I could use another mini ex n was wondering if any body has bought fixer uppers from auctions. I do alotta wrk my self n looking for a new project. I've been lucky with my last few fixer uppers. Bought n 864 skid for 3200 was supposed have a shot motor didn't. Old jd 400 backhoe. Wasn't running either n got that going. N looking for new project
Sounds like you're pretty handy and have a good eye for what can be fixed. I've had good luck with equipment I've bought off of IronPlanet.com, but it seems that stuff is going sky high lately. I think they must be selling more retail than wholesale anymore; meaning I think they have more estate owners buying equipment for themselves than just construction companies and equipment dealers. Maybe if you watch, you can still find a deal. Or, of course, maybe I'm just too tight and want equipment for too cheap of a price.
Yea so am I. There's acutions around every couple months n was think about picking something else up. U r right alot of stuff seems priced alot higher than it should be I think for auction
I too have seen the prices at Ironplanet go up a bit over the last few months. It may have something to do with our "economic recovery" and I don't expect the prices to stay up. We are in the middle of a w recession and we are at the little peak in the middle. I would not buy any piece of iron right now unless you plan on keeping it a while, it's overpriced and in 3-6 months it will be worth less than you pay for it now. The bogus "economic recovery" will show its true colors as our tax dollar projects run out and we will dip back down. Until people are put back to work in the private sector, we are in for a long haul.
When it comes to buying and selling used equipment its kind of a school of hard knocks proposition. I've had luck buying in the fall but in the spring and this time of year its hard to buy stuff right it seems like. When your buying at auction it all depends, if the machine is low hours and fairly new and you can determine it wasn't in a hurricane or somthing you can probably get a better deal then the dealer. If its 20 years old and has the hours I hate paying more than 50% for somthing. Case in point we bought a D7f at auction a few years ago, good UC, good motor, had been painted (1st red flag). Got it for abou 35% of what you'd see someone asking for it on machinerytrader. Got it home, worked it and found out the trans was bad. Cat wanted 15-20k for a rebuilt. Pulled the trans ourselves, took it to a local equipment mechanic, they took it apart and found out someone had already had it apart and didn't wanna spend the money to fix it right. They rebuilt it for about 5 grand, put it back together worked it a little, sold it and still made good money on it. Got lucky. Moral of the story, every time you mess around with this stuff you learn somthing. If you can do most of the work yourself, have the time and money and KNOW WHAT TO BUY you can do ok, problem is theres a hundred guys out there with more money and less common sense than you and they are paying to much for alot of this stuff. Buy it cheap and have a plan B (Is it worth in parts what you have into it, or if its total junk can you swallow the loss, or can you sell it tomorrow for what you just paid) and you can't get to hurt. The biggest thing I've learned is not to buy somthing because you think you NEED a project, buy it cause its a good deal and its what your looking for, otherwise you open the door to waste time and money on somthing you should have walked away from.
I actually found a project n Austin grader. Horse drawn I'm going to use to post my excvation sign on it. Still on look out for a mini but this will hold me over for a little bit
Friend of mine bought a John Deere dozer for $7500 that would start moving and track to the right bad.Made some adjustments and sold it for twice what he paid.The man who owned it paid like $13000 for it then had a mechanic tell him a very high price to fix it.So he sold at a big lose.
Sometimes you get lucky To be on topic I was able to pick up my PC-75UU-2 at auction about 5 years ago. Bought it in the fall and paid 15000 for it. Cheapest one i saw online or anywhere was about 20k and most were between 20-25k. Its got rubber tracks, one was about 80%, the other was shot. The machine had about 3200 hrs on it. Z-boom and a backfill blade. When I bought it it was the cool pastel purple and blue, spent about 150 bucks in paint and another 2500 for a new track and otherwise till this winter ran it without issue. The Z-boom wasn't the tightest so I had some work done at a machine shop this winter. I honestly don't think that any of the stuff I had to do to it was out of the ordinary, if I'd paid a dealer 23k and another 1500 bucks to have it delivered I think I'd probably still have had things like the track or tightening up the Z-boom to contended with, so I tell myself I'm ahead of the game on it. And it paid for itself the 1st summer I ran it, so I can't complain
I have seen great equipment bought from auctions and I have seen junk.If you know equipment you will probably do good.You can all ways get a bad one any where even a dealer.I have seen on the Auctions some States are way high and some are dirt cheap for the same Year,Model etc.
wHat auctions n states r best to go to
Please don't post using text language. It makes it hard to read your posts and it's against the forum rules. Thanks.
I bought my Pel Job EB12.4 on ebay from England. I got totally screwed :-( I live in Norway, so it was a long way to pick it up (plane, buying car + trailer in England, boat and 1000 kilometres drive home). I was promised 3000 hrs and good general order. What i found was a machine with hour meter showing 4900 hrs and NOT working, a lot of slack in control arms and the pins, lots of rust, some electrics not working or "fixed" in a wrong way, engine smoking a lot etc. I'll never buy an unseen / untested digger again.
Frodes, Sorry to hear about your machine, i have had pretty good luck on Ebay i bought a Bobcat 642 on Ebay and she was in pretty good condition but it was a semi-local machine and i was able to check her out before bidding, but i would not bid on a machine i could'nt test run. but i have found that local auctions to be the best, i have gone to a lot of out of state auctions and there are a lot more bidders and dealers there so your chance of hitting a deal are kinda low but you ever know. Good luck
Ive done ok with Ritchie auctions over the years, heres my history: 1. SK50 Kobelco - paid 10500 - sold (privately) 21000 2. PC38 Komatsu - paid 15500 - sold (auction) 14000 3. PC75 Komatsu - paid 11000 - sold (auction) 16000 4. 2004 Mustang 32' gooseneck trailer - paid 5500 - still own 5. 2004 Bobcat T190 - paid 9500 - still own 6. 2005 IHI 65nx - paid 23000 - still own These were all in Canada with exception of the Bobcat - which was in an Los Angeles auction. Overall i feel like ive done ok - as when i've gone to sell ive gotten my money out plus the work that they accomplished. In each case i heavily researched prior to an auction so i was an educated buyer - however, i did get caught up in the auction frenzy with the PC38 - and feel like i might have overpaid slightly there. But in that case i got a lot of work done over the years of owning it, so didnt work out too bad in the end. I know there are lots of horror stories out there with auction purchases - but just like buying anywhere - IMHO - if you do your research you should be ok.
happy with mine I bought a gray market Cat MM55 "Shino" Cat, close to a Cat 305 at Ritchie Bros in Chilliwack BC Canada for 12k. My friend helped me put on new idler and some rollers and runs great and already paid for it with work done on my acreage. Got a manual for it on here from reeferman and many thanks to him. I would advise to take your big wrench throwing red neck friends with you 1) to advise and 2) to keep your feet on the ground when bidding. We did our research and I feel we did well. I am grateful to the forum and it's knowledgeable members. All the best from the farmerboy
I know this is an old thread, but I had good luck with my auction purchase. 05 tb-135, 900 hrs $8K . As stated in prior post you need to know what your looking at, and what to look for, and allow for or expect the unexpected. My opinion dont be in a hurry to make a purchase. Almost let it find you.