I hit the road the first three weeks of December 2024 covering seven old-fashioned live auctions in Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota and Missouri. In 18 of the past 22 Decembers, used equipment prices have gone up — only holding flat three times and dipping once in 2015.
Beyond the sale data, I wanted to use this trip to gauge how folks were viewing 2025.
Here are a few observations:
- President Donald Trump’s November election elevated spirits across ag. However, I did not see the immediate response of upward movement with auction sale pricing on used ag equipment that I saw eight years ago. Back then, the used equipment market had stabilized. This time around his victory came during downward movement.
- Used construction equipment auction prices are higher. Jack Lyon, president of Alex Lyon & Son Auctions in New York, one of the world’s biggest players in the heavy equipment auction business, told me, “Pete, auction prices on heavy equipment have jumped 10% higher since the election.”
- Dealers continue to push late model used units out to auction. This aggressive push is unprecedented and has been done to avoid paying crippling 8% interest carrying costs. Through Dec. 10, our Machinery Pete auction price data showed a staggering 259.3% jump in the number of zero-to-3-year-old 175+ hp tractors sold at auction versus the same period in 2023. Compared to 2014, it’s a 308.3% increase. OEMs are also pushing harder than ever to help dealers pare down used inventory.
The bottom line is that auction sale pricing split in December 2024. I saw a 2021 John Deere X9 1000 combine with higher hours (1,198 engine) sell for $40,500 lower than any auction price I’d seen on one. But if the right piece sold on the right auction, I saw results like this:
- 2022 John Deere DB66 36R-22 Exact Emerge planter with 16,000 acres sold for $397,500 in Fergus Falls, Min., a new record on a planter by $22,500.
- Custom painted 2014 Challenger MT865C with 1,450 hours sold for $341,000 in Bible Grove, Ill., a new record by $26,000.
- 2022 Brent 2596 grain cart on tracks sold for $170,000 in Dexter, Min., a new record on a grain cart by $3,000.
- John Deere 7410 2WD tractor with 3,220 hours sold for $69,000 in Crofton, Ky., a new record on a 2WD 7410 sold without a loader by $6,500.
With the nosebleed high price of new equipment, excess of late-model, used equipment on dealer lots and a challenging farm income situation, 2025 looks to shape up as an interesting year as well.
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