I'm curious about how landscaping companies deal with older equipment when they upgrade their fleets. Do most businesses prefer to sell machines directly, trade them in, auction them off, or scrap them? If you've experienced this, I'd love to know how you handled it and what methods have worked best for you.
3 Answers
I've found that selling directly to customers or through auctions works well. The 'Cascade Sale' approach from Boom & Bucket is pretty clever: you try to sell retail first and if it doesn’t move, you send it to auction. It's a quicker route and often nets more than a simple trade-in.
When it comes to offloading older machines, it really depends on the situation. Many just go with trade-ins or auctions, based on the offers they get. If you get a decent trade-in value, it can save time and hassle. But if the offer isn’t great, auctions like Purplewave can help because they vet everything and show the equipment’s issues and hours openly.
I generally prefer to trade-in whenever possible, especially if the value makes sense. If that’s not viable, I either auction or sell directly. Although I must say, dealing with the public can be a pain and often isn't worth the effort.