can a personal buyer purchase a car at auction?

You would need a dealer liscence or pay a dealer to help you purchase a car at an auction. A family member of mine paid a $500 fee to go to the auction with a small lot dealer and purchase a mercedes, the paperwork was also included in that fee. Of coarse he wrote a check in full for the car and tax, some dealers may even offer financing as an option. Good Luck

Jim is right. Any Manheim(largest car auction company in the world I do believe) auction will not allow customers in at all. You have to be a dealer there but at smaller independent auctions you may get in like Michael said.

Just find someone with a cuurent dealer license and you should be able to access any auto auction. The dealer will be bidding and purchasing for you for a predetermined fee. now you just need to find a dealer who will work with you.

Michael, I'm going to disagree with you on that. I've been in the business for over 30 years. Its not like that anymore. Most big auto auctions will not let anyone in without an auction ID pass.

Copart is a public online auction company. Totally different from where car dealers get their inventory. Looks like they deal in a lot of salvage vehicles as well. But yes the public can buy online from them and go with a dealer to some other smaller auction houses.