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Sale Report February 2012

I’ve always been told to be grateful for small mercies and whilst our February auction was far from small, the fact that it wasn’t held the week before was more than fortuitous. I’m sure the sale wouldn’t have been cancelled but I’m equally sure we wouldn’t have had the record breaking auction we did and the added confidence in the machinery sector that result brings to both auctioneers and most agricultural dealers!

Once again, the sale ground was near bursting with a huge entry of nearly 600 tractors, a comprehensive range of plant and a massive selection of agricultural & horticultural equipment. Combined with the large crowd of international buyers, for most vendors their sale results probably exceeded realistic expectations and adds to the long list of great sales we’ve held over the last 18 months.

Tractors

With a few sale day cancellations resulting in one or two empty gaps, a total of 575 tractors were offered and 340 sold accompanied by the resounding “thwack” of the auctioneers gavel! It has to be said that once again Tractor Sale 2 featuring the older machines was a notable highlight and it would certainly appear that the trade we’ve enjoyed for many a month is here to stay for a while longer. Perhaps it was summed up by a particularly earthy tractor buyer whilst casting an appreciative eye over a rather smart MF 690. “Look at her…” he remarked “that’s so lovely I want to elope with it...!!”. Now, whilst I like a pretty tractor as much as the next man, as strange as it seems, the womanly charms of say Kate Beckinsale tick more boxes for me than something built in Banner Lane…! Judging by the huge numbers sold however, it would appear that a number of buyers both near and far like a tractor in red and are assembling a veritable harem of such beauties!!

Ugly 290, 590 and 690’s were perhaps back a hundred pounds or so compared to last month although average prices of £3000, £6000 and £4500 respectively would have bought most of the above. Massey 135’s were tough going although the bigger brothers in the guise of 165, 168, 188’s etc just about sold out with many eclipsing some fairly lofty reserves.

Considering the large number of better quality tractors in the main sale, I did think we‘d struggle but with 57% of these tractors sold, even the most optimistic expectations were exceeded. Green and yellow dominated the “prestige” section of the sale and with 122 on offer, most pockets were catered for. Without doubt the weakening of the Euro currency hasn’t helped trade for the more expensive tractors and it was quite noticeable that reserves were reduced once the more canny seller realised top end tractors were struggling compared to previous sales. That’s not to say we didn’t sell some expensive kit. A brace of JD 7530, 2007 in the year and quite presentable made circa £37,000 each, a brute of a Fendt 930 Vario sold and is Germany bound for £46,500, an imported JD 8220 seemed good value at £32,500 and a well spec’d MF 7495 with a mere 2000 hours achieved circa £54,000 and that’s to name but a few.

John Deere 6920’s were harder this month but only because most featured “Autopower” transmissions. As delightful and easy as they are to drive, residual values are pretty poor compared to the more manual versions and for the higher houred examples, they’re a struggle.

Plant

A very full entry in Contractors Plant drew a good crowd of prospective buyers despite the cold and the wet of Saleday. Right from the start of the digger loader row, it began to feel like we were in for a good sale. Older Project 7 JCB’s are however proving a bit of a struggle, especially 2WD models. There is some demand from Eastern Europe for 4WD’s but prices are down 20 to 25% compared to the peak times of 12 months ago as we see prices of between £4000 and £5000 rather than £6000 to £7000. Later 3CX’s with a manual gearbox continue to top the trade with a very tidy 2005 going for £26650, a 2004 for £25200 and a 1997 for £17300, all going to Sri Lanka. Those with Powershift transmissions are making on average £2000 less, going to UK buyers. There is still some demand from the Middle East for later Contractors but they are tending to be underbidders rather than buyers at the moment. Other makes, New Holland, Case, Massey are less exportable and are ending up with UK buyers including Northern Ireland.

Almost 80 telescopic handlers came under the hammer on Monday. About 50% of these were JCB’s, 25% Manitous with Merlo, Claas, Terex, John Deere, Caterpillar, Sanderson, Matbro and a Dieci sharing the rest of the spots. Late JCB and Manitou models met the strongest demand from UK and German buyers in particular. Buyers from the Eastern parts of Europe were also bidding well and picked up many of the slightly older examples. The same applies to the market for Merlo’s and John Deeres, where German, Polish, UK, Northern and Southern Irish customers were the main buyers. The remaining makes were picked up by mainly home buyers with competition from Eastern Europe. JCB 530/70 Farm Specials are still the most popular model but we did miss our regular French buyers for the later examples of these.

There was plenty of action on i-bidder throughout the digger loader and telescopic sections with some buyers, who would normally attend in person, choosing a warm office and computer screen rather than a cold, wet field.

The excavators and loading shovels were next up and also benefited from the remote on line bidding service. The JCB JS130’s proved more difficult to sell than the equivalent size Hitachi which created some strong bidding and will soon be on its way to Sri Lanka.

Most of the mini diggers will be going to either France or Ireland with one or two staying in the UK and a few unsold. Dumpers were again a better trade with the majority going to either the Lebanon or Finland which, interestingly, are also the destination countries for most of the industrial forklifts, skid steers and rollers which we sold.

Overall a very successful Plant Sale leaving plenty of holes to fill for next auction so please let us have your entries as soon as possible.

Machinery

A fuller field of machinery ranging from small Vicon 600’s fertiliser spreaders all the way up to Sands SLC3000 self propelled sprayer met with improved trade this month. With spring just around the corner seasonal kit including fertiliser spreaders and sprayers sold well as did haymaking machinery. E.g. good ol’ haybobs sold for circa £600 all day, a sharp 2 year old Class 3050 disc mower made £3600 and really any such kit which had been well cared for made premium prices. Ploughs and primary cultivation equipment were a little quieter than expected, although a year 2003 Simba Solo from a local farmer made £9000.

Although the winter weather wasn’t really conducive for grasscutting equipment, with over 40% sold, the sale showed there is constant demand for mowers and such. Engines once again were in strong demand with over 70% sold to export biased purchasers. Perkins, Phaser, Deutz and CAT engines were the most popular and many 4cyl and 6cyl types made £1000 or more! Good quality tractor spares i.e cabs, doors and panels just about sold out this month for well over their reserves in many cases. There’s always a good demand for these from collectors and restorers so please check your barns and sheds, its amazing what now makes the money.!

Our new section of electrical items and generators once again was popular with 68% of PAT tested electrical items and 50% of generators being sold with the vast majority bought for export.

i-bidder.com, our internet bidding service added a helpful boost and with circa £400,000 of kit sold on-line, this is the best result to date. It’s always quite satisfying to see the “bid light” on the computer flash as a click on a computer mouse is made literally anywhere in the world and another lot is sold. This month we introduced i-bidder in the older tractor section and whilst we weren’t inundated with bids, I’m sure the popularity of such will increase as it has done in the other sale sections. In connection with this, any vendor with photo’s they’d like published can email them to me at the address below.

This week we attended “FIMA 2012” the largest agricultural show in Spain. Given that we have a number of strong Spanish buyers we thought we would target the Spanish machinery sector and promote the Cambridge Machinery Sales to a wider audience. We had a fantastic event with many potential new buyers saying they would attend our sales. We even had a couple of Jordanians who stated they would buy every single Massey Ferguson in our sale. Whilst talk is cheap…you never know.! _____________________________________________________________________

Our next sale will be held on Monday 12th March 2012 with the catalogue closing on Friday 24th February 2012 and repeating myself month after month, entries in all sections are requested.

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We have our Bristol sale on Wednesday 29th February and likewise we are still accepting last minute entries. Our Vintage sale is on Satur