choosing an Auction Company live or online??

[picassomcp]

I decided to hang up my farming gig last winter and did not put in a crop this year. I sold most of my equipment over the Winter and early Spring by listing it on craigslist piece by piece. I am down to my older tractors that all have collector value, but could still be used on an active farm, which is exactly what I did with them. I farmed 200+ acres with these tractors, so even though they are old, they have seen recent use and are dependable. The tractors I still own are all International Farmalls, a 1456, 1256, 756 Diesel, and a 460 Diesel. The 1256 is all painted up and is a really sharp tractor. The others are in older paint, but a bit better than average. All have widefronts and good rubber front and back. All open station and have fenders. I also have accessories for these tractors such as wheel weights, rock boxes, rear dual tires. I also do have some hay equipment, a 644 New Holland round baler, a 499 New Holland haybine, several v-rakes, some nice car trailers and flatbed equipment trailers. All together, I would value everything at about $50,000. I am looking to sell all of this and am thinking about having an auction. Not sure a live auction will draw the best value out of this stuff, I'm thinking an online auction will get alot more exposure. I had a rep from K-bid (an online auction company) out today and really liked what he had to say. Once he left, I went to the K-bid.com website and looked at current and recently closed auctions. I wasn't impressed with things. They did not have a lot for farm equipment there, what they did have sold for bargain prices. I'm thinking I could do better elsewhere.

Any thoughts or recommendations on a route to sell equipment like this? I'm thinking with equipment like this, a competitive atmosphere such as an auction would be a good thing for me the seller. I'd love to hear others thoughts on this though.

 

[Hobo,NC]

I can not afford to buy tractor's on an "On Line auction" Live either as far as that goes...

On Line has became so popular I speck I would give it a shot...

 

[craigco]

Have had several friends sell with big iron. Most things go at a decent price.

 

[johnofnewhaven]

You can have both live and online at the same time! Look for an auction company that offers that. Live auction is broadcast live simultaneously on the internet. Those are the auction that get the best results because you have both and get maximum coverage. Honestly you might not have enough equipment to have your own auction and have a good draw. Find an auction taking consignment that offers live and internet bidding at the same time. Yes it is a little inconvenient to move everything but if close well worth it. Or another option have the auction at your place and let the auction company take consignment. Some auction companies will give you a cut of the consignment commission. Just food for thought.

 

[Leroy]

On line would never even know you were having an auction and I would never consider one even if I did find out about it. If I buy anything at auction I want to be able to be looking atwhat I am bidding on.

 

[44 massey]

I have never sold anything on Big Iron but have talked to many who have and majority were very pleased!!!! I do know that it is sold for whatever it brings, no reserves!!! Might be worth checking into, everything is sold where is as is if I?m not mistaken!!!!

 

[Kansasredneck]

I deal plenty with on line. Major point, I can go at a time convenient for me to view the machine, and I can call the seller with questions and have a conversation with them about their disbursement. The live auctions are nice informal gatherings, but trying to get a one on one with the seller is impossible.

 

[Kansasredneck]

Go to the on line auction site and look at previous sales. Find similar items to what you have, then compare apples to apples. A friend of mine watches several on line auctions. Some times he buys something cheap at on site, then flips it to another knowing that they have a better track record with that line of merchandise.
Same is true of the live auctioneers, different folks tend to favor different ones. Remember, you are in search of the best buyer for your pride and joy.

 

[JD Seller]

I will second getting a good auctioneer that does a combined auction, Live with online bidding. You get the best of both worlds that way. Your big items, IH 1456 and IH 1256, are quite collectable at the moment. So an internet bid would allow future away bidders to bid. I think on High dollar pieces that works well for the seller. Now you smaller items, weights, accessories, etc., will sell much better live. Usually these type of this do not bring much with just an online bidding.

I am telling you this from buying on both types of auctions as a buyer. I pickup a lot of bargains on smaller stuff in online auctions.

One key to any auction is good advertising. It costs money BUT one buyer can bid up one item enough to pay for all of your advertising. Poor advertising many times results in a poor auction.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Consign the smaller items like the rakes and such. The weights will sell by advertisement. Then sell the tractors by advertisement. those big 56 series are in demand by collectors. Not many 14 or 12 's were made and after 40 years even fewer of them still around. I need to look at something newer with more hydraulic capacity or I would like to aquire one of those 2 models though would prefer the 14. Only due to shear numbers made.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

IMHO, tractors with any sort of collectability will do best with as wide of an audience as possible.

Craigslist is not the place for them. It's local, and a garage sale dumping ground for unwanted stuff, not getting premium prices for a collectable tractor.

Your main concern here is PROMOTION. How will the auctioneer promote the auction? Local PennySaver? No. They need to at least hit the regional ag publications, and do it more than a week in advance. Some if this will depend on the "package" you negotiate with the auctioneer. More promotion MAY mean higher prices but it also means a higher percentage for the auctioneer, so it may blow up in your face.

If you are looking at an auctioneer that does a simulcast live and online bidding deal, look at how they do it. Some of them are complete hacks, and others make it seem like you're really there. I personally like the Proxibid system best, and the Hibid system the least from an end user perspective.

Kick this K-Bid place to the curb. If I haven't heard of it, nobody has, and quite frankly if you went with them you'd probably be better off putting the tractors next to the road with the keys in the igintion, fuel in the tank, charged batteries, and "FREE" signs on each one.

 

[tlock0331]

Heres a few perspectives, one site i watch is purplewave. they have over 200,000 active bidders, they will either run 3% commission or 100 bucks per item you list. However, buyer will pay 10%

Bigiron i think has around 150,000 bidders, last i knew their commission was based on total sales, higher sales, lower commission. there is no buyers fee.

They both have a very wide area they are active in. my bidder numbers are very low on both haha

To me most auctioneers who do both internet and live auctions are only known to the few that follow them, i dont see the exposure being any better than a live only auction. Since it seems like you are only selling a few tractors, a couple haying equipment items, and a few trailers, i would go purplewave or bigiron. since you mentioned k-bid, then i assume you are up around MN or ND, and i see a lot of equipment listed from those areas on both sites i listed, i dont think you would get hurt at all on it.

let us know what you do, who knows, i may bid on a trailer or two, give me an excuse to road trip up there haha

 

[rockyridgefarm]

(quoted from post at 05:39:42 06/15/18) IMHO, tractors with any sort of collectability will do best with as wide of an audience as possible.

Craigslist is not the place for them. It's local, and a garage sale dumping ground for unwanted stuff, not getting premium prices for a collectable tractor.

Your main concern here is PROMOTION. How will the auctioneer promote the auction? Local PennySaver? No. They need to at least hit the regional ag publications, and do it more than a week in advance. Some if this will depend on the "package" you negotiate with the auctioneer. More promotion MAY mean higher prices but it also means a higher percentage for the auctioneer, so it may blow up in your face.

If you are looking at an auctioneer that does a simulcast live and online bidding deal, look at how they do it. Some of them are complete hacks, and others make it seem like you're really there. I personally like the Proxibid system best, and the Hibid system the least from an end user perspective.

Kick this K-Bid place to the curb. If I haven't heard of it, nobody has, and quite frankly if you went with them you'd probably be better off putting the tractors next to the road with the keys in the igintion, fuel in the tank, charged batteries, and "FREE" signs on each one.

BarnyardEngineering obviously never put forth the effort to go on K-bid. I'd never heard of them either, but it looks like they're pretty popular in Minnesota. They've got auctions closing daily, but it looks like they seldom get farm equipment. I clicked on "closed auctions", scrolled back 4 pages, and didn't see a lot of ag stuff. There was a 656 that "needs fuel pump, but runs great" that sold for $1975 on May 16th. Non-farm stuff seems to sell well enough.

I'd find out their terms - how much they're gonna charge you (listing fee, percent of sale fee, processing fee, ALL fees), how much they charge the bidders, how much they promote their auctions, etc. If they have a lot of registered bidders in Minnesota, and that's where you are, they might be just as good as any national site. But I would also look into other auction sites as well. Bigiron is pretty popular, purplewave might be worth looking into, maybe another local auction site would be best, just pay attention to fees.

Anybody who refuses to bid on online auctions are only hurting themselves anymore. On site auctions are rapidly becoming obsolete. I wouldn't have said that 10 years ago, but I am saying it now.

 

[JMS/.MN]

Check with auctioneers in your area to see what they have coming up, then consider adding to that person"s sale under a separate listing. Could be live or online. Both may benefit as there is more for the buyers to pick from. You would have to move your equipment to the other"s site. Advertising is key. My impression of K-bid is that their fees are high and they don"t advertise much.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

They might be popular in Minnesota, for selling knick knacks and tchochkes, but I would not consider "didn't see a lot of ag stuff" or the results of that 656 auction as reason to give them a chance.

 

[WGM]

Does your opinion also apply to people who refuse to participate in auctions with buyer's premiums?

 

[JimEvans]

I have decided that the last place you want to go cheap is with your auctioneer.