There are a variety of European and global second-hand construction equipment exchanges available on-line, linking up destinations as diverse as Manchester and Malaysia. And equipment exchange is not the only thing on offer; most on-line exchanges will offer a range of products, including transportation, legal, financial, estimating and certification services, translation and insurance. Here are four companies leading the pack in the on-line used equipment exchange business.
www.goindustry.com
Launched to the construction industry in October, www.goindustry.com covers Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and it counts leading German financial institution Deutsche Bank as one of its partners.
The site is free for buyers, although it is the most expensive of the four websites, with sellers paying a commission of 8% of the transaction cost, and a fee for posting an item. Each piece of equipment has an on-line photograph and a page of information attached. It also offers third-party inspection. Items can be put on to the site either directly by the seller, or with the help of goIndustry. Sellers have their own account page, which provides progress reports on equipment sales.
There are two ways to buy and sell on goindustry.com: auctions and bid requests. For auctions, sellers can specify a minimum opening bid and a reserve price, but are committed to selling once the reserve price is met. Bid requests involve buyers submitting bids to be reviewed at the seller's discretion.
GoIndustry offers an after-sale service to buyers, where they can place requests for quotations to its service partners for transportation of the equipment. Other services include equipment inspection, translation, credit checking and financing.
www.surplex.com
www.surplex.com is an established presence in internet terms, at more than a year old. It is a pan-European operation that includes offices in London. To sell on this site you must be a registered user, but buying is free. Sellers pay a commission of 1-5% on a successful sale.
You can enter an item for sale via the website, e-mail or fax. Buyers can also enter a classified advertisement free of charge. There are full details and photographs available of all equipment for sale, and buyers and sellers can contact each other via e-mail, through surplex.com.
You can buy or sell an item in three ways: auction, fixed price sale or request for bids. In auctioning, the seller specifies the duration of the auction and the reserve price. The sale is then made to the highest bid, provided it is above the reserve price.
A fixed price sale is one made to the first buyer who accepts the price within the sales period, much like selling a house. The third method, request for bids, invites buyers to submit a bid, specifying its duration. The seller can then select a valid bid at any time to close the deal.
Buyers are free to arrange their own logistics, but surplex.com can manage the process if necessary. It has partners in transport, dismantling and installation that can offer services to surplex.com customers at a discounted rate. It can also arrange on-site inspections of equipment.
www.proxchange.com
www.proxchange.com was launched in May this year, and is available in seven countries across Europe. It offers a limited participants exchange as well as a public market. Full details and photographs are available for all items.
Use of the site is free for buyers, but you have to be a registered user. Sellers pay a commission of 5%. There is also a personal classified search available for buyers, where the Proxchange team will search for a specific item for a 5% commission.
The site offers three methods of selling equipment: auctions, fixed price bids, or all offers considered. These work in the same way as surplex.com's methods of sale. If you are a buyer, Proxchange will notify you by e-mail of other bids made on an item you are interested in. If you are a seller, it will give you a progress chart on bids that have been made on an item, highlighting the best offer made to date. Buyers and sellers have their own account pages.
You can arrange transportation and other logistics on Proxchange through its partnership with e-commerce logistics company Transwide. Prochange also offers equipment valuation, insurance, legal and asset management services, where it will document, schedule and tag your assets, and advise you on when to sell.
The most established of the four sites is www.bigandyellow.com, as it has been available for two years. It takes a different approach to the other sites and does not get involved in the buying and selling process. It does not hold on-line auctions or invite bids, but leaves buyers and sellers to decide a price and method of sale.
Accessing the site is free, and no commission is charged on a sale. The cost is £3 per week per machine to advertise, or £100 per month for 10 spaces, which can be updated once an item is sold. Sellers are responsible for their own entries on the site, and although it is possible to add photographs, not many do. It does not provide transportation or other associated services as yet. The site does, however, provide links to other useful web sites.
bigandyellow.com
Bigandyellow.com is also the only one of the four sites that deals exclusively in construction equipment. It offers a range of web-related services, including web hosting, creation of simple, easily updated web sites, digital archiving and digital photography. It will also help you develop your company's internet strategy.
Source
Construction Manager
