There are two easy resources to help you determine car values in advance of auction. One is the Kelly Blue Book, which can be purchased for under $10 on Amazon.com. You can take this little book with you to the actual auction and use it as a reference for values.

When car dealers take a vehicle in on trade, they often look to get it for several thousand dollars below low bluebook value. If that is their strategy, it might be a good one for you to adopt as well. Also, the older the car is, the more likely there will be a mechanical issue, so keep that in mind when bidding as well.

Many of the federal car auctions list vehicle identification numbers in advance of the auction, which you can use to do a search on CarFax.com, which for a small fee gives you the history of the vehicle. It will tell you, for example, whether or not the vehicle has a salvage title, the kind of title a vehicle gets after being completely wrecked. This kind of information is valuable for forming bidding strategies and could save you a lot of heartache later on.