online bidding

[xr4ticlone]

The 500 hour Komatsu you mention above , did the machines you found have only 500 hours as well? Maybe it still had warranty? What's a brand new one cost? Obviously there were at least a couple people interested in it and the buyer thought he got a good deal or he wouldn't have bought it.

I don't know but it sounds like maybe you've lost sales because customers have found something to suit them at an RB auction. If not it sure seems like you have a bias against Ritchie Bros but not sure what it's based on. Are they perfect no but who is. It's like people knocking the Cat high track machines, sales numbers don't lie.

Komatsu's were all 500+/- hours. None had warranty, at least none noted. New they'd be $150k-$170k.

I don't hate RB. And yes, I have customers that buy there...heck I buy there FOR customers.

My point is that too many people think that RB is a wholesale price and a great buy that they should be able to sell the machine for more than the RB price.
There is also an opinion that RB inspects or protects buyers by limiting the machines they will auction off. That is not the case either.

I don't care what anyone does as long as it's an INFORMED decision. Do some shopping. KNOW what a good buy is for a machine BEFORE you go to auction. If you don't know enough about a machine to inspect it...pay someone to inspect it for you.

RB might well be the best place to find what you're looking for...or it may NOT be the best place. Do your homework.

 

[Welder Dave]

RB is neither wholesale or retail, it's market price at that time and place. They give you ample opportunity to inspect machines and there are good deals and no so good deals. Just because a buyer, whether an individual or dealer, thinks they got a good deal and can make a profit on their purchase has nothing to do with the auction company. RB doesn't tell people what to bid and you can't blame them if you don't make a profit reselling your purchase. When you can blame the auction company is if they (knowingly) misrepresent the machine or have their own people running the price up. RB has so many lots to sell I don't think they would want to risk their reputation. They make hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

Blaming RB or saying their prices are too high is like saying Cat's pricing is too high. Many customers are glad to pay more for Cat for several reasons and some customers just figure Cat is too high and will buy something else. As far as older machines and parts, Cat is a higher price but they have the best parts support for older machines. I don't think any other manufacturer comes close. RB is the biggest auction company in the world for a reason.

 

[Crummy]

A couple years ago I watched the sister Kenworth to the one I have (+1 VIN, there were 5 same spec built for the customer) sell at the local RB in way worse condition than mine & it went for a ridiculous high price! I'd take that much in .0001 second! I'm sure the seller was elated and maybe the buyer thought they got a rare gem. Mine's going up for sale next month and although I'd like to get that number even with the new regs helping the price I'll be starting lower than that one sold for.

 

[Welder Dave]

Some people are stupid at auctions but it's not the auctions fault. Go to a farm auction if you really want to see the definition of stupid. Auctioneer will spend 5 minutes getting idiots to bid $10 for stuff that's not worth $.50.

 

[DMiller]

Have been to a few of those. 1987 GM C70 tag axle grain truck, 366 engine 5 and 2 with the wiring hosed up, typical bird dropping paint job, needed lots of work, tires, probably brakes went for $6k, old disc needing plates and bearings over $4k while good household stuff kitchen stuff made less than $.10 to a dollar of what I could have spent and yet old but not antique stuff was selling for twice what Wally World gets for it.

Made two bids on a tracked skid loader(Komatsu), possibly 12-14000# machine, went for twice what I considered worth $36k. 955H needing rails, shoes, basically full UC, lots of engine work and would not start went for $16k, proud new owner got himself a Cat for under $20k was his comment.

 

[Jchresto]

My thoughts exactly, how can a machine sell on line then a few months later appear on the same auction site again, notice that the serial numbers are some times not listed!!!!! Notice this happening on Auction times, to me very questionable.

I just bought a Cat D3C that started out listed locally on Craigslist only, then it went up for sale on Auction Time and was no longer listed on Craigslist. I also found it listed on Equipment Trader at the same time for a fixed price above what was originally listed on Craigslist. I cant tell you how many shady listings on Craigslist I came across, postings in my neighborhood with the equipment actually located in another state with the seller asking for my email address and or phone number. Whats that scam stuff about? Then the same machine is listed in another state or city on Craigslist with a contact number, they then text an email address with a long dissertation on how to buy the machine through Ebay and PayPal telling me this is how you get protected etc.... Man it really made me question the entire auction thing all together. If it was not for the fact I looked the machine over personally and had several friends check it out also, there is no way I would have bought it. Funny you mention it went for my max proxy bid price to boot at the last second of the auction...... The entire auction sales industry just doesn't pass the sniff test in my opinion. But they do have an unbelievable selection of machines to look at!

 

[DMiller]

Will more than likely not ever be able to prove or determine if someone isn't shill packing the bid boxes, have to keep values up or the market tanks with all the old iron quantity available out there. I tried to bid a couple of units some years back, tried to buy on lowball offers to CL ads to no avail as they all base price against given auction results pricing. I wonder how many over priced bids are actually dealer or manufacturer where the machines just 'disappear'(scrapped) when bought to keep those prices up on used machines on their own lots.

 

[John C.]

Dealers will bid up items to protect their own stock. They generally know where any item should sell and bid so as not to add another turkey to their own used equipment fleet. The internet bidding is the item I have been seeing lately that seems to bring an odor to the auction process. The audience in attendance bids fast and furious for a minute or two but things slow down and all of a sudden the internet comes on line? Just makes me and plenty of other people start to wonder.

 

[catwelder]

maybe someone new should start a new way of doing this and do it the right way and don't make it shady

 

[xr4ticlone]

maybe someone new should start a new way of doing this and do it the right way and don't make it shady

You have a CPA.
You have a financial adviser.
You have a mechanic you trust.

It's why you should have an equipment guy (preferably independent) that helps advise / find your equipment. Someone that does this every day. That knows the good and bad of different tractors. Someone with industry knowledge and contacts.

I don't say this because it's what I do...I say it because I see what a lot of people do without that guy.

 

[John C.]

The biggest reason is because they don't want to pay for it. The second biggest reason is because they think they know more about that we do. The third biggest reason is because they don't know what they don't know.

 

[xr4ticlone]

The biggest reason is because they don't want to pay for it. The second biggest reason is because they think they know more about that we do. The third biggest reason is because they don't know what they don't know.

Yep...had a customer bought a Cat CTL the other day....turns out it's got 1000 more hours on it than what they told him. It seemed like a great deal...and of course it was a $2000 truck ride away from here. Came from a Cat dealer died 30 minutes after he used it and won't move. I told him at the time "When was the last time a Cat dealer gave away a Cat?" Turns out that pattern held.

 

[RjMaan]

No. I do not have any experience of online bidding. There will be a lot of bidder for the thing placed on bidding.