CHICAGO and MANHEIM, Pa. -

It is late summer 1995 in New York.

Meeting in the singles finals of the U.S Open tennis tournament are, arguably, some of the generation’s greatest stars: Pete Sampras beating Andre Agassi in the men’s final, Steffi Graf defeating Monica Seles in the women’s.

What, you might ask, does that have to do with remarketing?

Nothing, other than this:

Some of the satellite trucks at that tournament would end up, weeks later and some 200-plus miles to the northwest, playing a pivotal role in what is described by at least one account as being the first car ever sold via simulcast.

The sale happened on Oct. 12, 1995 at State Line Auto Auction in Waverly, N.Y.

According to a retelling of events shared by ServNet, of which State Line is a member, the first vehicle sold to a remote bidder in conjunction with a live sale occurred that day, with the car going to Farnsworth Chevrolet in Canandaigua, N.Y.

In 2014, nearly two decades after this event, 17.9 percent of auction sales were Internet-based, according to the 2014 NAAA Annual Review, included in NIADA’s Used Car Industry Report. Simulcast alone had a 13.8-percent share.

Online-only and simulcast sales have come a long way, to where it’s one of the focal points of auction industry discussion and training, stirring up discussion at events like one hosted this summer, nearly 20 years after State Line’s simulcast sale.

‘Trying to find the right combination’

It’s late July 2015 just outside another iconic American city.

A few dozen remarketing industry professionals have gathered at a hotel conference center near Chicago’s O’Hare airport.

They’re mostly independent auction personnel and executives at online wholesale marketplaces or technology providers, and they’re here for the “Digital Managers Session” of the Auction Academy program.

Throughout the event, the crowd would hear presentations from OVE, OPENLANE, Auction Edge, Whann Technology Group, Smart Auction and Liquid Motors.

Naturally, some of the topics they chatted about included increasingly digital wholesale world, how to maximize it and how to balance it with the brick-and-mortar auction environment and the various technologies within the market.

During his presentation, Peter Kelly, chief technology officer at KAR Auction Services, said his company wants to be at the forefront of industry technology. But it also recognizes the importance that physical auctions add to the mix.

“We don’t think one or the other is the recipe for success,” says Kelly, who is also president of KAR Digital Services Group.

In fact, it’s both that are important. Kelly adds: “We’re trying to find the right combination.”

And so, it would appear, is the rest of the industry.

Making online and in-lane work together

If used effectively, technology and online wholesaling can blend well with the in-lane environment.

This has been the case, for example, with simulcast sales for Pat Simmons, the director of technology at DAA Northwest.

Simmons, one of the attendees at the Digital Managers Session, said that simulcast sales can actually help create some additional buzz in the on-site lanes themselves.

Think about it: a dealer watches the video screen light up with bids as the folks in the lanes simultaneously do the same.

Not to mention, Simmons told Auto Remarketing in a follow-up interview, a bidder who is attending a physical sale can use simulcast to his or her advantage.

While standing in one lane, the dealer can bid on cars there, while simultaneously bidding on cars in a different lane via simulcast; in essence, the bidder can be in two places at once.

Spreading the reach

And then, there’s the bidder who is miles away from your auction, bidding on cars in online-only sales or via simulcast as the vehicles run through the lanes.

When the supply of cars dried up, the online auction sales environment became a way for dealers to expand their reach on the buying side, Simmons said.

That eventually led to “opening Pandora’s box,” he added. Once a dealer has tried buying cars online and had some success in doing so, Simmons said, he or she has become more willing to utilize this channel even with supply increasing.

When looking at all SmartAuction sales — which has seen its dealer-owned, fleet/rental, and midstream auction sales climb this year — the average distance that one of its buyers has driven is 350 miles, according to a presentation from the company during the Digital Managers Session. For SmartAuction buyers purchasing from independent auction, the average distance goes up to 369 miles.

Separately, Auto Remarketing spoke with Manheim Pennsylvania general manager Julie Picard, who said the Internet has allowed her auction to sell in 120 countries and all 50 states, “because they have that opportunity online.”

Granted, Manheim Pennsylvania’s in-lane buyers come from far away, as well. But it helps to illustrate just how expansive the Internet can help auction sales become.

For KCI Kansas City, selling online has allowed the Midwest auction to attract buyers from the coasts and as far away as India, says e-commerce manager Cody Boswell.

In fact, Boswell — another attendee at the Digital Managers Session — said in a follow-up with Auto Remarketing that he has talked with faraway buyers who are getting online at 3 a.m. in their time zone to buy cars from KCI.

The auction having an online presence “provides a separate marketplace,” Boswell said. Because of this, his seller customers have a second source of buyers.

Dedicated person to online

One of the themes repeated often that day in Chicago was this: auctions need a dedicated manager for online.

Simmons at DAA Northwest certainly sees the value in it.

“There is a very real benefit in ownership of that process,” he said.

Historically, Simmons says, having a dedicated online manager has been more “reactionary to specific requests” from consignors.

These days, though, it appears to be more in a more proactive direction.

“Putting people in that role,” Simmons said,” it increases the focus on it and brought it more into the mainstream as a viable sales tool.”

And as a chance to growth the business, says KCI’s Boswell.

“Getting one person, if not more,” Boswell said, adding that it probably does require more than one person devoted to online, “it provides that business idea that this is a growth opportunity.”

Simulcast becomes ‘standard’

Some 1,700 miles from Chicagoland, Jim DesRochers and his team at Dealers Auto Auction of the Southwest in Phoenix focus more on the older cars in the wholesale arena.

And for this niche of the market, using simulcast is a must if you’re going to be in the online space, DesRochers said.

Still images of older cars just won’t cut it, he says; buyers need more information.

DesRochers said that about 11 percent of his dealers are on simulcast. Most of his audience is from the nearby, surrounding areas of the Southwest.

Interestingly enough, he has found that simulcast buyers will often come by the auction the night before the sale to check the cars out, then go buy from home the next day.

But it’s not just his area of the market.

Overall, simulcast has been a “standard process” in the auction business that he said “only gets better with both imaging and condition report improvements.”