This is for an auction of surplus items. I wanted to pick up a bicycle as I had moved closer to the boardwalk at the beach, not wanting to pay hundreds of dollars for a new bike I wanted to try out going to an auction. Ken Porter's auctions has a inspection date to view the items, I highly suggest you go there and thoroughly do your research. I witnessed people with tablets researching every bit of these bicycles that were up for bid. FYI, there's a $5 fee to view items in inspection only. During my inspection, I spent hours looking over every aspect of the Bicycles that needed fixing or repair vs the ones that were ride ready. Compared prices online and narrowed my choices to a few with a dollar range set. On auction day a lot of people were there, mostly for vehicles though. In the surplus room it wasn't that many. As the item numbers for bicycles came up my excitement grew. The first item was a lot of 3 bicycles and someone quickly outbid me! A few folks in the crowd were pro's. It then came up to a lot of 2 bicycles that was on my list, I placed a bid at $35 dollars and surprisingly no one else bid, I won! It's a giant bicycle that on the used market is around $180. I paid my fees and the bike was mine. Took it to a bike mechanic for a tuneup that cost $70 dollars and it looks/feels new. The people at the shop also said it was great deal. Do your research, have a alternate plans for different items, determine a dollar range based on prices, and don't forget to inspect the items. I'm also not a big fan of doing it online, when your in person, you can sense the other bidders in the room if it's going to be hot or not. Plus when they leave the room for food, drinks, restroom, or calls....that's your chance to pounce! Overall it was a great experience, learned a lot of how auctions works, and had fun on a Saturday morning. Give it a try. It is not for everyone, be warned. I would go back. read more

I bought over $5,000 of what was supposed to be confiscated jewelry and gold thinking that if at least one of the pieces purchased would turn out good but none of the pieces purchased turned out real. I can not believe that crooks or drug dealers don't wear real jewelry. Most likely the lots were cherry picked and the real stuff taken out before they went to auction. I called to make a complaint but never received a call back.. BIG RIP OFF. !! read more

They add 10-15% buyers premium tax to almost every vehicle and have random people bidding throughout the auction just to inflate prices. It used to be a great auction house. Great deals and quality vehicles. Although the quality of the vehicles has still remained the same, now you get the same great vehicle at in inflated price plus get taxed a 10-15% buyers premium for funzies. ex) 99 Ford Ranger 89xxx 3.0L after fees was under 4k (2016) ex) 98 "        "          128xxx 3.0L   "      "        "       "   7k (2018) read more

these people are thieves....everything on their sight is a lie... claimed a coin was a $10 gold piece on there site for 11/23/2020 auction...it was a fake ...i reported it to the auction house told them to take down my bid..they did not respond ....i was out bid ....$550 some poor sucker paid for it.. these people are crooks and by extension ....so is proxibid...and jj kane... secondly just was about to consider biding on a ford expedition suv...they claimed was a 4x 4 ...i ran the vin number...it was not a 4x4 ....liars and cheats... stay away...thieves...crooks ....dishonest... read more

They charge $10.00 a lot on top of their fees for the auction. Talk about greed. If people got smart and didn't buy from them those fees would have to be lower to get business. Look around there are better auction companies out there. read more

Won a car here(nothing special) $900 for the car, 487 in fees.. OTD at $1387, seems a bit much. Girls in the office are great. First time here most likely won't be coming back. read more

Do your homework and you will most likely be okay. A great selection of newer low mileage vehicles (especially Saab's for some reason) and older higher mileage fleet vehicles. Some words of advice: Take care of the DMV yourself, I have bought two vehicles here, (one good deal, one great deal) and never recieved the title for the vehicle I paid them to take care of DMV on. I recommend showing up to a couple auctions before bidding to get a lay of the land. 15% buyers premium is rather high, but occasionally they sell vehicles with a 0-10% premium. KPA also offers a buyback contract for vehicles which allows you to take time to get the vehicle inspected and potentially lose only a couple hundred as opposed to a couple thousand if the vehicle is a lemon. However this is not available on motorcycles. Oh, and don't listen to the dudes who walk around in vests talking about how such and such car is solid, and if they had the money, they would buy it in a second. Not sure they actually worked there - maybe volunteered, but both times that happened, they were talking about vehicles that had major problems. Do your homework!!! Also, I see that some of the filtered reviews indicate that they sometimes use phantom bidders to up the price of cars that there is only one bidder on. I can confirm this as I stopped bidding on a car once - it was just me and one other guy - and the bidding continued up several hundred beyond what I was willing to pay. At first I was freaked out that I was somehow signaling the auctioneer and still somehow bidding but realized later that this was just one of their techniques to increase the price of the vehicle. (It still ended up selling for well below KBB.) read more

I bought my car (an 04 Saab 9.3 convertible) here in February 2009 and I would recommend this place to anyone who's looking for a good deal on a used car. I'm so happy that I found out about this place! Thanks to them, I was able to buy a car that's nicer than I ever expected to own and for less than half of Kelly Blue Book value! An auction is probably the only fun way to go about buying a car! Everything is really easy. After you win a car, the whole process of paying for it is pretty quick (depending on how many people are in line ahead of you) and easy. They even take care of all of the DMV stuff for you (if you want). I think I was on my way home in my new car in less than an hour after winning. No dealing with annoying sales people. Everyone who I dealt with was really friendly. If you've never been to a live auction before, I'd recommend going to one before you intend to buy, just to see what it's like. I had never been to one and was sort of intimidated by it all. You're allowed to check the cars out the week prior to the auction, so definitely do that. And if you can, bring someone with car smarts along so you know what you're looking at. I only wish they offered a warranty of some sort because after about a year, my car developed some problems. I'm pretty sure they're normal for it's age. You know, certain things only last so long before needed to be replaced. But still, repairs are expensive and a warranty would have been nice. read more

I am infuriated. The customer service is non existent and the female staff members are rude and incompetent. I called in this morning to sign up to bid online for an auction today before it became live tomorrow morning. When I first called to get more information about sign up, the girl over the phone seemed very displeased with providing me any information. I got the bare minimum out of her and signed up online. After waiting a few hours, I didn't receive any emails or contact from them. I called again around 1 and spoke to a friendlier rep who told me to call after 3 if I still don't receive the welcome email. Shockingly enough, it was after 3 and I hadn't received anything. I called again around 3:30 and spoke to a very rude and unprofessional rep named Jewell, who also seemed very displeased with helping me. She said it was strange that I hadn't received my welcome letter and that she would resend it. Another hour and still no email. I called around 5 and spoke to Jewell again. She made it seem like I was lying that I hadn't received the welcome letter and kept repeating, "welllllllll, everyone else I asked got the letter so you should have gotten it I don't understand why not" Well, I haven't. She continued to say that they are now closed and that there was nothing she could do to help me until tomorrow morning. Just an FYI, the auction is tomorrow morning, and my whole purpose was to bid today. I explained to her that I've been trying to get an answer ever since this morning and that no one has helped me, and it's unfair that they're "now closed" and unable to do anything about THEIR mistake. Of course she continued to be rude and make it seem like it was my problem. I have never dealt with such rude, unprofessional, and unwilling staff members who lack basic knowledge and customer service skills. I don't see the complexity in sending a simple welcome letter. I can only imagine how they go about complicated tasks or purchases. read more

This place is a Rip 28.00 admin plus internet fee's I literally bought 2 items at a auction for under 60.00 and their fee's were about 56.00 nearly a 100% mark-up then of course the General Mgr has his used car salesman approach "you should have read the terms" and if you don't buy the items with the 100% Mark-Up you will be banned from all auctions in the US.. Not to mention they do not handle any shipping and if you do not pick up your item before the Wednesday after the sale they will charge you 25.00 per DAY! read more

Craig and his people are awesome. I recommend everyone check this place out. Even if you just go to get out of the house there's a lot of really Kool stuff to see and buy. Now located in Riverside Ca. read more

I am writing this review about an experience selling a car at the auction. I bought a car from them two years ago and it was a good experience, so I thought I can sell cars there too. This is a big company and it would be great doing business with them so I put a car at their auction. I put a reserve on the car and for some reason each time they say it didn't match your reserve with a $100 for three time "coincidence" or maybe. After that I went to pick up the car coz maybe this is not the right place to sell this car and when I picked up the car there was the third seat missing. So I called my account manager and she told me to call Gene their GM and he didn't really care about what happened and he wasn't welling to help and he said also you do whatever you got to do, like he doesn't care about their customers. So before going to this place to sell your vehicle think again and try somewhere else. And if you decided to go with them take precautions coz they won't help you. read more

BEWARE of their terns and conditions. From their site: Payment Instructions: Please Note there is a $28 Lot fee on each item regardless of Sale Price NO EXCEPTIONS Pretty bad, if you buy a tool set for $100 you're paying Purchase price $100 Lot fee 28 Internet Buyer Premium 19% 19 Total $147 plus tax read more

Avoid this scam auctioneer at all costs. Listed and sold a fake copy $5.00 souvenir coin as if genuine for better than $400. Steer clear of these ripoff artists read more

I purchased car from ken porter auctions, Jurupa, on 7-10-20 but I can't register it due to no pink slip. I tried calling but no one answers the phone. read more

Their cars are way overpriced for an auction. I bought a truck about a month ago and transmission didn't work. I also bought a motorcycle and it was missing parts when I received it. Overall I would buy from them again but I would definitely try other places before going here. read more

Thinking Ken Porter moving to Riverside would be better, but it is the opposite. Small parking lot, LONGER wait time, smaller office space, and people crowded in a room where you are supposed to pick up the car. More burocracy, more mistakes. I would really think about coming back here. Carson location was MUCH better and faster! read more

I bought items here and had them shipped from Ca to Tx. Nicest, friendliest, mostt helpfUl stAff. I have my pallet now and i am so happy with the entire process. Thank you again. A+++++++++ read more

Turns out the spray paint comes off with Goof Off Grafitti spray, a bucket of water, and a Scotchbrite pad. It won't hurt the decals if you decide to keep them on. Im still leaving a star off because of the portopottys. I have gotten some other deals here through. read more

This was perhaps the best buying experience of my life. There was no pressure. The staff there was very nice and helpful and I got a better deal on my Prius than anyone else I know. read more

Me and my husband have been here a few times, when they were in Carson. We bought a reliable car. Yes there are other fees but just keep that in mind and in your budget and you will be fine. I believe they are selling decent cars. We will be going to their Riverside location in a couple of months to buy something for my 18 year old son. I have been to other auctions and prefer Ken Porter over others. I don't really care about how office is or anything else I just need a reliable decent looking car. I hope this helps... read more

Came here looking for some equipment they were auctioning the place looks run down the equipment is old and run down not enough drivers to move equipment I seen shit sold for over what it was worth but here nor there stupid people over bidding we'll never been here before but it's back to Martin and Taylor and ritchi bros this place sucks read more

Buyer beware this place is shady they falsify the smog process to sell to general public and car that has no buisness being sold as a driver... long story short the truck they sold me had bad tranny and a bad engine to fix the damn thing is more then cars value. The GM Gean was no help basically playing word games with me. Of course the fact that they falsified the smog its ok....Apparently this is nothing new its the way they roll. They wouldn't even offer me help on fixing it. Your better off buying something from private party or a normal dealer this place sells junk cars. Wise man said counting pennies may cost you dollars ken! My lawyer call u later read more

Great Place. Staff was friendly and helpful. Great prices. Very nice experience, cant wait to do it again. Deb read more

This auction cheats! It was my first time at an auction hoping to get a better deal for car. They raised me on the price and there was a fake bidder that no one was there and then they sold the car back to me. Whats the point of doing that? I wont go back. read more

I went to this place once and all I found was trash, then they kept abusing my information and sending me spams although I called and asked them to stop. Last time I called a very rude customer service asked me with angry voice: "Does it cost you any money?" Good business starts with respecting customer' privacy. If they don't respect customer' privacy, be careful and stay away! Thanks God I didn't get trapped in their scam! If you get trapped in this scam you will pay for it and you shouldn't blame anyone because I am warning you that only scammers violate customer' privacy and abuse personal information to send spam mails. read more

Staff seems very incompetent. When I went to pay for my items they showed me winning an item that I had not bid on. In order to leave with my deposit I had to wait 2 hours until the auction ended and let the staff review the video of the auction. They reviewed the video(which I believe did not exist) and still attempted to hold me responsible for the item. When asked to see the video they quickly released me from being responsible for the item. 3 hrs from the time I first attempted to settle up and leave, I left without purchasing the phantom item. I purchased 3 items totalling $40, but only 2 of the three were on my invoice. $128 later after their fees I was paid in full. So to sum this up, my invoice showed an item that I never bid on and was missing an item, besides this they wasted 3 hrs of my time and left me leaving late enough in the day that I had to endure 47 miles of southern california traffic. I was charged an extra $25 per item in lot fees besides the buyers premium %. NEVER AGAIN MR PORTER!!!! read more

who ever is buying anything but cars or expensive stuff be careful this auction will stiff u really hard there out to fuck the public period . u can buy a 5.00 item plus 23 percent plus they stick u with 28.00 in fees so your paying about 36.00 dollars for 5.00 item straight out fucking you . so i got 36.00 dollars worth of stuff and my bill was 227.21 so they charges me 191.41 in fees this is crazy shit , SO BE CAREFUL PEOPLE read more

I have been going to ken porter for the last 27years, the passing of DAN broke my heart,new owner great people and staff

A+ for Lettys customer service! Letty handled my transaction with s smile, patience, and a great personality ! Thanks letty, I will be back. Your awesome and good luck with your little one on the way ! Thanks read more

In response to their intentional catalog misrepresentation, James Ido, Vice President of Ken Porter Auctions wrote "This removal (of equipment) was done after the picture was taken and we should have retaken the picture but we didn't. We are only human and as human we do make mistake." The problem with his explanation is that he did this with 4 other motorcycles with varying amounts of extras as well. In essence, he hopes that by saying "oops, my bad", I will excuse his use of pictures that don't represent the actual merchandise to help bid up the price. People at the auction site will be bidding against someone on line that doesn't know the equipment has been removed. The people online will be looking at the catalog with the "before" pictures and thinking the vehicle is more valuable than what it's really worth. The term is "shill bidding." While he did offer to buy my $6,000 motorcycle for $4,000 to make me happy (you read that correctly), I can't imagine anyone but an incurable gambler using his auction service. I have no choice now but to complain about the intentional fraud to the DMV (they license all dealers) and to try to get compensated for the equipment I bought through Small Claims Court. Small Claims Court update; I presented 19 different instances of fraudulent advertising to the judge in my lawsuit against Ken Porter auctions and how they could use internet bidding to make shills out of online users. The judge didn't care as long as I was offered my money back by the auction house. I also learned that I should have named only Mr. Raymond Claridge in my suit since he is the owner/president of Ken Porter Auctions. If you sue the business directly, he doesn't have to show up. In the future, go to the city of Carson to find out the actual owner. The DMV, which licenses sellers of new and used cars was not interested in exploring the fraudulent advertising and claimed that it was a civil matter and not actionable from their perspective. read more

Watch out for the fees and you'll be ok. They can add up pretty good, especially on merchandise as they charge a $20 lot fee on top of the premium plus tax and whatever bullshit there is. The manager is also a sleazeball douche. read more

I just called them up and spoke with a lady. I didn't catch her name. She let me know that she had another phone call and would I mind waiting. I answered that's fine or something to that effect assuming I would be waiting 5 minutes. She let me wait close to 12 minutes so I hung up.I didn't want to wait any longer. I've been in customer service a long time, over 35 years, and when I have customers waiting on the phone I go back and reassure them. I ask if they want to continue waiting or get their number so I can call them back ASAP. It was close to lunch time when I called so that could be the reason why she was busy. I waited 5 minutes maybe more and called again. I got the same lady on the phone. This time she had wasn't talking to another caller and was able to answer my questions. I asked about the car auctions and she quickly rattled off auction info and the numbers to me. She sounded like she was in a hurry to get me off the phone. I asked her to repeat some information but she wouldn't and gave me another answer. Hopefully the sales people will be a little more patient and customer service oriented. I want to think that it was close to lunch time and she was just hungry and ready to go eat. I know I get in a bad mood when I haven't had any food. read more

If you buy anything from this place be sure and get it out of there right away-- I have had things stolen from my lots on multiple occasions. Check everything out thoroughly before you leave.and pay with a credit card so you have legal recourse--When I discovered things had been stolen, they wouldn't give me a refund for the stolen items. A lot of the stuff is junk consigned by dealers trying to get rid of defective product., so make sure and ask where the items you are interested in came from--if they can't tell you, you should probably pass. There are people in the audience bidding on things just to make the prices higher, so it is difficult to get anything at a reasonable price, and many times I have seen the auctioneer run the price up when there is nobody bidding. As a professional auction buyer for over 20 years, I can tell you that there are many auctions that have much better deals, especially on vehicles. read more