Iron Planet

Just curious what every one thinks of Iron planet. In the market to add some equipment and not finding much locally of enterest. Thompson Cat seems about 25% higher or more than Stowers or Yancey from a few hours away. :beatsme

I like that they have someone inspect the equipment, but are the inspections acurate enough to justify forking out the funds for something you haven't seen yourself? Are the oil samples reports fairly acurate? Also is it a biding war the last few minutes or so?

Been looking on machinerytrader as well, but plumb full of brokers trying to sell the same thing, and pics of equipment taken on 07, 08, early 09 for sale now. Personally I'd like to see pics within a week or two of the item being posted not how it looked when they bought it a few years ago ( and that's just the ones with date stamps on the pics ).

I think the buyer gets a fair evaluation of the machine, you have to compete with international bidding that may run the prices higher than the local market. It would be hard for me to buy sight unseen, people do it all the time. I watch their auctions occasionally and have a good opinion about their business, have never purchased though. An auction is an auction, I'm sure there have been alot of good buys and some not so good.

I think the iron planet inspections are very accurate. I have been an inspector for them for quite a while. The inspections are very, very thorough. The inspection info along with the photos that the inspectors gather should give the buyer a very detailed report of the condition of the machine. I have a friend that has inspected around a thousand machines and has only had one person contest what his report said. With only one report contested of around 1000 machines, I would consider Iron Planet to be around 99% accurate. The inspections go into greater detail than an individual buyer would go into if he was buying it outright. An inspector having his info contested can cost thousands of dollars. Needless to say, the inspections have to be very accurate.

I have personally witnessed an inspection by a Iron Planet person, i can say they are very thorough. Every thing is checked, everything is gone over. Of course i dont think any of them are real operators so they dont go out and actually run the machine for a few hours, but they check all the hydraulics, make sure the machine goes backward, forward turns. Everything works accordingly and correctly. I was quite impressed with how well they checked over the machine to be honest. I wouldn't hesitate to by something off of Iron planet.

Thanks for the replies so far. I did some searching on the forum and found one post that had some complaints on an auction, but it wasn't acually against Iron Planet. And it apeared Iron planet stood behind the auction fairly well as he was happy with the outcome. So that made me a little more comfortable with the idea.

As far a Machinery Trader I've found a few deals of enterest out west, but with all the brokering and old pics I find it hard to justify a day or two going out to look.

With work as it is everywhere almost can't justify ordering a machine speced the way I'd like. I'm still in the upstart stages in most aspects even after going on three years out on my own in this economic down turn. The plan is to continue to grow slowly for better positioning when things get better. It's hard to compete with the big boys right now in this area as I have to pay retail for my fuel and maintance. Wost case when it all said and done I'll maybe atleast have a bunch of big boy toys, lol.

telehandlers were going for 10-15% of their new price today being 5-6 years old.

Speedpup said:

telehandlers were going for 10-15% of their new price today being 5-6 years old.

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Yeah, I was watching that. A 2005 Gradall 534D9 - 45 went for $16.5K, I think it had 1800 hours. Great for buying, very bad day for selling. If I had anything going on, I would have put a bid in on that one.

i've purchased 5 items from ironplanet so far, with great success so far.

No worries, go ahead and give it a whirl.

Just my 2 cents, I have bought from them with absoluty no problem! I have heard first hand that they stand behind the Iron Clad policy. Call up and talk to Joe, he went the extra mile for me more than once and seems to be happy to help any way he can. Thanks Steve

CM1995 said:

Great for buying, very bad day for selling.

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Selling anything these days is going to be bad, but in comparison, they actually hold their own compared to some of the bigger auction companies. I've seen comparable machines go for much more on Ironplanet than at our local Ritchie Bros auctions (could be a California thing though ointhead). We've sold a few things through Ironplanet in the past and have been very happy with them. They do a very thorough, unbiased inspection so bid with confidence.

First off, I'm a big fan of Ironplanet and have bought a few machines in their auction and also sold a couple.

As far as equipment inspectors, the majority of the inspectors are independent contractors - most do not work directly for Ironplanet. There can be a variety in the quality level of the inspections. Ironplanet judges these inspectors based on the number of disputes that get filed on the machines that each respective inspector reviews. If they have enough disputes, or there is something major missed, Ironplanet will no longer use that inspector.

They do offer an "Ironclad Assurance" program and they do stand by their inspections. Make sure you are aware of their fine print. You will be subject to a $500 deductible, and they will only pay on a percentage of use for repairs. All in all it's pretty fair, but you should be aware of their policies. You can actually go to the extent of making a claim to return the machine, but you are still out the $500 deductible.

All that said, in general they are very accurate with their inspections and I wouldn't hesitate to buy another machine on the site. They are also very helpful in trying to resolve any disputes you have if the inspection was materially inaccurate. But, like anything else on-line, who actually reads every last bit of the "terms and conditions" that you acknowledge when you sign up? It is nice to know what actually happens if you file a dispute.

I have bought from Iron Planet and was satisfied with my purchase. However I would not buy sight unseen any item that did not have their Iron Clad Assurance. As far as the oil sample reports, my cat dealer said it is all relavent. The sample may help, or it may not give you enough information.

I know this is an old old thread but is everybody still pretty happy with Iron Planet? Any horror stories? Thanks.

I purchased on iron planet a skytrak 6000m. The inspection report gave it a 3 out of 4 stars and nothing listed wrong with the engine
I gave $8,800. for the skytrak. When the carrier I hired showed up in Chamberburg PA he could not load it because one of the wheels was
mounted backwards and caused it to stick out 10" past trailer rub rail. He waited 28 hours for a tire shop (at my expesnse) to come swap it around.
It delivered on 8 22 2105 to my facility in Arkansas. WHen it got here, before I unloaded it I could see the flywheel housing was busted all in pcs.
the engine was barely supported at at. SO to fix this the engine will need to be pulled and a new flywheel housing installed. I emailed pictures, complaints and told iron
planet I just wanted it fixed. I would not have bid on this If I had know. The said even though they have a iron clad assurance, that I was on my own and it didn't really cover
missed things like that. these people (MOD EDIT) I would not trust anything they say or do.
They will not back it up. I have filed a BBB complaint and I guess Im on my own fixing these unknown problems.
Nathan

Welcome to the Forums Nathan Martin.

I edited the individuals names from your post as HEF is not the judge nor the jury for disputes and we stay neutral on issues such as this, that we obviously know nothing about.

Best regards in getting this sorted out.

I had some limited experience with IP inspecting equipment that the company I worked for sold through them. I don't think any of ours were covered by their Iron Clad warranty. They did look them over close most or the time and took lots of pictures. The only operation they did was to start them if they would run and make sure things moved as they should. No warm up or checking to see if they would lift rated loads and any traveling was done a very low speeds. I guess I would say you need to read the descriptions very close as much of what they write is very open to the actual condition.

Probably should not mention this, but we had a Cat loader that had a broken pinion shaft on the rear diff. No drive-shaft connected from the transmission to the rear axle! Inspector never looked under the rear of machine and only ran it enough to say it moved forwards and backwards steered right and left and stopped. It sold and was shipped out as it was. Not sure I would want to be the guy who bought it if he thought he was going to start loading haul trucks the day it was delivered.

Another time the company sold a Terex R-35B. That haul truck was not that bad of condition, the 12V-71 Detroit did need work but would run if a little low on power and smoking a bit. Tried to convince company to let me rebuild it more than once. Front A-arm suspension was near perfect! As this was the last one of these we had when it sold I filled the cab with all the odds and ends of spare parts and service manuals including service records. I figured the new owner could make use of them. I was not around when the trucker came to load it. After getting it on the truck I was told they measured the height. It was a few inches too high. The next thing made me sick when I heard what the trucker did. He borrowed a torch from the shop and proceeded to hack of parts of the front end to get the load low enough for the permit. My boss asked him why he did that and was told they only wanted the transmission so the rest of the truck was going to the scrap anyhow!

I've bought from Iron Planet and have not had any major problems. I believe you have to be experienced at dealing with auctions and the shenanigans that go with them. Not mentioning other outfits. I always research what I buy, prefer a live auction where I can inspect the equipment myself. One way or another they always get you in the end.

CD