With the auction landscape having changed so dramatically in the past several years from live, in-person events to predominantly online auctions, dealers selling used equipment at auction have to make some important changes in their approach. 

Counting “Eyeballs”

To start, they need to realize how many “eyeballs” will be on the equipment they list.

“Just the size of the audience these days and the amount of people that are online looking —  at Fastline we're getting nearly a million visitors to the website every single month,” says Ted Schepmann director of auctions for Fastline Marketing Group. “When I first came to Fastline, I was just in awe of that sort of traffic and that amount of people — and being such a targeted audience, too.”

Schepmann joined colleagues from ag tire supplier Dawson Tire & Wheel and ag tire app provider TreadSure in providing dealers online auction advice during a recent webinar, Making the Most of Your Online Auction Opportunities. Schepmann adds that the sheer size of online auctions bodes well for a dealer’s ability to effectively sell used equipment.

“I would think that you can put almost anything on there that a farmer might buy with confidence, because with that kind of visitation rate and that many eyeballs on things, there's somebody out there looking for what you're selling,” he says. 

John Elder, director of sales and marketing with Dawson Tire, notes there is an increased need for transparency and expertise in accurately listing used equipment details, particularly tire wear. “There's a huge difference in the trade value of a 50% vs. a 65% or 70% tire. And with tires and wheels becoming so expensive — tires have almost doubled in price in just the last 3-4 years. 

“You look at a lot of the machines that are out there — new pivots and things like that — that have gone up in price. So it's trying to drive the efficiencies and make sure that we're all being as transparent as possible.”

Elder adds that while Dawson Tire has the expertise to help dealers understand specifics about the tires on their machines — “We'll be more than happy to take questions and provide you with solutions or answers even if you're end up not buying from us,” he says — dealers should also avail themselves of new technological solutions to help them evaluate tire wear.

Evaluating Tires on Used Equipment 

Preston Parmley, product and sales manager for TreadSure, says his company’s app is the first mobile app for accurately and consistently evaluating agricultural tire tread wear on used equipment. “We know that tires have always been historically left to a best guess in the agricultural industry due to the hard-to-find and difficult-to-access data that is required to properly do an evaluation of them.” He adds that the wide variance between each tire make, model and size further complicates the process.

“We consolidated all the data to really put that data at your fingertips,” Parmley says, “and created a streamlined workflow so you could finally bring accurate tire evaluations into your inspection or evaluation process and ultimately onto the online listing.”

According to Parmley, TreadSure produces reports that clearly identify specific information about the tire, not just whether or not it has tread. “Here's what's mounted where on the tractor, and here's how much tread life remaining is left at each of those tires around the machine. So that way it is just as clear as another one of the condition photos on the machine.” 

Tire-Specific Auctions

Ag tires alone are also becoming more popular items for listing in online auctions, and to that end, Elder says Dawson Tire is working with Fastline on developing a wheel-and-tire-specific auction website called Ag Tire Outlet. 

“When I go to visit a dealership, I tend to find a bunch of wheels and tires sitting around that maybe we couldn't take on trade at Dawson Tire,” he says. “They didn't have value to us. Maybe we had too many of them in used inventory already — any of those kinds of things. Because of that, we felt there was a need to help our dealer partners in moving some of their ag tires and wheels specifically and giving a place for people to go specifically to look at ag tires and wheels and not have them intermixed with all kinds of other things that are out there.”