The Auction Itself

This auction is so large it goes for about 10 days. Here are a couple pictures. It is just a smidgen of everything that is there to see.

Here are my guys, observing the auction in action. This little pickup truck with a camper top drives up and down the aisles and aisles of equipment up for auction. They have spotters on the ground, milling with bidders. If somebody wants to bid, the spotter calls the bid in to the auction team inside the camper truck. This is only one "team" in the auction, and they have several going on at the same time. You really have to be on your toes, checking the auction guide (book!) to see when things are supposed to be auctioned off, but you also have to keep checking on the progress of the team you are following, or you will miss out on what you were wanting to bid on.

This whole production is kind of neat to watch. There are food and drink vendors that follow along either behind or in front of the auction team. Auction team workers climb in and out of the camper throughout the bidding process that does not stop. People are sitting all around on their 4-wheelers and golf carts waiting for bidding on the item of their interest. Everybody is looking for a spot of shade, as it can get quite hot in the sun all day. And you'll see lots of people climbing all around the equipment, turning the motors on and off, checking buttons and tires. You have to know the shape of the equipment before you buy it, because once it's yours, you're stuck with it. A business associate of ours bid on a truck one time on accident. I guess it was a bad deal, and there was some kind of misunderstanding, but it didn't matter. He ended up selling the truck later, but it was not a good deal!

Like I said, this is the largest auction in the country that Ch knows of. It used to be the largest in the world, but he's not so sure about that now with China's economy exploding (while our country's economy struggles). There are several other heavy equipment auctions around here locally that follow this one. February is a busy month for heavy equipment dealers.