Auction, broker, or outright sale: choosing the exit for your machinery

There are only 3 ways machinery leaves a plant for money. Everything else is a variation. The right choice depends on 4 things: how fast you need it gone, how much certainty you need, who carries the risk, and how much of your own time you are willing to spend.

Outright sale to a dealer

You agree a number, the dealer pays, the machines become the dealer’s problem. This is the only route that gives you a fixed amount and a fixed date at the same time.

It is the right choice when the deadline is real, when your team has no capacity to run a disposal project, or when the value is concentrated in a handful of machines that a dealer in that industry actually wants. It is also the only route where the removal risk transfers: if the machine turns out to be harder to get out than anyone thought, that is now the buyer’s cost.

The trade-off is the ceiling. A dealer buys to resell, so the number reflects what they can do with it, the cost of moving and storing it, and the time they expect to hold it. If a machine is genuinely rare and you have 9 months, you will probably beat this number by waiting.

Broker or consignment

The machine stays yours. Somebody markets it to their buyer network and takes a percentage when it sells.

This is the right choice when the machine has a real second-hand market, when you have time, and when you can leave it in place without paying for the space. The ceiling is the highest of the 3 routes, because you are selling to an end user rather than to a middleman.

The trade-off is that you carry everything until it sells: the space, the insurance, the risk that the market for that machine softens, and the possibility that it does not sell at all. Read the agreement for 2 things in particular. First, is it exclusive, and for how long. Second, who pays for the removal if the buyer is overseas and the crating turns out to be a project.

Auction

A date is set, the lots are advertised, and on the day the room decides. Online, on site, or both.

Auctions are honest about what they are: a mechanism for converting a floor of equipment into money on a known date. They are the right answer more often than sellers want to admit. If the site must be empty by a fixed date, if there are hundreds of mixed lots rather than a few good machines, or if a lender or a court is driving the timetable, an auction will beat both other routes on speed and on completeness, because it clears the general plant equipment that nobody else will take.

The trade-off is the number and the variance. Auction pricing sits at forced liquidation value by definition, and the result depends on who shows up. Two identical sales 3 months apart can produce very different totals. Read the terms for the commission structure, the buyer’s premium, whether reserves are permitted, and who pays for the marketing if the sale is canceled.

How to choose, in 4 questions

1. What is the immovable date? If there is one and it is inside 60 days, you are choosing between outright sale and auction. A broker cannot help you.
2. Is the value concentrated or spread? A few good machines and a lot of general equipment usually means 2 routes, not 1. Sell the good machines, auction the rest.
3. Who can carry the risk? If your organization cannot hold the space, the insurance and the uncertainty, buy certainty and take the lower number. That is not a failure, it is a purchase.
4. How much of your own team’s time is this worth? Consignment is the cheapest in commission and the most expensive in hours. Somebody has to answer the questions, arrange the viewings and chase the buyer’s rigger.

What we do

We buy outright, and we place machines with our buyer network across 18 industries. We will tell you plainly when an auction is the better answer for what you have, because sending you to the right route costs us 1 deal and sending you to the wrong one costs us a reputation. Send the list and we will tell you which of the 3 we think it is, and why.