Gov Planet fee increase for bidders

[rickf]

Just got an e-mail from Richie Bros. They are raising the bidders fee to 15% so they can squeeze even more profit from the surplus they get for free and pay the government pennies on the dollar. I will not be buying anything more from Gov Deals or Gov Planet.

Dear valued customer, We’re reaching out to notify you of adjustments to our Buyer fee structure effective Jan. 1, 2025. Going forward, there will be a 15% Buyer fee on all items sold on GovPlanet. This change allows us to support ongoing investments and ensure we continue delivering value for our customers that falls in line with rising operational costs. We want to thank you for your business and wish you all the best in 2025. If you have any questions, please reach out to your sales representative or contact us at 1-844-225-8799.

 

[pstansel74]

There's nothing I need from them right now, but that does suck.

 

[rickf]

A lot of new surplus buyers do not realize there is a substantial buyers fee. Now it is even more substantial, For every 1000.00 you spend it is another 150.00 for the fee. That can really add up on a vehicle or genset!!!!!

 

[WWRD99]

I got that too. It won't effect me since I don't buy things that cost much. The scale was already 15%. It raised the fee for things over 5 or 10k I think...it was 10% now 15%...which is nuts!! I think in 2018 the fee was 5%. They don't do the pallet pot luck stuff anymore either.

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[jcollings]

Happy New Year

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[rickf]

I thought it was 13%?

 

[fuzzytoaster]

When I see a fee imposed for my "convenience", "support", "value", etc this quote always come to mind:

“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be REDUCED to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.” ― George Orwell, 1984

Yup, and this fee hike has been in the works for a few years now. Remember when it was only a 10% fee and $65 for an SF-97? Remember when it was anything under $10,000 was a 15% fee and anything over was only 10%? Now SF-97 are $115? No no.. It's now a 15% fee for everyone for "delivering value for our customers" (direct from the email).

They make more margin from their fees than they do by percentage on most items so this shifts the paradigm into their favor more and less going into Uncle Sam's pocket. With them having no opposing bidder in the last surplus contract renewal they were able to rewrite things to their advantage there too. They get it on both ends.

Oh, Ritchie Bros decreased their fees at the same time today on items under $5000 from 15% to 10%. All items under $25,000 are 10%. Any items over $25,000 are only 5%. They claim the same "delivering value of our customers" but went the opposite way in fees. So which is it? Which is giving more value to the customers?

 

[Ray70]

In addition to the buyer's fees, don't forget tax and the 3% credit card fee. By the time you're done it's another 25% over bid price, plus transportation.

 

[Tinstar]

Every trailer I bought from GovPlanet had a “Diesel tax” added.
$10 I believe it was.

Had to call them every time and explain that the trailers I bought do not have engines.
“Whoops…..sorry” was the attitude from the staff.

Same thing for my Tax Exempt status.

Wonder how many people didn’t catch it or just paid it to avoid the hassle of calling them.

I no longer buy anything from them and haven’t for the last two years.

15% just solidifies it.

 

[Ray70]

I hear you! my last purchase I spent over a week trying to get my tax cert renewed. Eventually I had to pay full price, including the tax on the last day and then work several more days to get it renewed. Eventually it got fixed and they credited back the taxes I paid, but that took another 15 days before I actually received the credit.
On the final day to pay for the item their website had problems and you couldn't enter credit card info.... 3 phone calls talking to 3 different departments only to find out you can't pay over the phone, had to wait and just keep trying until the website was working again.

 

[Tinstar]

Sounds about par for the course with them.

Last thing I bought they tried to do a switch.
Item I was paying for was different that what I bid on. (Portable shelter in an orange crate).

What I was “paying for” was the same thing, same brand and all, just a less expensive model that wasn’t what I bid on and won, which was a higher quality model.

Was on the phone for days and not one person seemed to comprehend the issue.
After about 2 weeks finally got the sale canceled.

Haven’t been back since.

The 15% thing doesn’t surprise me at all.
Knowing they don’t have competition and it’s their ballgame now.

Like you said, that adds a lot of extra cost that buyers have to figure in now.

 

[rickf]

I assure you that Richie Bros. is not paying the government much more than maybe 10% of the sale price to the government. Oh, I remember when you could buy a M1070 for 1,000 or less because nobody wanted them. Then Richie started selling them with minimum bids like 10,000. and they were selling due to people actually thinking they were worth that much. The government does not care what they get back, that equipment was all paid for at least ten years ago and it was money that came from big budgets, not out of their till. Richie Bros. has become a very rich organization due to this contract. If they ever lose it watch how fast their overall sales drop.

 

[rickf]

Are the newer gensets even worth buying? From what I have heard they are like most modern equipment and you need proprietary computers to work on them. Even worse is that you need updates on the software for those computers if you could even get hold of one and you are not going to be able to get updates. I have an exercise machine I bought years ago from GL and it actually has to be programmed with a special computer. I can live with the programming it has in it but if it ever goes down it is scrap.

 

[biscuitwhistler37]

Nothing worse than legal scalping. How hard would it be to form an organization to give them some competition?

 

[rickf]

You would need a LOT of capital and good government connections to get the contract. To be honest, I think they have this locked up for the foreseeable future due mainly to their extensive sales locations. All mostly built on the fortunes made from Government sales. they may be shysters' but they are very smart shysters and have put that money to good use for themselves. Unless the government steps in and caps their fees nothing is going to happen to them. What you could do if you knew the procedure is get all the info from the government on how much they are getting from these sales. Then circulate that info through the places that are doing the buying. That would be an eye opener!!! I guarantee a lot of people would stop buying until starting bid prices dropped drastically.

 

[jcollings]

Definitely not the old liquidity services days.

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[FarmingSmallKubota]

If everything was labeled as border walls they would have more people looking. look how fast all of those got pulled off the auction block

 

[Capt Pat]

Its worse all round, our regional historic preservation and public education organization (I'll not use its name here, you all understand why) has /had access to Government excess property to use in our youth mentoring programs. (we have two that we sponsor) It was a neat way to secure things for the kids to use for training, education and fun. Small craft, safety gear, tools even vehicles to carry them to events or set them up to participate in parades. It used to be a percent of value turn over fee. YEAH RIGHT, now its like fifteen percent of its ORIGINAL acquisition price. Not many Not for profits can afford THAT. We can't.

 

[rickf]

Just like any other auction house, the only way to change things is stop buying, refuse to pay the outrageous starting bid price. That does happen now but not enough. They usually put the item up several times at that high price and then they lower the opening bid. Yes, I also miss the old GL days. Forklift holes and all. If I remember correctly there was no opening bid. If there was it was really cheap. DRMO was also nice but you had to be there to bid.

 

[98G]

Just like any other auction house, the only way to change things is stop buying, refuse to pay the outrageous starting bid price. That does happen now but not enough. They usually put the item up several times at that high price and then they lower the opening bid. Yes, I also miss the old GL days. Forklift holes and all. If I remember correctly there was no opening bid. If there was it was really cheap. DRMO was also nice but you had to be there to bid.

If it's forklift holes you're missing, rejoice! Those are still readily available.