A recent sale at Euro Auctions permanent auction site in Leeds was conducted online due to Covid-19 and attracted the biggest audience of first time bidders in the company’s recent history, showing a true appetite for good used equipment and machinery.
With close to 4,200 lots of construction machinery, agricultural equipment, and industrial plant for sale, Euro Auctions proceeded with its Covid-19 ‘lock down’ format and engineered the most surprising result in recent years.
The Covid-19 formula adopted by Euro Auctions entails running an ‘on-line’ auction, behind closed doors, with video clips of all lots for sale running on the Euro Auctions online sales platform, with the sale conducted in ‘real time’ by a team of ‘live’ auctioneers operating from the Euro Auctions HQ in Ohio, USA.
With a hammer total of £35.5 million, prices were strong, and interest was intense. The number of bidder accounts showed a 100% increase over the same sale in May 2019, however it was the first-time bidder numbers that were unprecedented.
Over the sale in May 2019, the first-time bidders increased five-fold with first time registrations who bought up by 45% and the total of first time buyers up by over 90%.
All Euro Auctions sales are unreserved, and when the hammer went down, all 4,200 lots were sold, with prices strong, and clearly a great deal of interest from eager bidders.
Jonnie Keys, Euro Auctions Operations Manager comments: “The increase in first time bidders at this sale was unprecedented. In our minds this confirms that there is a great appetite for used equipment in the UK and across Europe right now, with OEMs stopping manufacturing, with names like JCB and Caterpillar noticeable front runners in the factory shut down in the sector. If users are replacing their fleets, or buying for projects, the current activity shows auctions are a good place to attend for that one-stop shopping experience.
“We also believe that the new facility that we have built at Leeds, whilst being the biggest permanent sales arena in Europe, and possibly one of the biggest in the world outside of the USA, gives prospective buyers phenomenal choice of equipment. That coupled with our fair and transparent pricing structure, where there are no hidden extras and with our staff really engaging with both buyers and sellers. In addition, in a time when more consignors are looking to turn iron into cash, they put their trust in Euro Auctions sell their equipment for fair money, with the funds from this sale helping to keep their businesses afloat across the UK and Europe.”
