IronPlanet’s contribution to the equipment industry was making sight-unseen buying credible. Their inspection reports come with a guarantee behind them, and that guarantee is what let buyers commit to a machine 1,200 miles away without visiting it.
If you are looking for alternatives, the question to ask about each one is the same: what does it do about the trust problem? Here are eight, and their answers.
1. Purple Wave
Fully online, fully unreserved, published flat fees. Their approach to trust is transparency — no reserves to guess at, no negotiated commission, everything sells. Strong across construction, agriculture, trucks and municipal equipment, with the machine staying at the seller’s location until sold.
2. BigIron
Unreserved online auctions with agricultural weighting and no buyer’s premium on many sales. That premium policy pulls buyers in, which is exactly what a seller wants. Deep relationships across the American farm belt.
3. EquipmentFacts
The online bidding platform behind a large number of independent equipment auctioneers. Going through a local auctioneer who lists here often means lower total commission than a national house while retaining national online reach — the best of both, if your auctioneer is good.
4. Machinery Trader
Listings rather than auction, and for a seller in no particular hurry that is often the cheaper route — a private treaty sale avoids auction commission entirely. It is also the price reference the whole category checks before bidding anywhere, so listing here has marketing value even if you sell elsewhere.
5. TractorHouse
The agricultural equivalent, with the deepest listings catalogue for tractors, combines and farm implements. Essential for valuation research and a genuine sales channel in its own right.
6. GovPlanet
Ex-military and government equipment. Relevant primarily as a buying alternative — the inventory is genuinely different, and the restrictions on some lots require careful reading of terms.
7. BidSpotter
Industrial plant, machine tools and manufacturing closures rather than yellow iron. If you are disposing of a machine shop or a production line, the buyers are here, not on a construction equipment platform.
8. Regional auctioneers
Consistently underrated. A well-established local auctioneer with a real buyer list, simulcasting online, frequently matches national results at lower commission on single machines and small fleets — where a national marketing campaign was never going to be justified anyway.
The inspection question
Whatever platform you choose, inspection quality determines your realised price more than anything else. The evidence for this is consistent across every equipment category: machines with thorough, standardised, independently verified condition documentation sell for more than identical machines described loosely.
If your chosen platform does not provide inspection, commission one independently. The cost is small relative to the price difference it produces.
What a good equipment listing contains
- Verified hour or mileage reading with a photograph of the meter
- Serial number, photographed, matching the documentation
- Cold start video — the single most requested item by remote buyers
- Undercarriage and wear-item assessment with percentages
- Fluid analysis results where available
- Honest disclosure of faults, which counterintuitively increases bidding rather than reducing it
- Complete attachment and implement inventory
That last point about honest disclosure is worth dwelling on. Buyers assume undisclosed problems exist. Documenting the faults you know about converts a general suspicion into a specific, priceable deduction — and priceable is always better than unknown.
When to run your own sales
Dealers with a steady trade-in flow eventually find that platform commission exceeds what a platform of their own would cost. The equipment-specific requirements are well trodden: hour meters, attachment inventories, serial verification, structured inspection templates with enforced photo angles, and integrated transport quoting.
We covered the full architecture in building an industrial equipment auction platform, the landscape in best heavy equipment auction sites, and the modules in farm equipment auction software.
Frequently asked questions
Does my machine have to be transported to the auction?
Not on online-only platforms — Purple Wave, IronPlanet and BigIron all sell machines where they stand. Traditional yard-based sales usually require transport, which is a real cost to factor in.
Is an inspection guarantee worth paying for?
For remote buyers it is the difference between bidding and not bidding. As a seller, it consistently returns more than it costs.
Auction or private treaty listing?
Auction for speed and certainty of sale; listing for maximum price if you can wait. Fleet dispersals almost always favour auction, single specialist machines often favour listing.
