Fabulous February Sale

Bill Pepper enthuses about the latest action at Sutton. “Every now and again, the factors required for a successful auction all gloriously synchronise resulting in one heck of an auction and Monday 7th February was just one of those occasions!”

A general shortage of equipment, exchange rates in favour of European buyers (although some way off the near equal exchange rates of 12 months ago), a large crowd of multi-national buyers including many new faces, some choice equipment on offer and the unusual spectra of me selling from the back of a pick-up truck (more of that later!) all helped push prices up, resulting in the best ever sale for the month of February. Just about all the auctioneers from all the different sale sections reported enthusiastic bidding and for this time of the year, that’s very encouraging indeed.

Tractors

Despite an initial, almost pitiful, entry of tractors, as the sale day approached we were inundated with fresh stock and I’m very pleased to say that the confidence shown in us by new and old vendors alike was generally well rewarded as tractor trade was nothing short of fantastic. 65% of the tractors sold and I think it’s fair to say that most vendors’ expectations were exceeded. It does mean, however, that given the strong trade, 35% of the machines entered were hideously over reserved (!) spelling disappointment for the minority.

As usual the main tractor sale started with the Massey 3000 and 6000 series and, like last month, these just about all sold - fuelled by intense competition between a squad of Polish buyers and a Yorkshireman! Ford 10 series and 40 followed suit and yet again, more of all these models are required to fill the empty gaps and order books.

Older Case tractors struggled but the following Massey 300 series simply flew. A brace of plain 399’s with manual transmissions made £7700 and £7400, a scabby 398 4wd topped £6500 and smarter 2wd version of the same model made £6400.

Onto the premier line-up, and bidding really hotted up! A brace of 2006 Valtra T130’s made £21,000 dead each, a 2008 T151 Advance just sneaked past £29,000 to a UK buyer and all the JCB 3170 and 3220’s sold mostly to Poland. Case/McCormick trade was the best it’s been for many a month: a 2008 McCormick XTX165 is Germany bound for £28,500, a 2007 Case MX140 X Line fell for £22,800 and a McCormick MTX 185, 2005 in the year made fair money at £17,900.

John Deeres were a joy to sell and it was really only the higher priced 30 series which failed to change hands on the day. Some example prices for the 93 JD’s on offer include: £15,400 for a sharp 2004, 5315 with a loader, an equally presentable 5090M, basically “as new” made £26,100, a 6930 Premium, 2009 in the year and showing a mere 782 hours topped £50,000, a direct from farm 6910 with a tad over 6000 hours sold well for £17,500, its smaller sister machine, a 6810 with similar hours achieved £16,300, a plain-jane but straight 1997 6600 nudged £11,600 a 2004 8520 with neigh on 10,000 hours hit £45,000, a 6820 of the same year achieved £24,100 etc etc.

In the same section were a couple of oddities: a Y reg Mercedes U400 Unimog with front and rear mowers sold for a reasonable £28,000 and a simply superb Massey Ferguson 240 with just over 2000 genuine hours made £8400. Now some people were aghast at this high price but mark my words, that will be a sound investment if cherished and preserved as quality in that, shape and form is rarely available!

Speaking of Masseys, trade in Ring 2 was beyond all expectations. 135’s struggled, after which prices were paid for some models which have never been attained before! MF 690’s - providing they were standard gear box and not totally rotted out - made anywhere between £3000 and £5100, somewhat different to 12 months ago when they struggled to make £1800!

590’s sold on average for a smidgen over £3000 and most of the 165, 178, 185 and 188’s eclipsed some quite lofty reserves and, almost without exception, are destined for the Middle East. A word of caution however, one swallow doesn’t make a summer and whilst trade was simply FANTASTIC in this section this month, it could be quite different in March. Caution, as always is often best heeded when buying for the sales!

Plant

2011 started in January with a buoyant trade in the Contractors Plant section of the sale. A lack of entries left several purchasers short of filling their buying lists and we looked forward to the February sale with renewed enthusiasm following the slightly disappointing end to 2010.

The entry for February was slow to evolve and as the catalogue went to print the number of digger loaders and telescopics was well down compared with the same month last year. During the week running up to the sale, the entries fortunately started to arrive and we ended up with a good show by sale morning.

We were delighted that the good demand was still evident and resulted in all except three of the fourteen 3CXs getting away at very good prices. The older Masseys stumbled a bit but three of these, unsold on Monday, were sold near to reserve first thing on Tuesday morning. The demand for all the digger loaders was from the Middle and Far East with just five of those sold staying in Europe and only three in the UK.

Very strong bidding for telescopics made life much easier for the Auctioneer. Two late Merlos sold well, staying in the UK, but with Germany pushing all the way. JCBs were in short supply and huge demand with top values going to a nice 2007 531-70 at £21,500 and an even nicer 536-60 reaching £31,400. Older examples continued to put smiles on their vendors faces with UK and Irish buyers not letting the Eastern Europeans get it all their own way.

Tracked excavators brought some strong demand from mainly UK buyers and healthy competition put the prices achieved well over reserve in some cases. Not many mini diggers were available but all of these that were got away to the UK, Northern Ireland and to Poland. Dumpers were improved on recent months, but still difficult to sell. Skid steers all sold and there was a really strong demand for rollers. A great start to the year which we expect to continue but we desperately need the entries. If we can get them, we can sell them.