Used Equipment Prices Still Soaring

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (DTN) -- Used machinery prices continue to soar and there's not much of an end in sight, according to Mark Stock, CEO of Big Iron Auctions.

"Higher than high," he said in a recent interview.

Planters, trucks and tractors have been particularly hot on Big Iron, an online auction site for used farm and construction equipment as well as livestock and real estate.

"But, really, they're all super-hot," Stock said, pointing to an overall 35% increase in value in equipment on the site.

Overall, listings are down compared to a year ago. January 2021 featured about 6% more listings than January 2022. But prices are higher -- so much so the site has seen 12% more money change hands despite the decrease in listings.

That's not the statistical trend that's stood out from the Big Iron deals.

There are more farmers checking into each listing, helping to lead to those higher prices.

"We had a tractor, a John Deere 9460R, 2012 model, with 3,500 hours, bring $176,000, and there were eight different people bidding on it in the last half an hour," Stock said. "That's just a lot of people looking for that type of tractor and they're doing it from all over, not just from 100 miles away, but from 1,000."

That's shown up in the statistics, too: A year ago, the average buyer was 240 miles from the seller for a listing. This year, it's 305 miles, a 27% increase.

The wild increases in the value of used equipment may be helping make decisions for some farmers, especially those who were eyeing retirement in the next five or so years.

More and more often, Stock said, he's seeing farmers on the edge decide now's a good time to hand off the keys.

"If you know you're going to quit in a year or two, you know things are good now," he said. "The No. 1 reason people delay retiring when they're still in good health is because they don't want to pay Uncle Sam for recapturing stuff."

Joel Reichenberger can be reached at Joel.Reichenberger@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @JReichPF

(c) Copyright 2022 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.