Monday, Jun 18, 2018 at 11:18
Lyndon - As a buyer of vehicles at auctions for myself and for the family business for probably more than 40 years, I can assure you that the "old days" of getting excellent, 2 year old, 70,000 km (40,000 mile) ex-Govt vehicles at auction are long gone.
There have been huge changes in the way Govt and Councils own and operate their vehicles in the last decade or more.
Often, the vehicles are kept much longer than 2 years. If their designated changeover date comes up and it's realised that the vehicle is still very low kms, it will be kept, or handed to another Dept to put more kms on.
Often, low km vehicles are sent to auction and if they don't make good money, they are withdrawn from sale and kept.
The auction houses now specialise in keeping prices up, they just keep passing the vehicle in - and if it still doesn't meet their idea of value, they put it up for a "fixed price sale". Naturally, that fixed price will be a top dollar figure.
Internet auctions are the worst thing ever devised. You have no idea of how many shill bidders there are, who's bidding against you, or if you are even going to win.
To top it all, the old "last-second, beat the hammer-drop" bid technique can't be used. I've won hundreds and hundreds of auctions that way, it was a real psych operation to let another buyer think they had the item, then snatch it at the last second.
Now, with internet auctions, you will find a last second bid extends the auction by up to 10 minutes - and gives other buyers time to think and make additional bids they wouldn't have done otherwise in a regular auction.
The best auctions are still the on-site auctions, with no internet bidding. Most often, company bankruptcies provide the best offerings for barely-used vehicles.
Graysonline are one of the very few auction houses that post the sale prices of their sold vehicles.
Every other auction house ensures that any genuine sale price is not advertised, and removed immediately, to keep buyers in the dark.
The only way to find actual sale prices is to attend auctions or watch them live online.
Even then, it's difficult, as the auction house will take up to 5 minutes to decide whether a vehicle will be sold, or passed in - and you don't find out unless you're a registered bidder or at the auction in person.
Unfortunately, Toyotas sell at a bigger premium to other brands, and its getting worse.
Toyota ensure this via careful control, and tight branding, image-upkeep, and slick marketing.
And the worst offenders for "premium pricing" are the Toyota 4WD's and the Landcruisers especially.
The simple problem is, with your search, it's difficult to find a Landcruiser ute that hasn't been worked in a serious manner. They're bought to work and virtually all are worked hard.
You may get lucky and find an old fella who has bought one at age 85 and who uses it for a shopping trolley - or a company has gone broke and the liquidator is selling everything as fast as they can - but even then, the big money will rapidly appear and that Landcruiser ute will bring huge money, because they simply cost so much, when new.
I have a nephew running a large earthmoving contracting business, and he has a number of single-cab Landcruiser trayback utes on the road, fully equipped with all the good gear - barwork, wide wheels, radios, extra lights, toolboxes, etc, etc - and they are costing him $109,000 fully-equipped, on the road.
Cheers, Ron
AnswerID:
619659
Follow Up By: Member - lyndon NT - Thursday, Jun 21, 2018 at 20:32
Thursday, Jun 21, 2018 at 20:32
Hi Ron
Thanks for your in depth reply.
The vehicles I was referring to were 40k in metric terms, so quite new.
You have certainly clarified a couple of things for us. Especially, "where are the sold prices".
They are an expensive bit of kit once all the goodies are added.
Mine was 93,000
in 2005 dollars.
"You may get lucky and find an old fella who has bought one at age 85 and who uses it for a shopping trolley - or a company has gone broke and the liquidator is selling everything as fast as they can - but even then, the big money will rapidly appear and that Landcruiser ute will bring huge money, because they simply cost so much, when new."
Well not quite..............
I bought
mine at 35 years of age and it only has 93,000 Kilometers on it.
Now looking at those 2 figures it has cost me a dollar for every kilometer traveled + costs.
No wonder I'm broke!
Cheers
Lyndon
FollowupID:
892050