Ritchie Bros. conducted its largest Grande Prairie, AB, auction ever, selling more than 4,900 equipment items for over $63 million—surpassing the previous gross transaction value (GTV) record by 32 percent.

A record 12,350 online bidders from 53 countries registered for the Grande Prairie event. Approximately 91 percent of the equipment in the auction was purchased by Canadians, including 52 percent purchased by Albertans, while international bidders from as far away as Mexico, Romania and Taiwan purchased 9 percent. Due to COVID-19, the auction was conducted 100 percent online.

"With 4,900+ items to sell, we set up our first-ever, four-day Grande Prairie auction and the results were record breaking," said Terry Moon, Regional Sales Manager, Ritchie Bros. "We saw strong pricing for the construction and transportation equipment in the auction, including 121 excavators sold for (more than) $19 million! At the end of the auction we had set new records for lots sold, number of bidders registered and gross transaction value."

Leading up to the auction, buyers flocked to the company's website to check out the equipment selection. On rbauction.com, the Grande Prairie webpage received more than 582,000 unique page views, with 57,000 items added to customer personal watch lists.

Moon continued, "We also sold a large selection of pipeline equipment in this auction, including 80+ pipelayers.”

More than 375 owners consigned equipment to the Grande Prairie auction, including a complete dispersal for TalCan Oilfield Contracting Ltd.