RALEIGH, N.C. -

On the same day but some 2,800 miles east of the 68th CarMax Auction’s grand opening in the San Francisco Bay Area, dozens of dealers gather under and around a garage-like structure on Tuesday morning.

Much like the soggy weather here in the capital of North Carolina, the exterior of this building is gray.

But the mood inside this one-lane auction arena couldn’t be more different.

The only thing moving faster than a vehicle’s stay inside the arena is the chant of the auctioneer, who squeezes in a “good to see you” or an occasional quip — like the sports car he cheekily explains is a “Corvette, not a Chevette.”

Auto Remarketing is here to check out sale day at the CarMax Auction in Raleigh, getting a guided tour from auction services manager Jay Bostain.

This facility is one of 68 CarMax Auction locations in the country (the latest being the Pleasanton, Calif. location that opened Tuesday), with four more on tap for fiscal 2017. 

It is located on a gravel lot, just a stone’s throw from CarMax’s retail location on one of Raleigh’s busiest and most well-known thoroughfares.  The Raleigh auction location, which can hold up to 225 vehicles, is one of three CarMax Auctions located off-site; the rest are held at the retail stores.

The vehicles here are trade-ins from retail customers; the dealers are mostly independent and mostly local to this neck of the woods.

Some may venture an hour-and-a-half to two hours away across the South Carolina or Virginia borders, Bostain said.

There’s another building on the lot, which takes care of administrative needs for the dealers, who pop by to check in before the sale and come back to settle up on their purchases.  Or as Bostain called it, a “one-stop shop for customer service.”

It has a boutique feel to it. Dealers are called by their first names; the Dunkin Donuts and coffee are as plentiful as the cars.

But what’s just as noticeable is the speed.

Auctions, by nature, move quickly — be it the speed of the auctioneer’s chant or the cars moving through the lanes. But this seems fast even for an auction.

All 154 vehicles up for sale on Tuesday (151 of which went through the lane; three were no-runners) are sold in a matter of 82 minutes, by Auto Remarketing’s count.

That’s about 32 seconds per car.   

And they might not even stay in the lane for half of that. We clocked the entry-to-exit times of many cars at 15 seconds or less. (Bidding doesn’t necessarily start when the car enters the lane, nor does it end when the car exits. Or as CarMax explains to dealers, “You’re bidding on taillights,” Bostain said.)
 
The 100-percent sale rate isn’t some wild anomaly. In fact, CarMax Auctions hit a 97 percent average auction sales rate in fiscal-year 2016.

“That’s all, guys and girls,” the auctioneer says as the 154th and final car is sold, winding the sale down at 10:24 a.m. (ET), less than an hour-and-a-half after it began.

Dealers head to the customer service building to pay for their cars and get the keys. There will be CarMax staff sticking around for the rest of the day and the next.

Dealers will have until end of business Wednesday to bring the car back should any problem pop up during the test drive after the sale, with arbitration being held at the same arena.

And some will head a couple of hours north to Richmond, Va., just in time to catch CarMax’s auction sale at 2 p.m.

Or maybe it's back to the dealership for another day's work. 

On to the next one. 

See more photos from Tuesday's visit to the Raleigh CarMax Auction location in Auto Remarketing's Facebook gallery