FORT WORTH, TX — Ritchie Bros. conducted its largest ever Fort Worth, Texas, auction, selling close to 5,300 equipment items and trucks for over $81 million. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the auction was held with online bidding only and set a new site bidder record in the process, registering over 11,600 people from 68 countries.

Approximately 93 percent of the equipment in the auction was sold to U.S. buyers, including 43 percent purchased by Texas buyers, while international buyers from such countries as Australia, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates purchased 7 percent. Mobile app purchases made up 17 percent of total sales.

"We continue to break attendance records in 2020 — eclipsing 10,000 bidders for the first time in Texas — resulting in solid pricing across most equipment categories and record GTV in this week's Fort Worth auction," said Neal Black, Regional Sales Manager at Ritchie Bros. "We want to thank all our consignors and buyers for putting their trust in Ritchie Bros."

More than 20,000 PriorityBids were made in the Fort Worth auction — up 221 percent from the previous Fort Worth auction in March. A 2018 Freightliner CA126 Cascadia sleeper had more than 375 PriorityBids from 71 different bidders before it was sold by the live auctioneer.

Sales highlights in the Fort Worth auction included a 2013 Grove TMS900E 110-ton T/A hydraulic truck crane that sold for $420,000 to a buyer from Oregon; a 2019 John Deere 9570RX quadtrac track tractor that sold for $420,000 to a buyer from Texas; and a 2015 John Deere 1050K dozer that sold for $355,000 to a buyer from New Mexico. On day two of the auction the company sold over 800 truck tractors — the most ever in a single auction.