B7200 AT AUCTION

[Anonymous Poster]

I was at an auction, and saw a beat to death b7200, with loader. Thought I might be able to pick it up for a couple hundred dollars for the tires, since it was rolled, dented, faded, bent, knobs missing, etc. Well, it went for $4700.00. No one could believe it. They went for around $6700.00 brand new, without the loader. Go figure ???

 

[WVBill]

That's why I don't go to auctions anymore. The few time's I've been, things I thought I'd want went for prices nearly as much as I could spend for a similar used piece of equipment at a tractor dealer.
Buying from a dealer I would get two things I can't get at an auction:
1) If the thing's condition turns out to be really not what it appears, I have a chance of taking it back.
2) By buying from my tractor dealer, I'm building a business relationship that hopefully will pay "dividends" in the future.

I hear people tell of "great deals" they got on things at auctions - I've just never seen it.

Oh, and at an auction I've got to stand around in the cold for three or four hours until they get around to auctioning off the thing I want...

Sorry, I'm just not the "auction type", I guess.

Bill

 

[Bird]

Auctions are lots of fun if you have the time and the weather's agreeable, and every once in awhile you find a real bargain, but I'm inclined to think it's pretty seldom. In the early '80s I was in charge of the police auto pound and auctioned off an average of better than 100 impounded, unclaimed vehicles a week. Of course, most of them were wrecked and were bought by salvage yards, but occasionally nice confiscated or recovered stolen vehicles. And in two years of being at that auction every Monday morning, I think I only saw 3 vehicles that weren't sold for a lot more than I'd have paid for them. One was a brand new diesel Kubota lawn/garden tractor that went for half the current retail price.

Bird

 

[Kelvin]

For what it's worth, here are my estimates of auction prices:

About 10% of the stuff sells really cheap.

About 10% of the stuff sells for outragously high prices.

The other 80% usually sells for about the same price that you could buy it used from local dealers or private owners. And at the auction you don't get the benefit of performing a THOROUGH inspection.

Another observation:
The stuff that sells cheap are usually items that are out of character for the other items at the auction. For example, a 3-point hitch yard box may go cheap at an auction where 95% of the items are antiques. The same 3-point hitch yard box would sell a lot higher at a farm implement auction.

Kelvin