Crestline Soaring Society

Don't know where to start. Perhaps with thanks.

Tom Trevithick for loads of info on what type to look for and ideas on where to look. From him came the scoop on trying www.rbauction.com .

Then absolutely huge thanks to Gene Embree. He hopped on all the 28 auction skiploader/gannons in Phoenix this week and spent 10 minutes on each going through a series of physical and visual tests and gave verbal reports while I scribbled notes at a frantic pace to keep up with him.

A thanks go to the USHGF ( www.ushgf.org ) for financial assistance and every member of the CSS for without all this support such improvements are not possible.

Congrats everyone... we now own a 1999 John Deere 210LE. 4100 hours. Well maintained, strong engine, tight pins, good tranny. Should be at the LZ mid next week. We used to rent machines like this at $450 a day. Diesel fuel and a grease gun and we're ready to take our time repairing roads parking lots, training hills etc. After taxes it came to $18,377.00.

Back to the Ritchie Bros. Auction in Phoenix on Feb 15th/16th. Of the 28 skip/gannons there were 14 that we had rated "undesireable" due to a series of problems like hairline frame cracks that probably nobody else would catch, or low compression, or engine mounts going out or hydraulic pump failing, seals, repair welds and the list goes on. I was able to evaluate the condition of the tires and whether they had enough air. Gene kept reminding me that rubber was minor in the long run.

The auction had over 2000 heavy equipment items (they call them "lots") in the schedule. The 28 tractors we were interested in were near the beginning being lots #98 thru #125. As the auction started with #1, with Gene, Tom and myself seated near the front, I listened and learned at a quick pace as 97 lots sold in a short 70 minute period starting 7 AM our time.

They speedtalk at a blurrying rate. Difficult to understand what they are saying. I was never able to see who placed a bid when they placed it and I was worried that when I bid I would not even know if they got my bid or someone else bidding at the same time. To bid you only have to raise a finger or perhaps just nod and make eye contact. The bid catchers are amazing. This damned fly started buzzing around my head and I couldn't even risk shoeing it away for fear we ended up with a half dozen bobcats or bulldozers.

They have a system where they would sometimes bring out groups of lots at once. Sometimes in pairs and sometimes as much as 10 at a time. And of course sometimes just one at a time. With the entire group of lots lined up in front of us the bidding starts usually at about $10K and jumps rapidly usually at $1,000 per second or faster. When they get about 4 seconds without an increase it is sold. The winning bidder then gets to choose how many of the lots each at that winning price and then which particular lots by number. The cone runners drop red cones with "SOLD" printed on them in front of the sold lots and then the auctioneer starts over at 10K on the remaining ones. This repeats until all in the group are sold. And the next lot(s) are brought out.

Our tractors started out with #98 and #99 as a pair. I blinked and the bidding was already above our $18,000 budget limit. They each sold at about $30K. So fast... by the time I was ready to raise a hand they were above 18K and I would scratch that one off my list, and took another breath to keep from turning blue. Yikes. It was hard to keep up.

The first pair and another couple of single tractors (#100 and #101) sold well above our limit. Then came a group of 8, lots 102 thru 109. Now in this group there were 5 Deere's (our preference) and 3 Case's. We had "undesirable" labelled on 2 of the Deere's and 1 Case in this group and a low 12K bid limit on a couple more Deere's due to repairable problems. That left a Deere and 2 Cases that we would be willing to bid up to our 18K budget. Within the next 90 seconds it appeared that 5 of the 8 were sold and of all those I only once raised my hand to bid which was at about 13K or so and it was buried by subsequent bids within split seconds, again they were over our limit but now the bidding seemed to only hit the low 20's. You see, they line up the lots starting with the best thru worst as a general order. Plus the best of the group is usually sold first at the highest price and then the bids subsequently climb to a lower ceiling as lesser quality machines are what's left. I frantically listened and scribbled trying to keep up.

What was interesting now was that among the remaining 3 in this group of 8, the best of the original 8 (lot#102) according to Gene (and my tire kicking) a Deere 210LE, was STILL available. Might have been that the other buyers were looking at the brand new tires and paint jobs on the 3 "undesirables" and didn't realize the engine or tranny trouble or frame cracks that Gene had noticed. And the 2 Cases that we considered buying to our 18K limit were later year than the Deere and the other buyers simply put more value on newness over make. But whatever the reason our first choice was still there.

In a couple of seconds bidding started again and by the time I realized it, I raised my hand and was pretty sure it landed at a 15K bid. Focused like an undeployed skydiver down to 1000' agl I heard the "15-16-16-16-15-16-16-16" become "16-17-17-17-17..." and the bid catcher was making eye contact with me as he also scanned the other 100's of buyers, like he expected I might top the 16K bid that had just beat our 15K. In about 1 second of mentally freaking out (this business is way tougher than tandem foot landings) I raised my finger and nodded to the catcher and the announcer was then saying something like "17-18-18-18-18-17-18-18-18-18-18-fairwarning-18-18-18-SOLD-at 17". Say that in about 2.2 seconds and you can appreciate the chaos of the moment. So the parachute came out, and we had ourselves a tractor. Tom Gene and I were grinning ear to ear!

But which one. A second after the auctioneer announced "SOLD" he asked how many tractors we wanted at $17,000, and I said "ONE" not to be greedy. Then they asked us to decide WHICH one we wanted and I finger spelled out lot "1 0 2" (the best Deere of the original group in our opinion) while Gene used his booming voice to make sure they understood #102. And they did, out went the cone to the front tractor in the 8 tractor lineup and the three of us high fived and headed off to pay for it. Only for a moment I wondered if the high 5's caused us to purchase a few more tractors.

For a video on these auctions check out this link...
http://www.rbauction.com/buying/howtobuyvid.jsp