Ritchie Bros. conducted its second-largest Olympia auction in company history on Nov. 28 and 29, selling more than 2,200 trucks and industrial equipment items for total gross auction proceeds of $25 million.

Ritchie Bros. has conducted 69 unreserved industrial auctions in Olympia since its first Olympia auction in 1979. More than 2,800 people from 22 countries, including 41 U.S. states and 10 Canadian provinces and territories, registered to bid in the auction either on-site, by proxy or online.

Approximately 800 registered to bid online using rbauctionBid-Live, and more than $5 million of equipment was sold to internet bidders.

“The auction was a great success, with particularly good returns on heavy spec dump trucks and cranes,” said Rob Giroux, Ritchie Bros. regional manager.

“We had many Canadians bidding in Olympia — with the strong Canadian dollar, more Canadians are including our U.S. auctions in their equipment search. If they can’t make it to the auction in person, they can bid over the internet. And when you have hundreds of people from all over the world bidding competitively in an open and transparent auction, both online and on-site, sellers can be sure they are getting the best return on their equipment assets.”

Washington-based J.R. Hayes Sons Inc., a second-generation family-owned site development contractor, sold a large selection of late-model dump trucks and trailers in the unreserved Olympia auction.

“We were very pleased with the results of the sale — maybe a little surprised, given the state of the economy right now,” said Tony Perrotti, J.R. Hayes’ equipment purchasing manager.

“J.R. Hayes has a reputation for maintaining its equipment well, and Ritchie Bros. marketed it well: we had inquiries from all over North America. We’ve sold three large packages of equipment at Ritchie Bros. auctions and have been very happy with the results every time. Selling unreserved doesn’t worry me at all.”

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