Little Coronavirus update for you guys...
100% of my auctions have gone online only sales, whether it be a live auctioneer with no audience or timed auctions with set end times. More interesting to me is the state of IL is not allowing sales of ANY vehicles that would be considered "public use". With that, none of the cars, SUV's, minivans, full-size vans or ANY pickup truck that has a "normal" pickup style bed are allowed to be sold. Only vehicles and equipment that are "essential to maintaining infrastructure" are allowed to be sold. This includes any vehicle with a "utliity" body on it, bucket trucks, service/mechanic trucks, etc as well as any heavy equipment and trailers.
One of the largest auctions that I count on for about 10-15% of my annual sales (they run 3/year so 30-45% annually) which usually consists of 750-800 lots currently has 218 selling. They had 634 items in inventory with a week to go before the sale before everything got shut down.
I'm still getting calls on items I have for sale, I have PayPal, Zelle/quick pay and Square at my disposal to handle no-cash, no contact sales with people to liquidate what I have currently in stock. Most of my buyers pay with a company check anyways, so that's not a big deal. I'm doing anything and everything that I can to stack away as much money as possible for the eventual lift on these sale bans. My theory is that the market will be so flooded and spending down, so there will be opportunity for some good deals to be had for those who can afford them. Just like the 08-09 crash, a shit economy fuels the sale of used equipment and trucks, so there is somewhat of a silver lining to the present shit show.
