If it's cold, really cold, will they stay away?

I'm talking about buyers, from machinery auctions on very cold days. Does the adverse weather keep folks home?

You wouldn't believe how many calls I've had over the years late in the week from guys with their eye on a Saturday sale coming up. They know the forecast calls for frigid temps. The hopeful reasoning goes that no one in their right mind will want to stand around at the sale when its 10 degrees below zero. So there will be lots of good bargains, right?

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Wrong.

At least when it comes to temperature. Cold in and of itself won't keep determined buyers from the sale. In fact, for years I've thought those intensely cold sale days quite often wind up producing some of the highest sale prices.

Why? Maybe because more bargain hunters come out. Could be that bidders, after braving hours in the cold, figure if I have to go through this torture, by gosh I'm at least going to go home with that tractor. A couple shivering bidders like that equals high sale prices.

Here's how an auctioneer friend of mine, Kevin Kahler, from Fairmont, Minn. sums it up, "We have found that cold weather doesn't really hurt anything. Everybody always worries about the weather, but for every two persons you gain on a nice day you lose one bidder who is busy doing something else. I will take an average weather in January compared to a nice day in August. I would say that the summer day will draw at best 60-65% of the crowd."

Blowing snow, wind and ice are another matter. These factors can work to keep buyers away.

This last Saturday (January 22) was a good example as much of the country suffered through heavy snow & winds. Ken Mitchell, an auctioneer in southeast Michigan, had a sale last Saturday. He told me he felt the weather did keep some buyers away, but even so, he sold a Great Plains 24-foot no till drill for $12,700 to a buyer from Kentucky.

David Canning, an auctioneer from southern Illinois, also had a farm auction last Saturday. Despite the tough weather he reported a very large crowd. Buyers came from as far away as Ohio and Wisconsin. Sale prices were strong, highlighted by a CaseIH 2294 two-wheel drive tractor for $25,000 and a Kinze 3600 16/31 split-row planter for $61,500 (see the data table on the next page of this story for more auction prices on Kinze 3600 planters).

Modern technology is helping to mitigate the adverse effect weather has on sales. Buyers can scour internet web sites like ours, www.machinerypete.com, to look for equipment available on upcoming auctions all around the country in advance. With more auctioneers accepting phone bids and also live internet bids during their sales, buyers don't have to brave the elements.

Just let your fingers do the walking and dial up the auctioneer on your cell phone, or type in their web site on your computer. If you do head to the sale, bundle up, grab a hot chocolate and be ready to bid.