Agricultural News
BigIron.com Revolutionizes Heavy Equipment Auctions
Tue, 08 Apr 2014 17:44:59 CDT
Unquestionably, technology has changed forever the way we do things. One area that might not seem too amenable to radical change would be the buying and selling of heavy equipment, right?
Nothing could be further from the truth, says Mike Wolfe, BigIron.com's district manager for Oklahoma, northern Texas and New Mexico. He took a few minutes to talk with Radio Oklahoma Network's Ron Hays at the recent Oklahoma City Farm Show. (You can listen to their conversation by clicking on the LISTEN BAR at the bottom of this story.)
The easiest way to describe Big Iron might be to say it is ebay on steroids. The website offers farm, transportation and construction equipment for sale each week. Wolfe says the service has smashed all expectations and now gets more than seven million hits each month on Google.
The concept is simple, a seller decides to list the item with Big Iron and a Big Iron representative comes and takes pictures of the item, gets a full description from the seller and posts it on the website. Viewers from all across the world can view the item and bid on it. The item doesn't leave its home until it has been sold.
Wolfe says that is a tremendous advantage for buyer and seller alike. It saves each of them tremendous amounts of time that they would otherwise be spending in travel to and from auctions in search of items or bidders that might not be the proper fit. Buyers can call up the item on the internet and call the buyer if they have specific questions before they bid.
Unlike ebay sales which are opening and closing at all hours of the day and night seven days a week, Big Iron organizes its auctions into discreet sales which close beginning at 10 a.m. each Wednesday. This week's sale features 773 items up for online auction.
As the business continues to grow, Wolfe says they have gained some great insights into how better to bring buyers and sellers together through the magic of the internet.
"With Google analytics we get to track now and know where our buyers are coming from. We know what the top states are, the top countries. I would have never dreamed we would have been talking about foreign countries."
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They've had buyers from Germany, Australia, Canada and Mexico. Items sold here in Oklahoma have gone as far as Colombia in South America.
Wolfe says they are continuing to upgrade their services and now offer Big Iron as a mobile phone app for farmers who follow the auctions even while they are driving their tractors.
"We have to change right along with everybody else. Who would have ever thought you'd look at the internet to buy a piece of equipment? We keep continuing to upgrade what we do. We started out in a little farm community in the center of Nebraska and here we are nationwide right now. And here we are in Oklahoma looking at a piece of equipment a farmer is selling in Montana, for example."
Click here to check out this week's sale items. If you'd like more information about buying and selling online at Big Iron, you can contact Mike Wolfe at (580) 320-2718 or via email at mike.wolfe@bigiron.com.
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