Buying Used at Auctions

[D2Cat]

I'd rather go to or watch a sale then set and watch a movie!

Just last Sat. bored with the rain, gawking at marketplace, saw a Hiniker snow plow. Got a hold of the seller, had a phone conversation, agreed on a price based on what he described after another 6 pictures. He delivered it my driveway because he was in the city and wanting to get rid of things to shut down that rental cost. Got a nice deal. One light is trashed. I can buy a new pair and sell it for 2 1/2 times what I paid. I also got a gallon of required oil and new (used a couple of times) joystick remote.

 

[swpflipper]

And business look at it as a simple way to get rid of an asset. If you had to get ride of equipment it's very easy.
Anytime I buy a used piece of equipment I plan on spending money on it. Because even if it's good, chances are if the previous owner knows it's going they tend to neglect it.

 

[Old_Paint]

Large businesses tend to use leasing companies these days. GE has for years, and in fact used to own their own leasing company. IRS rules say they have to charge the employees Fair Lease Value or declare the vehicle an employee benefit, or last resort, every one of them has to be parked in a parking lot at the office. This is not an option in a service business, generally speaking. So, the employees were paying the company which was paying itself and not paying taxes on the vehicles. Sounds sketchy to me, but it probably made the paperwork simpler and the bulk pricing and operating costs a lot cheaper for GE. They unloaded Fleet Services several years ago when going through their initial trimming phases, and it's now owned by Element. The EBO (Employee Buyout Option) for company leased vehicles went the way of the dodo bird long before GE Fleet was dissolved. Element doesn't offer much discount to those of us that actually take care of the vehicles and keep them in decent condition so they're worth more when returned. Our reward for doing so is being allowed to pay more for them. I quit hand-washing my company vehicles when they started nickel and diming all the car expenses, and unless I got an e-mail, didn't bother with service. Until I got this F-150. I put a plan in place to get it cheap because I had another fleet vehicle at my disposal for the shop work, which WAS parked in the parking lot and cost me nothing to operate. I kept the mileage low on the F-150 until it was old enough for Element to want to get it off the books, and offered me a decent price for it. Maybe not a great price, but decent.

Sometimes ya just gotta work the system a little.

 

[RCW]

I'd rather go to or watch a sale then set and watch a movie!

Same here.

An auction is business mixed with a social event here.

Always run across someone I know. A chance to shoot the bull and catch up with friends.

All I buy is a couple coffees and hot dogs, but good entertainment just the same.

Most have been online only lately, look forward to "old-fashioned" kind again....

 

[Orange man hero]

Folks often talk about buying someone else's problems. If I know what I want, know it's value, know how it works and find something that has something wrong with it... i can often buy it, fix it to use or make a nice profit. It's all in what a person's choices are, time, money, skill.

I disagree with this statement: "Only reason stuff goes to auction is the seller can't get what they wanted for it.. or it's a rental company or fleet vehicle that company does want wamt to deal with selling.. "

Have you ever been to an estate auction? Or a farm auction?

Estate auctions are a different animal and well worth it sometimes.