Ag equipment auction values see biggest spread since 2015

Inventories are up in June in all segments of used agriculture equipment, causing a growing gap between market and auction prices.

As dealers continue to keep equipment prices low, auction and asking values have the biggest spread since 2015, Sandhills Global Equipment Lease and Finance Manager Jim Ryan told Equipment Finance News.

“Their price now is what they were priced nine months ago, which you just can’t do when you get today’s world,” Ryan said. “You’re seeing the auction values more so plummet on that side of things.”

Inventory of used tractors, planters and combines all rose year over year.

Used tractors, 100 horsepower or more

• Inventory decreased from May but rose 40.4% YoY in June;
• Auction values decreased 3.5% from May and dropped 6.1% YoY in June; and
• The spread between asking and auction values is 45%, above the historic 2015 39% peak.

Customers who didn’t purchase during COVID-era price highs come out in recent months to buy tractors across all classifications, said Ryan Himes, owner of Van Alstyne, Texas-based equipment dealer Himes Equipment.

“We’ve actually sold more tractors in the last three months than we have in the last four years,” he said.

Used planters

• Inventory decreased 0.2% from May but rose 16.2% YoY in June;
• Asking values dropped 1.7% from May but steadied YoY;
• Auction values rose around 1% from May but dropped 19.2% YoY; and
• The spread between auction and asking values rose to 73%, the largest difference since 2015.

Used combines

• Inventory dropped 1.6% from May but rose 11.1% YoY in June;
• Asking values saw no major change from May, but rose 11.2% YoY;
• Auction values dropped 2.8% from May, but are still 1.9% higher YoY; and
• The spread between the auction and asking values rose to 57%.

Used compact and utility tractors

• Inventory dropped 1.3% from May but rose 2.8% YoY in June; and
• Auction values dropped 0.9% from May and declined 4.2% YoY.

Compact, utility and subcompact tractors outperformed their higher-horsepower counterparts in sales, Chad Vitiritto, sales manager at Des Moines, Iowa-based Capital City Equipment, told EFN.

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