Perhaps when someone at your dealership says, “just send it to the auction,” it potentially doesn’t have such a negative connotation now.

Black Book said last week’s auction conversion rate came in at 63%, which was the highest level that analysts have seen since late April when dealers were tackling initial tariff reactions and squeezing out the last of tax season sales efforts.

When discussing last week’s auction conversion rates in its new installment of Market Insights, Black Book said on Tuesday, “This strength came despite an increase in overall auction inventory compared to the prior week.”

While the conversion rate jumped to a spring reading, Black Book watched wholesale prices soften another 0.32% last week. But a week earlier, values declined by 0.56%, according to Black Book tracking.

“Depreciation slowed last week while conversion rates improved, supported by strong bidding activity, particularly from larger independents,” analysts said.

“With Labor Day just a couple of weeks away, we’ll be watching the market closely to see if wholesale prices experience a post-holiday lift similar to last year, when modest week-over-week gains began in late August and carried through the first half of September,” analysts continued in the report.

Another part of the wholesale market that stayed consistent was price decreases for all 22 vehicle segments that Black Book observes. Among the notable movements:

—Compact car values dipped only 0.10% last week, after falling by 0.75% a week earlier. Analysts said compact car values have declined by 0.55% on average each week during the past eight weeks.

—Prestige luxury car values generated the steepest decline last week, falling by 0.80%. Black Book indicated the segment has averaged a weekly drop of 0.64% over the past four weeks, “marking a sustained period of accelerated depreciation.”

—Full-size trucks depreciated by only 0.15% last week, having sustained an average price decline of 0.46% during the previous five weeks.

—Minivans followed a similar pattern. Prices for those people movers slid by 0.18% last week. During the previous five weeks, values for minivans averaged a drop of 0.62% per week.

Furthermore, age didn’t seem to make a difference in depreciation developments last week. Black Book reported:

—Cars up to 2 years old: Down 0.32%

—Cars 8 to 16 years old: Down 0.34%

—Trucks up to 2 years old: Down 0.33%

—Trucks 8 to 16 years old: Down 0.36%

Rounding out the update with a brief look at activity on dealership blacktops, Black Book said its estimated used retail days to turn is now at roughly 42 days.

“As always, our team of analysts are focused on the keeping their eyes on the market for developing trends and gathering insight,” Black Book said.