Since its founding in 1999, IronPlanet has hosted online equipment auctions that have sold up to 1300 items in a single event. The March 17-18 record-setting auction totaled $26.7 million in equipment sales that included aerial work platforms, articulated dump trucks, compactors, crawler loaders, farm tractors, graders, scrapers, wheel loaders and other types of heavy equipment.
The company aggregates equipment from various industries including agriculture, which is one segment IronPlanet is placing a spotlight on.
“We have construction auctions every week, on Thursdays,” explains Paul Blalock, vice president of ag sales for IronPlanet. “And in 2007, in addition to construction, we started to focus on ag and by 2010, we had monthly auctions dedicated to ag machines, on Fridays.”
Blalock explains that users can find ag equipment ranging from high-dollar combines to $200 hay spears.
“The IronPlanet site has more than 600,000 registered users from 150 countries, and we have approximately 15,000 bidders at every sale,” he says.
“On average the equipment is sold within a few hundred miles of its destination, and about 35% of sales are to international markets,” Blalock says. “But the exception is vineyard-specific equipment—it tends to stay in California.”
To add to its buyer’s confidence, Iron Planet conducts detailed inspections on the equipment and backs the reports with its exclusive IronClad Assurance that guarantees the reports are accurate descriptions of the equipment’s condition. . An IronPlanet inspector visits the item and conducts a visual inspection of key components, and takes photographs, selected measurements and oil/fluid samples for lab analysis. The findings from each inspection report are available for viewing on the website free of charge.
For more information, www.ironplanet.com
