Equipment auctions

[RedMF40]

As far as going to pick up and deciding you don’t want it, unless yours was the only bid there was someone else who also wanted it and they may be on site if they were bidding live. They may buy it from you. I’ve seen that happen.

 

[scootergmc]

I can tell some of you only attend estate or farm auctions, because there are plenty of equipment auctions around here with great equipment. Just because something is consigned at an auction doesn't mean it's junk. Buyer beware for sure, but due diligence can be your best friend for getting a deal.

 

[johnofnewhaven]

I feel this way, an auction is where people get rid of unwanted items they couldn't sell themselves either because it was junk or they didn't want to bother with it. My opinion is most of it is junk.

Phill that probably is true of your Saturday night junk auction house/barn but there are many many types of auctions that have quality items. Just to mention a few... Court ordered bankruptcy/liquidation auctions, retirement auctions for farms or construction companies, government (GSA) auctions and other auctions. Your statement just lumped all auctions into one category so I totally disagree.

 

[moresmoke]

Phill that probably is true of your Saturday night junk auction house/barn but there are many many types of auctions that have quality items. Just to mention a few... Court ordered bankruptcy/liquidation auctions, retirement auctions for farms or construction companies, government (GSA) auctions and other auctions. Your statement just lumped all auctions into one category so I totally disagree.

In the modern farm equipment world, with the market downturn auctions have lost some interest for sellers, but just a couple years ago it was the best way to get top dollar regardless of condition. Auction prices were outpacing dealer tradein values by quite a bit due to demand for used equipment.

Also, as far as I know, any of the legitimate online bidding platforms do not show the auctioneer your max proxy bid. He can only see the current high bid. As someone else mentioned, during the simulcast auctions the auctioneer usually has someone next to them handling the internet bids and calling them.

I have had a local auctioneer tell me to my face that he bid up an item to the max amount of my pre bid. Last time I’ll do that.

 

[paul]

Simulcast actions have been pretty popular here.

The trend is on line only, but the combined has hung on for a good bit yet.

It works pretty good. They sell the junk for a while, then go to the big items with on line bidding also. They might keep a second ring on the small junk, or finish it up after the big items.

They generally wait to hear from any on line bidders before saying ‘sold’ but you don’t want to sit on your keyboard and jump in with one bud at the end. They will give you a chance if you bid once already.

I’m not sure I exactly understand the original question, so I’m not sure what to answer! Ha.

I really don’t like on line auctions, I’m too old; I want to go kick some tires, have a coffee, hear some farmer gossip around me, and decide on a piece while I’m physically looking at it.

I understand having a simulcast auction to try to get good money for your good high dollar items. That’s cool. The on line only, I just can’t get excited about them. Need to visit far away to inspect, typically seems a 3 hour inspection window, then if you bid and win you have to travel there again to get it. Waste of time. Pictures some outfits try to represent an item, some take pics from ‘the pretty side’ of things you just don’t know what you are getting.

No socializing, no idea what you are buying, or extra wasted trips. Online only is pretty much the end of auctions for fellas like me.

Paul

Edit:

If you won the bid you bought it, you will be expected to pay for it or encouraged to do so legally. If it doesn’t meet your expectations after you bid on it tough, it was up to you to inspect before you bid on it. That’s been a pretty hard line auction term for ever. No matter how difficult it would be to inspect it, that’s still your obligation as a buyer. Only way you could get out of paying for it is if the auctioneer misrepresented it, and their fine print and chatter during an auction is grey enough you likely won’t win out on that either.

Estate and retirement auctions you could get a good piece of equipment in the past at those auctions.

Consignment auctions are much more of a gamble. Simple machinery you can look over easy enough. Tractors and combines and more complicated stuff, well yes there is a bigger chance of someone bringing in a piece that has hidden problems.

Craigs list, Faceplant’s marketplace, and the online only auctions have really changed things from what they used to be. Nothing really ever stays the same.