A blind trade appraisal is a dealer's real offer on your car, put in writing before they know what you are buying from them or what you owe. The Broker Black asks for it that way on purpose: when the appraisal and the sale are decided separately, neither one can be used to hide the other.
A trade-in and a new car are two transactions. When a store does them together it can move money between them, and the total is the only number that stays honest. Paying more for your trade and less off the new car, or the reverse, lands in the same place while looking very different on paper.
A blind appraisal separates them. The store appraises your car against the wholesale market, the auction data, and its own lot, without knowing what it needs the number to be.
When you request a blind appraisal through The Broker Black, the store receives your car and nothing else.
Both are useful, and they answer different questions.
An appraisal is given on the car you described. A physical inspection can change it, and these are the usual reasons.
No. Requesting one through The Broker Black is complimentary, and you are under no obligation to accept it or to buy anything.
Most partner stores hold an appraisal for seven days or a set mileage, whichever comes first, subject to the car matching what you described. The store states its own window with the offer.
Yes. A blind appraisal can be taken as a straight cash sale. Partner stores buy cars they are not selling against, and you keep the money or apply it wherever you like.
Not when they appraise. Your payoff and lender stay with The Broker Black until you decide to move forward, so the number is set against the car and the market rather than against your loan.
That is normal and it is information. The valuation is a market range on cars like yours; the appraisal is one store's number on your car, shaped by what its lot needs, what it sees in the photos, and where the auction is that week. A second appraisal is the usual next step.