rb auction

[trekkar]

Anyone going to this auction next tuesday in MD? From what I can tell buying anything over 30k is going to cost you a 1300 fee and then I'm assuming tax. I used there online shipping estimate and it said around 1500 for a 18klb excavator from MD to CT. Which I would be fine with. Does that seem like the going rate? When can you start looking over the equipment? I'm not sure if I will be able to make it so I may have to try online bidding. If I can and anyone that knows what to look for and wants to give a general inspection I'd pay them some money just PM me.

 

[John Canfield]

I’ve bought three pieces of equipment from Iron Planet online auctions, Richie Brothers bought them a while ago. Buying online at an IP auction is easy but I have no idea about an in-person Ritchie auction. You will have to pay sales tax unless you are exempt and you will pay a buyers fee.

I paid about $2200 to ship a 20,000 pound dozer from Tennessee to central Texas- this was about 8 years ago. I can give you the name of the freight broker I used when I bought my boom lift a few months ago at an IP auction. He did a good job for me and kept me informed. Disclaimer- I have absolutely zero ties to this guy, I chose him from a list of several brokers that bid on my freight job.

 

[DIYDAVE]

Might could go fer a looksee, if you want. Never sent a PM, here, Is it the start a conversation icon, on the member's page?

 

[old-iron-habit]

Might could go fer a looksee, if you want. Never sent a PM, here, Is it the start a conversation icon, on the member's page?

I thing so.

 

[tbone1471]

I usually go down on saturday or sunday the weekend before the sale. Typically the items at this sale go for a premium as do the ones at the last sale of the year. 1500 seems cheap to ship that but most of what we move is oversize so i may be off.

 

[Welder Dave]

Don't buy sight unseen. RB lets you look stuff over and see how it runs for several days before the auction.

 

[trekkar]

Thanks all for the info, that 1500 for shipping does seem to be cheap. But seeing the used market in my area even if I paid double that and tax I'll probably be better off. That would work out great if I could go down Sat or Sun before and then just bid online on tuesday.

 

[check]

I've found their shipping estimates are way lower than what it actually costs. The only items I've bought from them sight unseen is new items like skid steer attachments and rock screens. I bought my skid steer and excavator from them.

 

[xr4ticlone]

As a 'wholesaler' in the industry I can tell you that RB is pretty much retail right now unless you're talking dealerships with financing (they're getting better prices due to aggressive financing, RPO options, and extended warranties).

For the love of Pete, look around for what you want to buy PRIOR to going to the auction. You people (end users) are giving us all headaches anymore.
: )

It's not only damn near impossible to tell what something will bring, but the prices are irrational as well.
Just one example from the last Houston sale...WTF are you paying $45000 for a machine with 10k MORE hours than one that just sold for $70K?

I saw machines bring more than lower hour, newer, machines listed for sale as well.

My biggest knock on RB is that 5ft forward and 5ft backwards doesn't give you any idea of the condition of a machine. And it doesn't take much to drop $10, $20, or even $40k on repairs for a lot of this stuff.

That said, there are some buys to be had. Just do your homework, check out everything you're going to bid on before auction, and set your price limit up front and stick to it.

 

[catman13]

I see it all of the time at auctions people buy sight unseen ( out of state ) , and they paid full market value, this is some of machines, these are cat because I went to look at them, seen all brands
d5hxl = bad trans and steering
d3c = bad left steering
299c = bad trans

 

[Birken Vogt]

I saw it myself the last auction I attended. It was raining cats and dogs but I went out in the yard anyway. I was there to buy gensets which have a more computer-like auction format than the machines they run over the ramp. Anyway I was seeing them sell for 50% of new price and some of them had wires and junk hanging out of them like the previous owners had tried to fix them and given up and taken them to the auction. Made me wish I was selling and not buying. Went home empty that day, no way I was paying that much for a pig in a poke.

 

[RZucker]

Regarding any auction machines, I have a 5 minute rule... if I don't feel good after a 5 minute walk around, I keep walking. I think that has saved me quite a few headaches.

 

[John C.]

I've never understood the logic of an auction for people in business. The stuff is there because the owner no longer wants it. There is no recourse after you buy it. You have to pay full price before you can pick it up. In most cases the gavel price has a buyer's premium attached to it. No one verifies hour meter or odometer readings. You are supposed to compete for the assets with people who don't know which end is forward. No retail company can generate such mass stupidity.

 

[check]

I've never understood the logic of an auction for people in business. The stuff is there because the owner no longer wants it. There is no recourse after you buy it. You have to pay full price before you can pick it up. In most cases the gavel price has a buyer's premium attached to it. No one verifies hour meter or odometer readings. You are supposed to compete for the assets with people who don't know which end is forward. No retail company can generate such mass stupidity.

Maybe you have had better luck dealing with salesmen and retailers than I have. Personally, based on my own experiences, I think it's plain stupid to trust or believe salesmen. They always tell me what they think I want to hear before I buy, then after the sale it's tough luck. I don't have the means to verify hour meter/odometer readings on used dealer equipment and have been lied to several times about the same.
Anything new is DEF and anything used is buyer beware and the owner no longer wants it, no matter who sells, at least to me, as I don't have the deep pockets to develop a trusting relationship with a dealer.
The buyers premium is always known before bidding.
I agree there are lots of idiotic eager bidders, but I choose not to be one of them and have left a few auctions disgusted. I decide on max price before bidding.
You buy from a dealer, the salesman salary is added to the sales price, as is all the other overhead they have.
The kind of iron I buy, which is used on my own property and not for a living, is purchased at less than 20% of new (with the exception of attachments). Auctions and private sellers are usually the only ones who have iron in that range.
Although I despise auctioneers as much as dealers, I will likely continue to make most of my purchases there.

 

[John C.]

It's plain to see you are a knowledgeable buyer. How many times have you missed out on a possible decent machine for a decent price by a gullible rube that doesn't know what he is looking at? At least you have the option of negotiating price with a dealer. As far as dealers go, there are good and bad just like there are good and bad auctioneers. You can't trust either sales vehicle. Just remember the auctioneer has nothing in the game except a commission. Most know little or nothing about the machine except from the view on the ground. Most of the time a dealer has their own money tied up and a reputation to maintain. Here is a tip for negotiating with dealers, don't take no from someone who isn't allowed to say yes.

 

[check]

Good points, John. If you don't trust you have less chance of being rooked no matter who you buy from. I have met quite a few smart people who were dumb as a stump when it came to buying or selling stuff....too trusting. Usually they made lots of money by other methods.
A guy who wants to own lots of older, high hour equipment and not have a fortune tied up in them needs to develop those skills first.

 

[56wrench]

its like an old guy I know advised me- at an rb auction, bid on it like its a piece of junk; if it is, you only paid junk price; if its good, that's a bonus

 

[John C.]

In my opinion the key to good purchasing practice is doing your home work up front and knowing what you are looking at and how much you would have to pay for it in each type of market. The hope about auctions used to be that good deals could be had because assets were being auctioned off because they were no longer needed. In the last fifteen years I've seen it change to be a dumping ground for problem iron. Let the buyer beware.

 

[DIYDAVE]

I seldom go to consignment or thievery fee sales. Now Estate auctions are a different animal, you know the owner ain't gonna be there to bid agin you. Sometimes relatives will bid you up, but by and large, the family just wants the ca$h. if there are antiques, them women bidders just gotta spend their last cent. JMHO!

 

[Welder Dave]

You have to be smart about it but there can be great deals at auctions. The RB auction in Nisku is their largest volume site in N. America. I've seen brand new machines with full factory warranty lined up. I think it was last year or the year before they had their biggest sale ever, 5 days. They had some brand new unused 2015 tandem front, tri-axle picker trucks that had to worth well over 1 mil each. To assume everything at an auction is there because it's junk or has major problems is wrong. The better machines will have maintainence records available and they will tell you who the seller is. Way back in 1985, I bought a Miller Trailblazer 55 diesel welder for $2750. There were 8 of them. The guy beside that bought one had no idea what he was buying. He thought it was just a 400 amp diesel welder (with a lot of extra controls and knobs on the front). It was a multi process machine and used for running CRC automatic pipeline equipment. A new one with all the options was $15,000. Some of the small stuff is the best deals. A couple years ago I saw welding positioners worth thousands of dollars sell for $100 and less. Pallets of portable rod ovens for $60.

Farm sales can have good deals too but people are just stupid bidding on the junk and the auctioneer will spend 5 minutes trying to get the bids up on a $10 item. Some stuff does sell for more than you can buy it new.