Testament to the strength of online equipment sales in the transport sector, the recent Ritchie Bros. National End of Financial Year (EOFY) auction on June 23-24 was an outstanding success.
Over two days, the auction resulted in over $31 million in equipment sales. More than 2200 equipment items were inspected and sold from seven Ritchie Bros. locations in five states – including Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales – to online buyers across Australia and around the world.
In excess of 3700 online bidders from 30 countries registered to bid in the EOFY auction. Approximately 96.2 per cent of the equipment was sold to Australian buyers, with international buyers from New Zealand, Egypt, the US, Austria and more purchasing the remaining 3.8 per cent.
Ritchie Bros. is one of the most prominent machinery auction services in the transport industry. It continues to leverage online technologies to keep machines moving.
The Covid-19 pandemic has continued to accelerate acceptance of large-scale online equipment sales and purchases. Since the pandemic shut down in-person events, Ritchie Bros. has continued to set new records for total sales, registered users, bids per item, and overall sales prices.
“We continue to attract record online bidder registrations – up 18 per cent compared to the previous event,” said Cody Watson, regional sales manager at Ritchie Bros.
“Leading up to the sale, our yards were busy with customers inspecting items and asking questions of our equipment experts, but on auction day everyone was bidding online. We saw a 70.6 per cent increase in online pageviews and a 55 per cent increase in items added to customer watchlists, demonstrating growing online opportunities for both buyers and sellers.”
The two-day auction attracted over 275,000 unique website pageviews and over 35,000 items were added to watchlists, a 55 per cent increase in watchlists per item.
A 2015 Kenworth T950 Legend sold for $315,000, setting a new company price record for a prime mover with over one million kilometres. “As a limited-edition model, with only 75 manufactured, it’s clear to see why this highly collectable truck was a showstopper,” said Watson.
“Our transport assets sold exceptionally well with items like the 2018 Kenworth T909 selling for $355,000, a 2015 Drake 3 row of 8 sold for $257,500, and two 2018 Gippsland Body Builders selling for $104,000 each. Due to delays in OEM supply as a result of the pandemic, we’re seeing record-high demand for used equipment across the transport sector.”
Regional sales manager at Ritchie Bros, Dale Spedding, added that 2021 online events for Ritchie Bros. continue to deliver incredible returns for sellers, with another record-breaking sales result. “By combining equipment from our sites in Brisbane, Geelong, Perth and Adelaide with our new regional sites in Mittagong and Dubbo we are able to attract a much larger buying audience and achieve strong price performance for consignors. We are driving record demand and encourage interested sellers to contact us and take advantage.
“Our new yards, in particular Dubbo and Mittagong, have performed extremely well in our End of Financial Year Auction. We’re seeing more sellers from regional areas like Cole for Cranes and A-Civil embracing our new yards and looking to tap into our national sales.
“We have adapted to make sure our customers are confident they can get the equipment they need easily and efficiently. We offer inspection reports, photos and service records so our buyers feel comfortable prior to bidding online.”