Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers announced the completion of an exciting week of several large auctions and a test of its new Internet Participation Software.

A two-day, record-breaking auction took place at the company’s permanent auction site in Bolton, Ontario on December 11 and 12, 2000. More than 1,500 lots were sold to the highest bidder generating gross auction sales of $30 million, making it the largest auction ever held by Ritchie Bros. in Canada. More than 1,900 customers came from 15 countries, 31 U.S. states and all 10 Canadian provinces to bid on the trucks and equipment being sold.

Equipment for the Bolton auction came from many owners including Hub Equipment Ltd. and Banister Pipeline Construction Co. Featured items included 49 crawler tractors, 104 hydraulic excavators, 33 wheel loaders and 25 rock trucks.

Ritchie Bros. also conducted its largest agricultural sale in company history on December 13 and 14, 2000 in Stratford, Ontario. Hahn Farms Limited’s restructuring was the catalyst for this auction. More than 2,500 items including more than 500 agricultural tractors sold on an unreserved basis with gross sales surpassing $12 million. Bidders traveled from 35 states and all 10 provinces to participate in this unreserved auction.

On December 13 and 14, 2000 Ritchie Bros. also conducted a two-day auction in Fort Worth, TX. The gross sales for this unreserved auction totaled $22 million USD. The sale in Fort Worth drew customers from 14 countries around the globe and from 42 states. This auction included quality, late model equipment including truck tractors, trailers, directional Drills, crawler tractors and wheel loaders.

During the Bolton and Fort Worth sales, Ritchie Bros. launched its new Internet Participation software enabling viewers to follow the auctions over the internet in real time. In Bolton, the company also performed a controlled test of the software’s live internet bidding function with several customers placing bids and one customer successfully purchasing an item using the new technology.

In addition to the Bolton, Stratford and Fort Worth sales, Ritchie Bros. conducted four other sales during the week in Albuquerque, NM, Stockton, CA, Vancouver, BC, and Minneapolis, MN.