I'm looking to get a used skid. I'm keeping an eye on Ironplanet, RBAuction and Ebay. Do you guys have any experience with buying skids from these sources? Are there any others that I should consider?
bought several things from ritchie bros, you have to be there to inspect the item or its a crap shoot. bought a skid from iron planet, wasnt the best deal but the machine was exactly as described. There are alot of clowns on ebay! i would watch what you are doing there. Although there are a few good small equipment dealers that use ebay and they are very straight up in their dealings. If you are going to buy sight unseen and have it delivered i would be very careful on ebay, do your homework on the seller. Wouldnt worry about the others, you will get your item under the pretenses described hope that helps
I always check my local wheeler dealer, Auto RV, or whatever local free magazine that comes weekly for items that are close to home. I always have to have my weekly fix of magazines . I also feel better running a machine, and inspecting it myself before I buy. Also talk with your local dealer(maybe not salesmen). I always try to keep a good relation with the parts and service guys, the salesmen might just try to sell you a new skid. The service guys will know if someone has just traded in a machine to upgrade and if the owner took care of it. I have sold machines on ebay, but never bought one. It is a lot safer than craigslist which is 90% scams on equipment. I have noticed that guys misrepresent a lot of things on ebay though. An example would be a guy saying that he is selling a '96 1845C, but I saw it had the old paint style pre '95 and it also had the latch bars instead of the one lap bar pre '93. It's always nice to ask for the serial number and check the age. If they say no then it is probably hot as well. Make sure you look at all the pictures carefully. I have seen people use old cameras so you can't see pictures clearly. The blurry pictures hide a lot of flaws on machines. Watch out for paint jobs that are covering dents and welds up. Ask for pictures before they painted it. Videos are always nice, lets you see the machine in action. Barklee is right, do your homework on the seller and if possible visit the machine before you bid. RB is also good and they have great resources on their website to compare machines. Machinery trader and rock and dirt are great sites and magazines for prices of similar machines.
check out your rental yards, the salesman at United Rentals here is great to deal with, you might get lucky
I loved my experiance with Ironplanet, I got a kubota tractor from them and it was exactly as they said.
Well i purchased a Bobcat 643 on Ebay from a local dealer in my area i had stop by his yard and check out the machine and it was in pretty good condition at the time he wanted 7k and i ended up with it for 5k on the Ebay auction
Here is a pic of it when i picked it up in Sept
I just bought mine off Craiglist.org in the Phoenix area (for use at 2nd home). I considered going to a dealer, but for an older machine I new there would be issues and the seller would provide detail (which he did to a T). I was even suprised to find (after we came to a price), he changed all the filters and delivered it. p.s. He had a USMC flag in the garage (and a tatoo to match).....how can you not buy from a guy like that.
Dave nice pickup! The wheels,tires, and bucket on that machine look good and are at least worth a grand. Also, that nice paint job had to cost them around a grand. It's like you picked up a skid for $3,000 and did not have to paint it or replace tires, bucket. I consider that a great deal for that piece of iron. You did well.
Thanks, Uncletony. I am pretty happy with it so far I have spent most of my work life in Backhoe and this is the frist skidsteer for me i am looking to use it mostly for backfilling and cleanup so it should work out well i hope, lol i just have to get use to the foot controls for the bucket
I pickup this 4 in 1 bucket from a farmer pretty cheap i had to cleanup the hyds and replace the quick couplers to match the machine and it opens good and the cutting edges look good.
opps heres the pic,
I have purchased off of Iron Planet and got exactly what I expected. Have bought from a RB auction. It was straight up, but you have to "inspect" it without really using it. Kind of hard to do. I did buy a skid I had been watching on EBay a couple of years ago. Wasn't ready to buy, and the listing expired. Contacted him a week later and he still had it and was willing to deal. Seems he had picked up a load of machines from a Cat dealer rental fleet sell off. Has worked great for me. And as some of these other guys have said, I talked to him on the phone several times, and had good pics. I guess I can always be had, but talking to someone a few times seems to tell me a lot about them. One thing about a true EBay purchase as you can have some coverage from them if the item is not as described. They are "enhancing" those programs, so read carefully however. We used sell a lot on EBay but their fees just keep getting higher, which means we need to collect more $$, so I guess others are having the same issue.
I've been watching the local auction sites, in Michigan Repocast.com has skids on a regular basis, also ebay and craigslist have work out for me in the past. Andy
how flexible are those guys on pricing (the national rental companies i mean)
Is there any bluebook on skidsteers or other way of determining what an older model is worth?
There might be a blue book on skid steers and if there is it probably costs $500 and is not worth buying. Prices vary by regions due to the economy and other factors. A cab and heat machine is not as valuable down south, machines near Detroit are not going to get a premium comparable to growing cities like Omaha and Huntsville (may not be growing anymore). I always use machinerytrader.com and rockanddirt.com they will give you an estimate to what people are asking for machines. Machinerytrader also shows you previous auction prices that can be helpful in determining value. One could take auction prices and retail asking prices for a machine and use those numbers to find a range for a machine. In theory if the machine you are looking at would fall in the range then it would be reasonably priced. There are so many variables although that determine price. Engine hours, tires, wheels, bucket and accessories, auxiliary hydraulics, self leveling loaders, ride control loaders, glow plugs, block heater, previous services, paint, seat, hydraulic system (hoses,pumps,cylinders),drive motors, dents, battery, and so on. The rental companies usually have good prices. The RSC near to me has been selling off some of its equipment at fairly decent prices. I would think that some of the small rental companies might sell for an even better price at this time. I would think that not as many people are renting machines due to the economy. When you buy a previous rental machine you are getting what you pay for though. Who knows how the renters treated the machine or what attachments were used on the machine. A concrete breaker can wear pins and hydraulic pumps quicker than a machine that was just used for dirt. Those machines could have gone 150 hours without being greased. The positive is that they most likely were serviced every 250 hours so one might think that the engine and fluids would be good.
Good info Tony. I know very little about skidsteers so I am flying blind. I am going to go look around the sites you mentioned. Thanks.
Last July (2009) bought a 2007 ASV RC30 W/ UNDER 70 HRS on it from Washington State for half the price as the same exact machine out of Edmonton. Bought off craigslist and used escrow.com to handle the finances. Toughest thing with the whole transaction was getting it shipped, ended up having to drive 18 hrs across the border to get it but was worth the drive.
Above. First post sounds like a spam/scammer. Do not promote websites on your first post especially financial websites. Sounds even fishier when you relate it to craiglists, so many scams on craigslist. Don't be a dumbass and think you are getting a deal by wiring someone money and they will ship your half priced skid steer for free. Some jackass (probably from nigeria) stole pictures of one of my tractors I was selling. Copied all my pictures from my website and the description of tractor. Then put it up on craigslist and other sites for $4,800 (tractor was actually sold for $38,000). Had a bogus insurance story and said he would ship it for free. Some guy in Washington DC wired him the money through yahoo finance (fake site) who knows how many other people fall for this ****. Point of the story is don't think you can get a piece of machinery,car,gator, tractor for half price and then have someone ship it for free.
I'm familiar with the bogus ads and stories and thanks for the warning I've been watching IronPlanet for a while now and it's good to hear that others had good experience with them. I concluded that it's best to be present at the RBauction or have someone inspect the machine on my behalf prior to bidding. Do we have 'Inspector' services on this site?
The purpose of my post was to show that there is a price difference from buying in the states from buying in Canada and depending on what your looking for the savings can be substantial.. It was also to explain how i went about it,as i kind of though this is was people were looking for . There was no intent in advertise for anyone it was just to explain what and how i went about it. In that before i proceeded with that company i had talked to my customs broker and she felt it was a safe way for me to proceed. There were reservations on doing this but it didi work out. As for free shipping i got one price quote of approximately $4000 to ship from the Seattle area to northern British Columbia thus i drove the 18 hrs to get it, it was a financially better decision. This is the second time i've tried to respond to this so i don't know if there is a delay or i screwed up on the previous post i tried to do.
ajm there is no ill will and I'm sorry if I seemed harsh. There are so many scammers out there now on craigslist that people need to be aware of. I sold my T800 and bought a skid on craigslist and had great transactions. You just need to feel the seller/buyer out. They are good at scamming otherwise they wouldn't do it. Sheriff, I know some dealerships might do inspections but I doubt they will drive out to an auction site for less than $350. My suggestion is to start a thread up asking anyone if they are going to the upcoming auction. Get in contact with someone, maybe give them some incentive $50 through paypal after they inspect it. Tell them to take some good pictures and possibly a video. Give em a checklist to do. Then hope they are in the market for another machine.