Another record Cheffins' Machinery sale in October
It’s often difficult to predict the success of a sale before it actually happens. Sometimes all the factors look favourable: plenty of entries, plenty of bidders, strong commodity prices, right time of year etc, and yet the sale fails to live up to expectations.
The reverse can also be true: disastrous harvest, dealers reporting lack of retail trade, few enquiries from home or overseas and a general feeling that agriculture is perhaps reeling in the grip of a deep recession and yet, the sale can exceed all hopes and certainly and quite unexpectedly our sale on 5th October proved that point.
Yes, indeed, our last auction was a good one, in fact to use that oft’ quoted phrase “and it was our best sale for the month, ever!” Certainly the Euro exchange rate helped bring a select band of mainland European buyers particularly Germans to the sale. Dutch, Belgium and French buyers were absent, although Spain and Portugal were well represented and purchased a swath of kit.
Unlike the last 2 or 3 sales, top end tractors were selling: £41,000 bought a well spec’d 2008 John Deere 6930, a 2009 Valtra 151 again with all the bells and whistles sold for £41,400, a 2008 Claas 697 with loader topped £30,850 and a 2008 Same 150 achieved £30,000.
Plenty of tractors, mostly John Deeres made £20,000 plus although it was the £9-15,000 price range which commanded most interest. John Deeres 6000 met with enthusiastic trade, many exceeding reserves, with Spain and Portugal the destinations for the majority.
Clean 6000 series seemed to be valued almost as highly as 10 series: a brace of presentable JD 6600’s made £12,500 and £13,000, a smartish 6900 made the money at £14,000, a 40kph JD 6400 topped £10,700 and another example made £11,350. Other makes also met with better trade resulting in an overall sale conversion rate of nearly 60%, much improved from the previous few sales.
Equally, trade in tractor sale 2 met with improved demand as a host of Middle Eastern buyers traded bids with domestic buyers. Massey Ferguson 500 series trade was dominated by well known, home grown export buyers interspersed with the odd Dutch bid just to spice things up! MF 165’s, 185 etc sold almost exclusively to Lebanese and demand for Zetors made a comeback with improved Polish trade.
CONTRACTORS’ PLANT
A better trade in Contractors’ Plant meant that just over 57% of the later digger loaders were sold. More interest from Eastern Europe, the Far East and UAE pushed the Lebanese buyers to reserve and sometimes beyond.
Some late telescopics sold well but with such a choice for buyers, both here and throughout the country, many did not meet their reserves. All except one tracked or wheeled excavator sold and some larger loading shovels made well in excess of expectations. Older telescopics retain their demand mainly from Eastern Europe and the UK.
The mini diggers we offered mostly found buyers with some very good prices. Rough terrain forklifts and dumpers are still proving hard to shift. Industrial forklifts fared better with most getting away. Surprisingly the normally buoyant compressor trade was not so good this month. More people stayed for the last two rows of the afternoon than in September and there was a much better trade for the mixers and buckets which rounded off an overall much better day than last month.
Agricultural machinery also sold well across the board with the majority heading overseas. Some of the highlights would include Howard Rotovators which just about all sold for between £700-1000. Any implement painted grey and having ”Ferguson” in the description changed hands above reserves; and at the other end of the spectrum, more modern heavy cultivation tackle met with strong bids from both home and away buyers.
We have a busy month ahead! Our popular Vintage Sale is on Saturday 17th October with a great selection of trusty old iron on offer. Our next Cambridge Machinery Sale is on Monday 9th November with catalogue entries closing 23rd October and lastly our Bristol Machinery Sale is on Wednesday 25th November with catalogue entries closing on 6th November. All entries will be gratefully received.
