Let's be honest - IAAI is like everything else in life - you get out of it what you bring to the game. No free lunch. But if you know cars and what's what, it's a blast. I'm doing nothing now so I'll go into how to work it and you can figure out if you have the knowledge/skill/time/etc. to make it work. It's an auction, not a used-car lot so you can't honestly think it's a cheap way to get a daily driver when you roll off the lot.
I had extra time during Covid and I bought two cars from them; could have bought more and should have. As to fees, I just had a spread sheet and knew what my out-the-door would be before I bid. No secret there. I went and looked and kicked tires, ruled things out. On the two I actually bought, I didn't even bother with that - bought sight unseen as I could tell they would be worth it. Regarding fees, they DO actually have some decent over head so it's not all a scam. They are also very transparent. In my state, they also save you a lot of hassle if you are going to title it; they'll do all the title, registration, and paperwork and give you a 45 day temp permit for nothing more than basic DMV fees with no mark-up. This is a big hassle and time saver and a nice service for absolutely free. Their search engine has filters and you can save searches; you can just run them once and not waste a lot of time (the makes you want, miles you want, year range, title condition, reason for loss, etc.). You have to put a little time in to learn it, but it works.
One car I got was $1250, all titled and registered (Volvo XC70). I wrenched on it for a little bit and decided I didn't want to keep it, nice runner but not as cosmetically perfect as I could live with, and I hated the color. I put a few hundred into parts and time into tuning and cleaning, and sold it for about $5k; it was certainly worth my time. I was totally transparent on selling it, nothing hidden and all parties were very happy; the first people to look at it took it and it was no hassle. There were A LOT more cars I could have done the same with if I wanted to do that with my time; mainly I only wanted some deals for myself or family, not to flip. If I wanted to flip, I could make several grand a month with it easy for not that much time (but then I would need a dealer license at that volume). In fact looking at the IAAI auction site regularly, I saw cars routinely in the local CL a few weeks later for about 3x the auction price, and selling.
The one below was I think less than $1k tax/titled and it is a real keeper. I love it; I've put some time and good parts in it and it's a joy; I've had it 18 months now. It hums like a turbo-jet andI tossed it over a steep Cascade Range mountain today at about 80 and really enjoyed it.
BTW, if you buy at least one car from them in a year, it appears they will extend your membership another year. My $200/year became $100 when they just gave me a free year afterwards when I did not automatically renew.
I have well-less than $2k in this car and it would fetch $8k on the correct enthusiast websites; I'm not selling. Actually I have a Mitsu 16t turbo upgrade on the shelf for it, intake pipe, and a tuner to tweak it to 300hp/300 ft/lbs which I plan on all getting done before this winter - I'll just enjoy this car.
(Sorry the photo is a bit dark)
The engine bay cleaned up nicely. A lot of car for $1k out the door and on the road. I added the strut brace and a few tweaks and paint.
Volvo still has the original "engine grate" available and for pennies on the dollar from when new. It makes a fabulous sub-frame brace and the thing, for an XC, corners like a go-cart with very little roll. (I painted it "Swedish Racing Green" as it came galvanized).
Took a little work on the interior but it's very nice. This is an IAAI auction car, mind you.
It came with the ugly original 15" wheels but with brand-new Michelin Defender tires. I sold those for $500 (1/2 the price of the car) and then got a set of sexier 16" Ford wheels w/brand new Conti ProContact tires for $200. So the net cost of the car dropped a lot - to about $650 fully taxed/titled- with that simple trade. I was so pleased, I refinished the calipers and added stainless lines.
So summary, I'm a huge IAAI fan and I can go find a car to do this with pretty much each week if I want at the local IAAI auction. I had to do a bunch of little things to make it 100% like a radiator/heater core, fix some loose interior hardware/rattles, etc. but nothing you shouldn't expect to do on an auction car.