Ritchie Bros. sold more than 2,800 items for over $29 million in its largest-ever automated online Timed Auction event in Sacramento, CA. With the Timed Auction format, buyers place a maximum bid online and the system bids for them up to that amount with regular automated feedback if they are outbid—it saves time for buyers and drives strong returns for sellers.

"We introduced Timed Auctions to help us sell attachments and smaller items more efficiently, but over the years we have optimized it to transact items of all sizes and get big returns for our sellers," said Brian Hamre, Regional Sales Manager, Ritchie Bros. "Our Sacramento event last week attracted an average of 37 bids per lot, showcasing the strong buyer demand in the market today."

The record-breaking Sacramento Timed Auction event attracted more than 8,250 bidders from over 40 countries, which is a 25 percent increase year over year. Approximately 97 percent of the equipment in the auction was sold to U.S. buyers, including 63 percent sold to Californians, while the remaining 3 percent was sold to international buyers from as far away as Guatemala, India and Australia.

"We are continuously reviewing and updating our technology to ensure we meet the evolving needs of our customers and the industries in which we operate," said Baron Concors, Chief Information Officer, Ritchie Bros. "Our online Timed Auction format provides great convenience and transparency to customers. Timed Auctions provide details on exactly when the item will sell, you're notified if and when you're outbid, we've added item time extensions to allow buyers more time to decide, and you can choose your own language to bid in. We also recently added Timed Auction bidding functionality to our mobile app to make buying online easier than ever."