What equipment brings at auction versus dealer asking price, 2026
Used equipment sold at public online auction for a median 64% of the asking price on a matching dealer listing, across 233 matched pairs observed between October 2025 and September 2026. Row-crop tractors held closest to asking at 73%. Class 8 day-cab trucks sat lowest at 62%, and the middle half of truck pairs ran from 48% to 80%.
Each pair is the same make and model, within two model years and 25% of the hours or miles: one auction sold price, one dealer asking price. Asking is not a selling price. The ratio is an observed public figure, not an orderly or forced liquidation value opinion.
By Jared Lukes · CEO & lead appraiserUpdated
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Auction sold price as a share of dealer asking price, by asset class
Median sold-to-asking ratio by asset class, with the middle half of pairs (interquartile range). Sold prices include the buyer's premium.
| Asset class | Matched pairs | Median sold / asking | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|
| Row-crop tractors, 175 to 400 hp | 32 | 73% | 63% to 88% |
| Crawler excavators, 20 to 35 metric ton | 14 | 68% | 62% to 82% |
| Skid steers and compact track loaders | 21 | 63% | 60% to 87% |
| Class 8 day-cab truck tractors | 166 | 62% | 48% to 80% |
| All pairs | 233 | 64% | 52% to 82% |
Sold: Purple Wave online auctions, October 2025 to September 2026 (skid steers January to September 2026). Asking: Machinery Pete and Rock & Dirt dealer listings live on September 30, 2026 (skid steers September 26, 2026). Every record, with its link, is in the CSV download.
What the data shows
- Auction came in under asking in most pairs. 83% of day-cab pairs, 79% of excavator pairs, 91% of tractor pairs and 95% of skid steer pairs sold below the matched ask.
- Some auction units beat the ask. 35 of 233 pairs sold at or above the matched dealer ask. Asks vary as much as sales do.
- Newer day cabs gave up the most against asking. By age of the sold truck: 48% for 5 years old or newer (40 pairs), 62% for 6 to 10 years (80 pairs), 81% for 11 years and older (46 pairs).
- The spread is wide. Truck pairs ran from 12% to 302% of asking. A single pair is not a value for any machine.
What the ratio is, and what it is not
The ratio compares two public figures for similar machines on the same day's market. It is not a premise of value.
- Asking is not selling. A dealer's ask is an opening position. Dealers sell below ask, so this ratio overstates the gap between auction and what a dealer finally collects. See appraised value versus a listing price.
- Not orderly or forced liquidation value. OLV, FLV and NOLV are appraisal opinions on a defined premise, for a specific asset and date. This page reports what public records show. See FMV, OLV, FLV and NOLV explained.
- Not a discount to apply. Condition, options, attachments, region and timing move any machine off these medians.
Method
- Sold side. Closed lots from Purple Wave, read from the public search behind its closed-auction results. Price is the contract price: hammer plus buyer's premium. A serial number or VIN sold more than once counts once, at its latest close.
- Asking side. Used dealer listings with a price and an hour or mileage reading from Machinery Pete (tractors, excavators) and Rock & Dirt (excavators, day cabs, skid steers). Private-party, new and auction-linked listings were dropped.
- Condition screen, both sides. Listings describing a non-running unit, parts or core sale, engine, transmission, turbo or rear-end trouble, smoke or blow-by, a salvage or rebuilt title, or unverified mileage were removed.
- Matching. Same make and model, model years within 2, hours or miles within 25% of the higher reading (floor of 300 hours or 50,000 miles). Closest candidates were paired first, and each sale and each ask was used once.
- Classes. Tractors: models with asks in Machinery Pete's 175 to 299 hp and 300+ hp bands, articulated four-wheel-drive models and models over 400 hp excluded. Excavators: Caterpillar 320 to 335 and other builders' 200 to 350 size models. Day cabs: Purple Wave truck tractors with no sleeper against Rock & Dirt day-cab listings.
- Statistics. Ratio = sold price / asking price for each pair. Median and interquartile range per class.
CNC vertical machining centers were in the original design. The auction source carried none in the window, and the dealer-asking sources for machine tools refused automated reading, so skid steers took the fourth slot.
Limits
- One auction house. Purple Wave runs unreserved online sales with a Midwest and Plains weighting.
- Tractor pairs are 28 of 32 John Deere. Excavators have 14 pairs.
- Several day-cab pairs come from one fleet's disposal of 2017 Freightliner Cascadia 125s and one dealer's asks.
- Sales span twelve months. Asks are a single day's snapshot.
- A keyword screen catches only the defects a listing mentions.
Updates
Updated quarterly. This edition: data as of September 30, 2026. The next edition adds the fourth quarter of 2026 and, where access allows, more auction houses. The dataset, methods and collection scripts are kept so each edition can be rerun the same way.
Sources
Sold prices: Purple Wave closed online auctions. Asking prices: Machinery Pete dealer listings and Rock & Dirt dealer listings. Full record list with a link for every sale and every ask: auction-vs-asking-2026-q3.csv, licensed CC BY 4.0 (reuse with credit to Lukes & Lukes). Figures are observed public prices and are not a USPAP-compliant appraisal of any asset.
Common questions
Answers, up front.
How much below dealer asking price does used equipment sell at auction?
In 233 matched pairs from October 2025 to September 2026, the auction sold price was a median 64% of the matching dealer asking price, with the middle half between 52% and 82%. By class: row-crop tractors 73%, crawler excavators 68%, skid steers and compact track loaders 63%, Class 8 day-cab trucks 62%.
Is the auction-to-asking ratio the same as orderly liquidation value?
No. The ratio compares two public prices for similar machines. Orderly liquidation value is an appraiser's opinion for a specific asset on a defined premise and date. The ratio is market evidence an appraiser may weigh; it is not a value.
Which equipment class sold closest to dealer asking price at auction in 2026?
Row-crop tractors of 175 to 400 hp, at a median 73% of the matched dealer ask across 32 pairs. Class 8 day-cab trucks sold furthest below, at a median 62% across 166 pairs.
Do newer trucks sell closer to asking price at auction than older trucks?
Not in this data. Day-cab trucks 5 years old or newer sold for a median 48% of the matched ask. Trucks 6 to 10 years old sold for 62%, and trucks 11 years and older for 81%.