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IAA runs online auctions that connect insurance companies selling damaged cars with buyers who fix or scrap them.
When a car gets wrecked, someone still has to deal with the metal. That someone is often IAA, Inc. The company takes in cars that insurers have written off after crashes, floods, or theft, stores them in big lots, and sells them through online auctions to dealers, rebuilders, and scrap yards. The insurance company gets a quick payout instead of a headache. The buyer gets a cheap car with problems. IAA gets a fee on both ends. That's basically the whole machine.
Think of it as the middleman at a giant garage sale for broken cars. IAA doesn't fix the cars and barely touches them. It just moves them from "insurance problem" to "someone else's project." The buyers pay IAA a fee, and the sellers pay IAA a fee too, usually a percentage of the sale price. The company also charges for towing, storage, and title work. Its customers are mostly large auto insurers like State Farm, Geico, and Progressive, who want damaged vehicles off their books fast and at the best price. In recent years, IAA pushed hard into digital auctions, meaning buyers bid from a phone instead of standing in a muddy lot. That shift made the business faster and more scalable. Revenue has been in the billions, driven partly by higher used-car prices and more vehicles being totaled.
The company is based near Chicago, though its lots are scattered across the country and in the UK. It went public in 2019 after being spun off from KAR Auction Services. In 2023, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers bought IAA in a big deal, blending it with Ritchie Bros.' existing auto auction business. That merger made the combined company a much larger player in the salvage and equipment auction world, putting it head-to-head with its main rival, Copart. The idea was simple: more scale means more buyers, better prices, and fatter fees. For a curious reader, the story is really about who controls the pipe between wrecked car and reborn car.
Saved answer · last researched 11 Oct 2026