Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers held the world's largest heavy equipment auction for 2013 in Orlando, Fla., last week (February 18 - 23, 2013) selling 9,400+ items for more than $176 million. The six-day auction set a new company record for online sales as online buyers generated more than $53 million in gross auction proceeds or 31 percent of total gross auction proceeds generated in last week's auction. Close to 8,300 bidders registered for the six-day, unreserved public auction from 80 countries, which featured equipment from more than 780 sellers. Every item in the six-day auction was sold to the highest bidder, regardless of price - without minimum bids or reserve prices.
Close to 8,300 registered bidders from 80 countries, including 50 U.S. states, all Canadian provinces and one territory, participated both in person and online. More than $38 million was purchased by buyers in Florida while more than $137 million (or 78 percent) was sold to buyers located outside the state of Florida, with more than $58 million (or 33 percent) of that amount being sold to buyers outside the country.
A new company record for gross auction proceeds generated by online buyers was set at this year's February Orlando auction. More than 3,900 of the registered bidders participated online using the Ritchie Bros. real-time online bidding service available at www.rbauction.com and purchased more than $53 million of equipment. Internet bidders were winner or runner up bidder on 51 percent of the lots available online.
