Davenport, Fla. – There’s so much iron and metal that it’s too much for the eye to take in all at once – actually it’s impossible. We see front loaders, bulldozers, cherry pickers and dump-trucks. There are water trucks and sky-high cranes with arms that have been extended to look even bigger. They resemble the “daddy long leg” spiders I used to catch as a kid.
The first thing I notice right away are all the baseball caps. Most look old and worn. My guess is it’s probably favorite headgear. Frayed edges, some stained – and I’m pretty sure these folks don’t care.
There’s more than 3,500 people here at what’s been dubbed the world’s largest auction of industrial equipment in Davenport, Fla. Ritchie Brothers owns this 200-acre tract, and today there are close to 6,000 different pieces of heavy machinery up for auction.
Bidders from 75 different countries are represented here. We’re told most of this equipment comes from across the U.S., from companies and private owners who think it’s time to unload.
This could be for a couple of reasons. It could be the slow economy and fewer big projects on the horizon, or just families and small companies that couldn’t hang on any longer.
Pete Blake is the CEO of Ritchie Brothers. He’s tall and skinny, and like most of the crowd, he’s wearing a cap. Pete tells us that the auction, in its third day, is bringing in good numbers. Pieces are being bid on and bought quickly. He says that could mean a couple of things; either the sellers have a bad feeling that their industry hasn’t quite bottomed out, or, the buyers see a promising future – so good, in fact, that they want to bid on and buy as many pieces as possible.
The scene here is sort of a mechanical beauty pageant. Tons of machinery rolling by an audience, each piece having been cleaned and positioned to look its best.
Folks take notes as equipment is driven by in front of them – scribbling as fast as the auctioneer is spitting out numbers. It’s a language I don’t know.
Most of the bidders are men. A few women are scattered in the crowd. They would be hard to spot though if it were not for a whiff of perfume.
Photo courtesy: Ritchie Brothers