Farm Auction Questions

My older brother is back at home and recovering nicely except he has 10% lung capacity and severe memory loss. His farming and trucking days are over. Sister in law asked me to help her find a good auctioneer that won't gouge her too bad selling his equipment. Nothing new or fancy, mostly older equipment, probably a scrappers paradice. BUT, he has a somewhat rare Oliver 2050 with front wheel assist. Only 300 and some made. Mechanically sound, but has been outside forever, looks pretty tough. It should bring a pretty good price if the auction is advertised properly.
Does anyone have any idea what a normal fee or percentage is for total farm auctions? They are hurting for money with all his medical bills and the last thing the need is to be taken by a shady auctioneer. A couple of local auctioneers don't have the best reputation. How do you go about finding a good one?? I'm trying to help some but fear getting too involved or I may be in over my head. Any suggestions appreciated. Chris

Talk to some farmers. They'll probably be able to tell you which auctioneers are "straight arrow" and which ones to avoid.

Chris, I probably would not sell it at a farm auction, but would advertise it in one of your Oliver collectors magazines or an Oliver show. I know that you are into Olivers, but I think I would contact Larry Neil or rrlund if I needed suggestions on shows and such.

For a rare item, you may want to put it on Big Iron dot com as it will see a bigger audience of buyers that way.

For the items that are truly scrap, haul them away yourself. Nothing worse than standing at a trailer full of junk for two hours and then they finally split the trailer into two halves and sell it that way. Many buyers will just leave to go home and do something more productive than that. The auctioneer later told me the family insisted all of the items be sold, not thrown away...

Getting the cheapest auctioneer is not always the best auctioneer who has a good following of customers. Expect to pay 30% for a smaller sale and 10% for a larger sale.

A few years ago a guy was complaining that he was charged a high rate for his small auction. I pointed out to him that I had just been to a farm auction where one cheap tractor was worth more than his whole auction brought in. It was a sad fact, but it was true.

I'm sorry for your brother's health troubles, hope it all works out for him.

Around here the auctioneers charge 20% however they take care of all advertising and they do it far and wide. However if you want porta johns that"s another 150 each and if they come out the day before the auction to help get stuff lined up that may cost another 300 depending how many people they use. They write you a check at end of auction and take all risks with checks. You might save money with private treaty with local advertising.

In NE Indiana we have a decent auctioneer who knows old equipment, he contracts for 5% and you pay advertising.

Seems a lot of folks are selling on Craigslist or sites like it, free advertizing, just ask for cash sales.

The going rate around here is 7-10% plus advertising cost for a mid size farm auction. With a rare piece DO NOT skimp on advertising. That one buyer that is from far away can pay for the whole sale cost.

When we sold out my Father-in-laws stuff he had one of the last JD 1250 3-16 plows ever made. He had bought them new and they had never set out. We advertised the sale well. We thought that the plows may bring $700-850. (this was in 1995) Two fellows came over 1000 miles just for those plows. They had a new JD 5500 they wanted a JD plow for. The plows sold for $2750. The total advertising bill was $1500.

Do not let your SIL go for the "CHEAP" auctioneer. Many of them will sell using a buyers premium and advertise it in maybe one paper. The sale is then a bust but the auctioneer still makes a goods days wage.

Things to do:

1) Advertise the auction in at least one regional paper. IF they live in Iowa the Iowa Farmer today would be that paper.

2) Do not count on the internet for much of your advertising. Many people still do not use the internet for auctions.

3) DO NOT throw anything away!!! I strongly disagree with those that say to do this. Do a good job of getting things out so people can see them. Do not over load the beginning of the sale with too much salvage stuff but do sell it after the better pieces of equipment. I have seen piles of iron I would not have hauled off bring 3-4 times scrap price because they wanted something in the pile. Plus they haul it off.

An example of this. My Grand Father never threw anything away. When I bought this farm there where sheds full of stuff that I would never use. A lot of this was old lumber. He would have some sawed for this or that project. There would always be a few boards left over. There where not enough to really build anything with but still more than I wanted to store. I sorted the lumber into piles by what kind and size it was. YOU know oak.ash,cherry, etc. I bet that I had 25 piles of lumber. Two antique furniture guys went nuts bidding on that old lumber. Those piles brought over $5000. You could have put it all on one big wagon load too. They said it would match the original wood in old furniture better as the grain is different in more modern wood.

So you never know what will sell for money you think is crazy. There will be some stuff that will sell cheaper but usually it all averages out on a good sale.

If the sale is within a 100 miles of the Quad Cities, I would like to come to the sale. Keep us posted.

Plows still sell well!

You never know what folks will pay good money for at a sale, just don't make them wait too long to get to the big items.

I was at a sale that had 50 or so forklifts as the main items. They sold parts for about 8 hours before getting to the actual forklifts. When they got there, late in the day, they sold most forklifts faster than they sold a filter for one earlier in the day! There were not many buyers left by then.
just sold

Chris, you could aways talk to Aumann auction service in Nokomis, IL. I don't think you can find a better auctioneer. Just my opinion

I would recommend Kurt Aumann , He has lots of expierence selling Olivers. You folks do have a very rare tractor to sell, so you need to advertise it good. Kurt has a good following with the Oliver folks.
Do not ever let an auctoner charge a "Buyers Premium". People in my area will avoid those sales.
J D has a lot of good ideas , one is for sure , Don t throw anything away. You mite be surprised at what people will buy at a sale. clint

Basically there is one valuable piece, the Oliver, and a bunch of junkers as you described them.What I would do is to sell the Oliver separately private sale by advertising here and other places then get an auctioneer that doesn't charge much to do the rest.You can do advertising yourself and be honest in the description of the rest of the equipment lots of scrappers and antique guys will show up and let them have it.You will never get the true value of the Oliver
if you throw it in with the rest at the auction.

Aumann wouldn't touch this sale and a friend of mine who was going to get him to sell his antique collection told me that he had to get $25,000 up front just handle the sale this is above and beyond commission,advetising and other fees as he understood it.Aumann sold a fellow's Allis Chalmers colletion I know and the prices were no better than any local auctioneer could have gotten in my opinion.He does run an excellent auction for sure but it cost big $$$$.

Thats a classic case where it should have been a two day sale probably a Friday and Saturday. Once an auction goes over about 5 hrs the interest will drop off usually.I love going to long sales especially on 95 degree+ days usually get some great bargains near the end.I always bring a cooler full of orange juice,Gatorade and Water.

I'd definately do some research on the value of that 2050. I think I'd expend some effort to sell that seperately. I would ceratainly set a reserve price on that 2050 if you auction it off at the farm sale.

I don't know the situation where you are. If you were here where I am,I'd be full of advise. There's an auctioneer here who doesn't charge an arm and a leg and has a great following.
A sale a week ago today was a perfect example of what I'd do if it was me. The sale was a mile from the auctioneer's house and not far from the crusher. They went in and cleaned up everything that they didn't think was saleable and took it to the crusher. There were 7 old Olivers,all beat to death and he got prices for those that most wouldn't have gotten for nice ones.
I'm two miles from the crusher. I'd start hauling everything that I figured would end up there anyway. A guy a mile the other side of the crusher had a sale a few years ago. Probably 60-70% of his stuff went to the crusher,but he sold it all at the sale. So he paid commission and there was still enough meat on the bone for scrappers to make money hauling it a mile. He would have been better off if he and the boys had hauled the stuff themselves and taken the few good items he had to a consignment sale.

That 2050,ya,advertise that in Hart Parr Oliver Collector,Oliver Heritage or Heritage Iron magazine. Bare minimum,probably $12-15,000 tractor.

There was one a few miles south of here a couple of years ago. An early fall sale,late September,early October,I forget which. The guy had moved here from somewhere else and hadn't lived here long. He got an auctioneer from where he came from,not anybody local that anybody knew.
They started that sale around 3pm instead of the usual 10am that's customary here. That guy was slower than molasses. Every piece of equipment with an engine,they had to start it up,move it,if it had hydraulics they'd have to move everything as far as it would go,loaders,the excavator,everything. At least five minutes of demonstrating before they'd even try to sell it. I left around 5 and went home for supper. We went by there later in the evening and they were out there selling with flood lights. I don't know how he came out in the end,but there were some devoted auction goers who stuck that one out.

I have another name for "buyers premium", I call it "buyers punishment", and I also avoid those sales using it.

My neighbor retired and was going to have a sale. Word spread and he ended up selling almost everything by word of mouth. He ended up not having a sale.

part of my family had aumman sell mom's toys online. stuff bought less than half what it was worth and auman gets about half. 20% commission, 20% buyers premium and expences. what a crook.

I agree with the others on the 2050. Talk to Aumann's. Every time I have dealt with that company (only as a buyer) I have been impressed. Kurt does do a couple consignments I think and even with the trucking I think you may be best off that route.

As to rates I just sold a combine on the consignment sale in Pocahontas, IA and here are the commission rates on the invoice. $5 minimum, First $1000 is figured at 10%, From $1000 to $13857 is figured at 7%, everything beyond that is free. IE he isn't charging any more that $1000 per lot. This is with all advertising included. Just a notion on rates.

As to a reputable local your Brother might be the best one to ask, short of that how about the neighbors? And yes, someone with a objective eye should come in and make the call as to what should go to the crusher, keep in mind that food plots have done some real funny things to the price of older iron.

jt