Insurance Auto Auctions Drives Record Returns for Its Customers

by Lance Groom

Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc., a leading provider of automotive salvage and claims processing services in the United States, today announced record vehicle returns during the second quarter. IAA's dual bidding strategy has continued to drive more buyers to the Company's auctions than ever before, resulting in increased bidding activity and higher vehicle returns for its insurance company suppliers. "Combining the feedback we have been receiving from our customers with our internal data, we believe our vehicle returns were the highest in the industry during the quarter, which we feel is a direct result of our dual bidding platform and improved levels of customer service," said Tom O'Brien, CEO. "On average, our returns have increased more than $300 per unit compared to 2003, providing a significantly better return for our insurance company suppliers. Our live auctions, most of which feature Run & Drive(R) auction lanes, are supplemented with our state-of-the-art Internet bidding capability, giving our growing customer base the flexibility to see and bid on our vehicles up close or through the Internet from anywhere in the world in a real-time setting. Enthusiastic buyer support of our auction model is clearly evident from the increase in buyer participation we have experienced, both at live auctions and via the Internet. By encouraging more buyers to come on to our bidding platform than ever before, we believe that during the quarter we were able to generate more bidding activity and the highest vehicle returns in the industry." Commenting further on the Company's recent operating performance, O'Brien said, "We haven't missed a beat throughout the organization since the close of the Kelso & Company acquisition in late May. The transaction has allowed us to focus even more of our time and energy on improving our operations and service levels to our customers, translating into much higher returns for our suppliers and higher profits for IAA. The Company generated revenues of $71.9 million in the second quarter, compared with $60.0 million in the same quarter of 2004. Gross profit margins improved to 26% in the second quarter, up from 22% in the same quarter of last year. We also continued to strategically expand during the quarter, specifically in Jacksonville, Altoona and Charleston, providing IAA with a greater geographic reach to meet the needs of our current and potential customers. Going forward we will continue to target new strategic opportunities that will further increase our buyer base and maintain our momentum of generating significantly higher returns." S-4 Filing: Insurance Auto Auctions also filed an S-4 today that provides supplemental financial information to the results provided herein. Please refer to this document for additional financial information about the Company and its quarterly results. About Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc.: Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc., founded in 1982, a leader in automotive total loss and specialty salvage services in the United States, provides insurance companies with cost-effective, turnkey solutions to process and sell total-loss and recovered-theft vehicles. The Company currently has 80 sites across the United States. Additional information about Insurance Auto Auctions is available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.CarLackey.com http://www.AutoLackey.com http://www.RichLackey.com Please Help Hurricane Katrina Victoms below: Visit "RED CROSS" by using the link below... http://www.redcross.org/ Victims of Hurricane Katrina are attempting to recover from the massive storm that is still making its way across the Mid-Atlantic States. American Red Cross volunteers have been deployed to the hardest hit areas of Katrina's destruction, supplying hundreds of thousands victims left homeless with critical necessities. By making a financial gift to Hurricane 2005 Relief, the Red Cross can provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to those in need. http://www.redcross.org/ About the Author My name is Lance Groom and I am formally from the Hit TV Show "Making Money", also past board member for "Susan Powter" health fitness, and Infomercial guru. In 2001 I led one of the largest advertising campaigns in over 6,000 newspapers. This campaign resulted in over 25,000 sales all over the world creating "Classified Millions".

Starting Your Own Internet Auction Business

by Jason James

Many of us dream of owning our own business and taking control of our financial destiny but precious few of us ever dare to take that chance. Of those that do risk everything for the chance to control our destiny by opening up our own company, the majority fail and are forced to rejoin the workforce again in shame. An Internet auction business may be the best chance most of us have to actually realize that dream of independence. Auction selling via the Internet offers people a chance to start a company with very little money or resources. A lack of start up capital is the primary obstacle preventing most people from being able to own a company of their very own and stop working for other people. Because you can enter into the world of online auctions on a part-time basis and make some extra money while still hanging onto your job until things take off, the risk of losing assets such as cars or homes is nonexistent. You will be making money from the start if done properly and you won't need to take out a second mortgage to finance the start up costs. Study the Site An Internet auction is not complicated to initiate or run, but it can be more involved than you would think. Since you are new to the world of auction selling it would probably be your best bet to use a site like Ebay to list your items. With relatively low costs and over 10 million visitors coming to the site every month, Ebay or sites like it are where you want to begin listing items for your online auctions. One of the biggest mistakes new Internet auction business owners make is to rush head forward into posting their first item and waiting for the bids to roll in. Unfortunately, more often than not, those precious bids never come and people give up before ever really giving the process a chance. You will want to study the Ebay business website and familiarize yourself with how it works before posting any listing. Go through and find all of the tools offered that you think are relevant to your particular needs. Read the advice offered by Ebay or the hosting site you are using because there is definitely a wealth of information at your fingertips that will help you succeed if you take the time to use it! Start Small You are not going to want to list any large ticket items in the beginning. This is because Ebay and sites like it use a feedback rating system to help people determine who is a reputable seller and who is not. Your rating will be zero at first so the chances of someone being willing to take a chance on buying something expensive from you when they have no idea about your business ethics are practically zero. You are going to want to sell lower priced items at first to both familiarize yourself with the process and build your feedback ratings. In fact, you may even want to buy something through the site first because this will help you safely build your rating while showing you how things look from the buyer's perspective. After you have built up both your rating and your confidence (while putting some cash into your pockets!), you then will have a much better chance at selling a more expensive item. Building your own Internet auction business will take some time, a lot of patience, and hours of research if you really want to be successful and stop working for other people. About the author: Jason James website 'The Auction Resource Network' reveals his inside secrets and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 a month on eBay. Claim your FREE 'Top 10 eBay Selling Secrets' eBook: www.auctionresourcen etwork.com

[CaRP] Can't open cache file.

[CaRP] Unable to create/open RSS cache file.

[CaRP] Failed to open file: /home/auctionp/public_html/autocache/b58899457e1460bd40ecda1a3552b106

[CaRP] Can't open remote newsfeed.