Maintaining a working, efficient fleet of equipment is a tough job. Regardless of your organization's size, acquiring and disposing of equipment can heavily impact your bottom line. The traditional model for buying and selling equipment has typically been through your local dealership. However, several other factors often influence a buying or selling decision that may impact your ability to move equipment, according to Purple Wave Auction.

New contracts or a shift in project priorities can place tight timelines on equipment management. Understanding the current value of your equipment and current market conditions can heavily influence your possible return. Changing brands or types of equipment may bring challenging discussions regarding the value of the equipment. Finally, what resources do you have to apply towards managing your fleet in terms of time and manpower?

Using internet equipment auctions can help you overcome the problems of tight timelines, market value and changing brands, according to the company. Using a no-reserve auction is the best and most efficient way to immediately bring buyers together for your equipment. No-reserve auctions happen every day on the internet and their community of buyers can easily be evaluated with some time on site and a phone call with the local sales representative. Some internet auction companies are getting millions of site visitors, which makes their buying community quite large. In addition, the timeline for moving equipment can be fast, often as short as a few weeks to a month.

Ensuring that your equipment is bringing market value is important in your long-term financial success. Using auction platforms that have a large volume of buyers, including end users and  equipment dealers, ensures that market prices are paid for your equipment. The most important thing to consider when choosing an auction company is the size of the auction audience. Selling construction equipment to a buying community that is used to buying surplus office equipment is not going to be a satisfying experience for either party. Likewise, trying to sell every last piece of surplus equipment through one outlet may not maximize your returns.

Finally, when changing brands or types of equipment, it may be in your best interest to thoroughly evaluate your dealer’s trade-in value and ability to move non-branded equipment out of their inventory. No-reserve auctions do not have this issue of brand loyalty or limited channels for equipment. Often, dealerships look to auctions to aid them when moving non-branded equipment out of their supply chain.

Using no-reserve auctions can help you shorten the timeline on selling or trading equipment, ensure that you are receiving market value for your equipment and maximize your time and effort in managing your fleet.