A Bulletproof Mercedes Sold at Bankruptcy Auction. Here’s How.

How do you auction off a former billionaire’s armor-plated Mercedes?

As with virtually every bankruptcy auction these days, there’s a one-word answer to that question — online.

Business Insider followed the auction of a Mercedes-Benz Maybach S650, kicking the tires in person and watching the virtual action as it sold online to its 115th bidder, for $63,000.

The sale shows just how easy it is for buyers to purchase — sight unseen — the cars, motorcycles, even the cast-off wall sconces and used vacuum cleaners of the nouveau poor. All that’s needed is an internet connection and the winning bid.

But behind the scenes, a small army of lawyers, bankruptcy judges, appraisers, and auctioneers labor to make it happen. It took four years of real-life effort before the virtual gavel fell on Thursday, and the Mercedes found its new owner.

Here is the journey of a billionaire’s luxury sedan — from a showroom in Manhattan, to a tow lot in New Jersey, and finally to the yard of a Connecticut auction house, where almost no one bothered to see the car in person before bidding tens of thousands of dollars to own it.

First, some history.

The Mercedes-Benz was once the shiny new chauffeured conveyance of Miles Guo, who declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2022.

Guo was arrested a year later and remains in jail pending his Manhattan sentencing for a $1.3 billion fraud and racketeering-conspiracy scheme.

Court records show that Guo bought the car new in 2018, for $192,000, at a Mercedes-Benz showroom just south of Lincoln Center in Manhattan. It was, relatively speaking, one of his economy cars. Federal prosecutors said Guo’s custom Bugatti Chiron, his costliest ride, was purchased for $4.4 million.

The four-door Benz was built for luxury.

“There’s a mini-bar back here,” auctioneer Mike Knudson said, giving Business Insider a tour of the car on Wednesday. The car was parked outside The Hamilton Group, the Connecticut auction and appraisal company he runs with his wife, Amy Maklari.

Knudson leaned into the back seat and popped the door on the empty fridge between the rear seats. “Two small bottles,” Knudson said, estimating its capacity. “Maybe a Coke, too.”

The Mercedes’ amenities also include a small jar that Knudson discovered only Wednesday, in the glove compartment, set inside a recessed holder called a “flacon.”

“What’s this?” he asked, pulling the jar out. The smear of amber-colored gum inside was scent for the Mercedes’ diffuser system, controllable through high, medium, and low settings on the dashboard computer.

“Aroma therapy,” Knudson joked, returning the jar, labeled “Agarwood,” to its holder.

The car was built for safety, too.

Guo paid extra to have a German company install armor plating and bulletproof glass throughout. “See how thick this glass is?” Knudson told Business Insider, lowering one of the windows.

Guo’s bankruptcy trustee has spent years demonstrating the true ownership of Guo’s cars, planes, and mansions, and linking these assets back to Guo.

The Mercedes, just one small piece of the bankruptcy puzzle, had been listed as an asset held by a Hong Kong-based shell company — in the name of Guo’s son and, briefly, his chauffeur.

After Guo’s arrest, the car wound up abandoned in a New Jersey tow lot. It had to be moved via flatbed to the Hamilton Group’s yard in Clinton, Connecticut, a half-hour east of New Haven.

It took Knudson another month or so to ready the car for auction. He needed to obtain a bond, replace the battery, and get an electronic key fob made by Mercedes-Benz specialists.

“That’s when I learned it’s pronounced “My-bach,” not “May-bach,” said Knudson, who has also auctioned furnishings and knick-knacks from Guo’s Manhattan penthouse and his fleet of high-end motorcycles — “one Ducati, two BMWs, and three Harleys,” Maklari said.

The bidding war

Wednesday was the only day during the ten-day auction that the public could drop by without an appointment and personally examine the Mercedes. Not a single person showed up, besides Business Insider.

Online the next day, though, the bidding for the car, which had just 21,000 miles on the odometer, was strong.

Twenty-four hours before the auction was to close, more than 80 bidders on BidSpotter.com had pushed the price up to $38,000.

In the last hour of bidding, interest accelerated. In the last five minutes, bidding climbed suddenly in $1,000 increments until it reached the winning bid of $63,000.

The sale price is in line with the Kelley Blue Book value, which sets the current resale value for a 2018 Mercedes-Benz Maybach S650 at $62,400 — not counting the custom armor plating and bullet-proof glass Guo had installed.

People feel safe bidding on something so expensive — without actually seeing it in person — because of the clarity of auction listings.

The Mercedes’ listing on BidSpotter included 49 photographs and a two-minute video. The clip shows Knudson popping the hood and trunk, and driving it around Hamilton Auction’s front lot.

Potential bidders could hear Knudson start and rev the car’s engine, and watch as his camera lingered on a small ding in the rear right bumper and a hair-thin, vertical crack in the windshield.

There are dozens of online auction platforms catering to bankruptcies, estate sales, and companies and individuals with something to sell.

Maklari ticked off a few names on Wednesday. AuctionNinja specializes in estates and furnishings. ProxiBid and BidSpotter deals in vehicles and heavy machinery. LiveAuctioneers handles collectibles and antiques.

For auctioneers, listing on these sites is an art.

Knudson said he had appraised the Mercedes very conservatively, at around $35,000, for the bankruptcy trustee. But for the ten-day auction’s launch, he had set the minimum bid at a strategically low-balled $20,000.

“It gets people engaged,” he explained.

There’s no risk to such lowballing, he said. “Most assets will find their fair-market value these days,” he said. “People have a lot of ways, with the internet, to do their research.”

The car’s new owner wished to remain anonymous. Whoever they are, they’ll need to pay a 15% fee to the auction company, and are responsible for their own transportation.

The sale proceeds will now go into the bankruptcy estate, where it will help pay off Guo’s many creditors.

It’s a drop in the bucket, given that Guo’s bankruptcy debts hover around half a billion dollars.

“One Mercedes-Benz won’t help anything,” said Kevin Tung, the Queens, New York, lawyer for nine China-based contractors who say Guo owes them a combined $100 million. “That’s small potatoes.”