's weight and metals. The year, make, model and trim the seller picks tell your site the car's curb weight, whether it's on aluminum wheels, and whether it's a diesel truck, from our vehicle list. The seller is never asked for a weight. The steel in the shell, the wheels, the battery and the wire harness are each priced at your metal prices.
2. The answer values. Each answer on your form carries dollars you set, added or taken off: a car that starts and drives might add, a missing converter might take off. You set them beside each answer on the Seller form.
3. Add-ons. The diesel truck add and any enthusiast add-on that covers the car. A car gets at most one enthusiast add-on.
4. The bid multiple. Everything above adds up to the car's scrap value. The bid multiple is the share of it you offer. The result is rounded once, to whole dollars, and is never below $0.

When the downturn hedge is on and a cut is in force, step 1 uses your steel or aluminum wheels price less the cut. Nothing else changes.

An example

A 3,200 lb car on aluminum wheels that starts and drives, with its converter missing, at example prices:

Line	Working	Amount
Steel	3,050 lb × $0.08	$244.00
Aluminum wheels	80 lb × $0.60	$48.00
Battery	40 lb × $0.50	$20.00
Wire harness	30 lb × $1.00	$30.00
Starts and drives		+$50.00
No catalytic converter		−$40.00
Scrap value		$352.00
Bid multiple	× 80%
Offer		$282

The steel is paid on the shell weight: 3,200 lb less the wheels, battery and harness, which are priced as themselves.

A car our vehicle list can't weigh

An offer is never made without a weight. When a plate or VIN finds a car our vehicle list can't weigh, the form tells the seller it found their car but can't price it from that, and asks them to pick it from the year, make and model lists instead.

When the trim isn't known

Trim can change the weight, and it decides which enthusiast add-ons apply.

• A seller who picks Not sure on the trim list is priced as the model's Base trim, or its lightest trim when there's no Base.
• A VIN that could be one of several trims doesn't ask the seller to pick. The quote keeps every trim the VIN allows, and the trim counts as not known.
• With the trim not known, only add-ons that cover every trim apply. When one for a particular trim would have paid more, the quote shows If they know the trim.

What you see and what a seller sees

You see the whole breakdown: each metal at its price, each add-on and answer value, the scrap value, the multiple and the offer. A seller sees only the offer.

The breakdown is on the quote, in How it was worked, and on this page under Try a car. Answers worth $0 are left out of it.

A seller sees one number, the offer. Never the weight, a metal price, an answer value, an add-on or the multiple, on any screen, text or message. Keep the breakdown to yourself when you talk to a seller too: quote the price.

Offers are good for 7 days

An offer is fixed the moment a seller first sees it, and it stands for 7 days. Coming back to the form doesn't reprice the car or move the deadline. The date it ends is in your time zone, as it was when the offer was made.

Changing a price, an answer value, an add-on or the bid multiple changes only offers made after the save. Offers already made keep the prices they were made with, and their breakdown still shows those prices.

A seller who comes back after the 7 days sees that the form has expired and can start again for a new offer at your prices then. See When the form starts over.

Revising an offer

To give one seller a different number, revise the offer on their quote. The seller sees only the revised offer, on the form and in every text, and never the online figure or your reason.

The seller isn't told on their own: text or call them with the new number. Change the offer has the steps.

Who can change prices

Everyone who signs in can see Offers. Only an Admin can save a change. Every save is in History at the top of the page: who changed what, and when.

Staff see every card with its numbers, read-only: the boxes and the slider are greyed out, and there's no Save, no Add vehicles, and no edit or Remove on an add-on. The Try a car tabs still work, so Staff can see how an offer is worked. Roles has the rest.

If someone else saved a card after you opened the page, your save is refused with their name, and your numbers stay in the boxes. Save again to replace theirs. See Changes made at the same time.