Gov Planet fee increase for bidders

[DieselAddict]

For the last auction in mid December where I picked up a couple of items, they charged me the 15% premium. Was very noticeable on the MEP803.

Its not likely that I'll be back to buy anything.

 

[fuzzytoaster]

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

Funny enough I bought the small Hyster forklift from RRAD that GL owned when they croaked. It put holes in so many canned transmissions, crates, etc.. I call it the "Hole Puncher"

 

[NDT]

Funny enough I bought the small Hyster forklift from RRAD that GL owned when they croaked. It put holes in so many canned transmissions, crates, etc.. I call it the "Hole Puncher"

Don't forget the hole they punched in my bridge erection boat right in front of me. Could have killed the guy.

 

[dav5]

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.

Ritchie Brothers was a very successful heavy equipment auctioneer way before they took over Government sales. They are a very well run company and they maximize profits. Losing the contract wouldn't put them under. I look back fondly on my purchases of low hour MEP 803A's for well under $2000 but unfortunately those days are long gone

 

[Tinstar]

GL starting bid was $25.
They also had a warehouse in Oklahoma City
I miss them also.

GovPlanet closed the warehouse and started bids ridiculously high.
Yet items still sell.

Rumor has it someone leaked GLs bid amount (to Richie Bros) for the contract and Richie was able to win.


No experience with most military generators.
I have my trusty MEP-002A
It’s louder than a convey of tanks rolling by but never has let me down.

 

[fuzzytoaster]

Rumor has it someone leaked GLs bid amount (to Richie Bros) for the contract and Richie was able to win.

It's been hinted at that there was some "tomfoolery" on both sides including GL suing after the contract awarding, but the thing that sold Uncle Sam most on the original two contracts (basically rolling stock & non-rolling stock to keep it simple) was the % of return to Uncle Sam. For the rolling stock, GP purchased the items at up to 6% of acquired value and Uncle Sam got 75% of the bid auction price. This did not include the GP fees, SF-97 costs, etc which went straight to GP. You can imagine GP playing with the numbers and they can really get some margin in there for themselves.

It gets interesting when items were wiped off the books and DTID tags show value as $0001.00 dollars or etc. You can see where some items made big money and others made GP eat their own hat like the piles of wall material that went up for auction. The best thing for them was consistent manageable product with relatively low acquisition cost and no civilian market supply to compete with. They can legally do anything they want with the items turned over to them including not sell them (but they eventually will if the price is right).

If you've noticed some auction items were changed from "Sold" to "Buy it now" pricing, those are when the buyer filed a claim against the item and instead of GP eating the difference they altered the reported price back to Uncle Sam so he received less as the item was technically resold at a lower value to compensate for the issue. Again, they can play with the reported numbers.

Now, all this is old info and only applied to the original contracts. When GP won the new contract, yes both contracts were combined into a single contract, they were able to get better terms for themselves. This was in part to no other bidder on the contract due to terms (like having $200m in liquid capital), but also Uncle Sam has been reportedly satisfied with how things have been handled financially and physically.

 

[Ray70]

Something else that I personally aren't all that pleased with is that now RB sells private owner items ( mostly vehicles ) I've seen one in particular with starting prices of $32,000 for a junk pickup worth maybe $6000, running it over and over again, still with no bids. Not sure if the owner sets the opening bid?
But that is just a ridiculous waste of time.
They also contract container loads of Chinese built equipment, like these mini skid steers and micro excavators they are selling.
Guess it's all part of the RB business model, There's an A$$ for every seat, so if they list it, it will eventually sell and RB will profit from it!

 

[rickf]

Ray, what they are doing is rolling the military sales into the civilian sales they have done for years. This way they can get more on the block in any given sale day. And Fuzzy, now that you mention the 25.00 opening bid I do remember that but it is so low considering what I was bidding on it was inconsequential.

 

[swbradley1]

Something else that I personally aren't all that pleased with is that now RB sells private owner items ( mostly vehicles ) I've seen one in particular with starting prices of $32,000 for a junk pickup worth maybe $6000, running it over and over again, still with no bids. Not sure if the owner sets the opening bid?
But that is just a ridiculous waste of time.
They also contract container loads of Chinese built equipment, like these mini skid steers and micro excavators they are selling.
Guess it's all part of the RB business model, There's an A$$ for every seat, so if they list it, it will eventually sell and RB will profit from it!

My Brother and I watched the mini-excavators last month. I wanted one for the flower beds and $3500 for a brand new machine didn't seem horrible but I'm much cheaper than that. I get my GP stuff out of Columbus and I bought a one-way 20 foot container out of Cincinnati. I'm going to be getting more of the containers. 10 years ago they were over twice what I paid if you could get one.

And yes, we got the 15% bullcrap notice as well.....

 

[Ray70]

I bought one of the JQ Power mini skid steers out of NJ. figured I'd try it for little projects where the backhoe and excavator would make a mess. It's ok, but kind of poor build quality. the track design sucks, keeps throwing the tracks every time you turn wrong. I tried modifying the undercarriage by adding 8 additional rollers, making it more like the Kubota design, but still throwing the tracks on uneven ground, no matter how tight I adjust them.
I'd imagine I'll be completely on my own as far as parts in the future, but I'd bet all the Chinese skid steers come out of the same factory, just painted different colors with different stickers on them!

Luckily I bought just before Thanksgiving and paid 10% still...