Used car online auctions are one of the hottest trends sweeping across the auction industry right now. You can find great bargains in a matter of minutes, while comfortably seated in front of your PC and with just a few clicks of the mouse! And since many online auctions regularly close car deals every day, folks are increasingly turning to the web to check out the latest news on the car auction scene.

But with plenty of scams lurking on the internet these days, you'll need to be cautious about which sites you choose to do business with. So once you've done a search on Google/Yahoo on 'used car online auction,' you want to narrow down your selection by comparing each website on BBB.org and ripoffreport.com. These two sites aim to protect consumers from getting conned by fake companies, and a simple search will reveal the track record of the online car auction companies you've short-listed.

Here are some tips for identifying professional used car online auction sites: -

* The overall design of the site: Most professional sites will have a clean and simple design. On the other hand, if you see ugly, flashy banners and ads plastered all over the webpage, you might want to think twice before proceeding further.

* Testimonials: Browse around to see if the site's got credible testimonials.

* Physical Mailing Address: If an online company were truly ethical, they would have no hesitation in displaying not only their postal address, but also their email addresses and contact numbers. Look around to see if the used car online auction site you're checking out have theirs posted too.

Once you've got a whittled-down list, it's time for the next step, i.e. do you plan on looking out for a car or selling one of your own. If you belong to the former, select one of the websites in your list, and then decide on a budget. Next, you want to find the best car you can buy for that price. Thereafter, you'll need to move into the negotiation process with the seller. (And even though you're on a used car online auction site, you're under no obligation to agree on the first price that's tossed around.)

Once you've agreed on the price, it's always best to request a free test-drive if the mailing address of the site indicates they're nearby to where you live. If this is not the case, you need to make sure you've got every bit of info about the car you're buying. After all, you wouldn't want to spend your money on some third-grade, low performance vehicle, right?

(HINT: To be really sure you're purchasing a good quality car, it might be a good idea to ask for details on insurance problems, unpaid bills, car theft, etc, etc.)

Now if you intend selling your car at a used car online auction site, well... once again, pick a suitable website from your list and have a look at their rules and regulations. For example, the sign-up fees you're required to submit, the number of photos you can put up, what info you're allowed to include and what you should refrain from posting, etc, etc.

You can also have a used car online auction company to buy your car and market it on your behalf. Of course, this could also bring you less profit than of you went ahead and sold the car on your own; nevertheless, going this way will save you a lot of time and hassle.