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Ritchie Brothers hosts record-breaking auction

Auction firm Ritchie Bros has staged the world’s largest ever heavy equipment auction held between February 13 - 18. New records were set by Ritchie Brothers Auctioneers for gross auction proceeds (US$203million), number of lots sold (more than 10,000), total number of registered bidders (8,670), number of sellers (830), online gross auction proceeds (more than $47million) and number of online bidders (4,070). Every item during the six-day event in Orlando, Florida was sold to the highest bidder—regardless
April 25, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Auction firm 8031 Ritchie Bros has staged the world’s largest ever heavy equipment auction held between February 13 - 18.

New records were set by Ritchie Brothers Auctioneers for gross auction proceeds (US$203million), number of lots sold (more than 10,000), total number of registered bidders (8,670), number of sellers (830), online gross auction proceeds (more than $47million) and number of online bidders (4,070).

Every item during the six-day event in Orlando, Florida was sold to the highest bidder—regardless of price—without minimum bids or reserve prices.

"In more than 50 years of business we have never held or seen an equipment auction of this magnitude, and we thank our customers and our staff for being part of this historic week," said Peter Blake, chief executive of Ritchie Bros.

"We saw multiple auction records broken during this event and, as with all our auctions, it was a truly global marketplace in Orlando. Bidder participation from within Florida and around the world helped sellers achieve true global market value on the sale of their equipment. We begin 2012 confident that we're providing compelling solutions and value to the world's builders.”

More than 8,670 registered bidders from 88 countries, including all 50 US states, all Canadian provinces and two territories, participated both in-person and online during the record-breaking Orlando auction. More than $160million (or 79%) was sold to buyers located outside the state of Florida and more than US$73 million (or 36%) was sold to buyers outside the United States. Items were sold for more than 830 sellers from across the United States and around the world.

Among heavy equipment auctioned off were a number of articulated dump trucks, wheel loaders, crawler tractors, hydraulic excavators, rollers, mixers, and compactors.

Online records were also set during the epic auction: more than 4,070 of the registered bidders participated online using the Ritchie Bros real-time online bidding service, purchasing more than $47million of equipment. Internet bidders were winner or runner up bidder on 44% of the lots available online.

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