Texas tractor 4 sale

[Todd8665]

Not the right spot for this post....but for those members in Texas here's a JD870 with backhoe for sale from Gov. surplus....

John Deere 870. 1990 John Deer model#870 Tractor w/Front End Loader model#80 and Back Hoe model#8A Attachments. 3 cylind - Government Liquidation

As with any auctions stuff can go from ridiculously cheap to overpriced...

 

[PILOON]

In Canada we have the same system with the federal gov't and I am a frequent bidder.
Over the years I did very well buying everything from electronic test equipment to vehicles.

Even got a piano for $60.00, snow plow for $1200. and a vast selection of tools.

My favorite buy has to be a product that I designed and sold to the airport maintenance folks for calibration of ILS systems.
The units were sold under bid for about average $4000. or so and I bought one back under open bid for $39.00! (and it had a fresh calibration as well)

I also won things in the $30-$50 range that later earned me $1000 ea!

Today with the internet the good deals are much rarer and folks pay way too much.

One favorite was a large lot of all kinds of 'junk' that I did not wish to handle except for 3 items that were out of place.
I contacted the winning bidder and bought those 3 items for $50 ea and re sold them for $500. ea.(he'd paid $150 for that lot)
Being aviation oriented I knew they were Bell 206 servos worth a bundle 'as is' as they could be overhauled and re certified. Naturally I had the contacts to re sell at that time.

Auctions are FUN.

 

[newbury]

<snip>
Today with the internet the good deals are much rarer and folks pay way too much.

But they are still there!

$11.5K in 2013

 

[Kernopelli]

I watch a lot of Government auctions. There are some great deals to be had but you have to watch religiously. Earlier this year I bought 10 Carter Hoffman heated food carts off GSA Auctions for $5 (total price). Didn't know until I picked them up, but they were new and still in the factory shipping wrap. They retail for about $6K each but was able to sell them quickly at a good discount and still made an awesome profit. My favorite site is GovDeals. I recently bought a GO-4 Interceptor off GovDeals........ugly as sin but is street legal, fun to drive and gets 50 MPG. My wife and son drive it almost every day.

Edit: Spending time looking at auctions that are unrealistic to bid on because of distance can take a lot of time. My favorite way to quickly find auctions on any auction site is to use the location search. That allows me to choose a maximum distance I am willing to travel and see what is available in my area. I often do this on Ebay as well as the Gov sites.

 

[bmaverick]

As the saying goes, It takes money to make money.

The hard part is, having the first hand of cash to start off with. Then knowing what to bid on that would interest others.

 

[California]

As the saying goes, It takes money to make money.

The hard part is, having the first hand of cash to start off with. Then knowing what to bid on that would interest others.

That's the magic secret of any business plan. Evaluate the outcome first! Then detail the costs (and quantify risks) to see if there is a satisfactory margin to make it worthwhile. After that proceed with the plan, or go evaluate some other potential opportunity.

This is the opposite of 'do what you love and the money will appear'. That should only be pursued after you can afford to lose what you put into the business - a risk that beginners can't afford.

MBA essence distilled down to a few sentences! The other significant secret: appreciate the magic of compounding over time.

BTDT.

 

[PILOON]

My friend recently bought an airport fire truck. (emergency 1)
It foams, carries huge tanks and is an awesome huge 4 x 4 vehicle.
Cost him about $13,000. but gov't had paid 1 million$
It never even fought a fire and only had about 3000 kms on the clock with very low hours.
At time of his purchase it was fully certified as well.
Pricey to run with that huge Detroit engine.
Even the used tires fetch $1000. each (he has 5)

One of my buys that I recall was an aircraft tug or tractor. Cost me a tad over 1 k, $40. to repair and sold it for $8,000.
I did wait a year or so for word of mouth to bring me a buyer.
Same tug buyer also bought 2 baggage tractors that I had at also a handy profit.

 

[California]

My friend recently bought an airport fire truck. (emergency 1)
It foams, carries huge tanks and is an awesome huge 4 x 4 vehicle.
Cost him about $13,000. but gov't had paid 1 million$

Time for a funny story - Usenet used to have an Ebay seller's forum back when I was reselling govt surplus stuff that had been retired for Y2k. I resold over 50 DLT tape backups that had no Y2K sensitivity but had been retired with entire systems. Great markups!

Don Lancaster a self-appointed 'internet guru' posted that he bought a government surplus firetruck from an airbase. After a year of so trying to sell it at a profit he found a scale model of the same firetruck. In his words more or less "Who would have thought a scale model you can hold in your hand could be sold for more than the real thing?" :laughing:

This is the same Don Lancaster of the Glass Teletype article described in Popular Science Magazine - for anyone with that long a memory.

 

[Sprinklerman]

Bought a top dressed form Govdeals , picked it up in new jersey , got it for $168.00 . Aslo found a local cop who gave me 5 tickets to the tune of $600.00 paid a lawyer a $1000. He beat half the tickets . Total spent tolls fuel lawyer and cop ............. $ 2000 . But a new one was $ 2900 .

 

[clemsonfor]

Bought a top dressed form Govdeals , picked it up in new jersey , got it for $168.00 . Aslo found a local cop who gave me 5 tickets to the tune of $600.00 paid a lawyer a $1000. He beat half the tickets . Total spent tolls fuel lawyer and cop ............. $ 2000 . But a new one was $ 2900 .

thats a terrible story! ha