For decades, selling a tractor or combine meant hauling it to a live auction, paying transport costs, and hoping for a good crowd. But now, online-only auction companies are giving sellers a more efficient option. These platforms allow farmers to list equipment directly from their farm, eliminating the need to move it until it’s sold.
According to Doug Mehner of Purple Wave, ”We take a lot of the guesswork out of the auction business. What we really try to do is create an environment of trust for folks to know that, hey, with the way we partner with our sellers, it’s a little different than, like, other traditional auction companies that create an event, or they create like, hey, let’s go out and sell this guy’s farm. We do that. But we also, look at doing things one off or item specific. And that’s really where we changed the marketplace. “
Industry analysts say that’s not just convenient—it’s profitable. Online auctions dramatically expand the buyer pool, pulling in bidders from across the country rather than just a single region. More bidders often means higher final prices, especially for well-maintained equipment.
Meahner adds, “It opens up your audience. And so your audience now is nationwide or also worldwide. We’ve actually had so a lot of buyers from Mexico, a lot of buyers from Canada that that can look at their items and, they can determine, hey, we understand the cost of getting that truck from or that tractor from Kansas to, to Nebraska or Kansas to Florida. They know that number. They can anticipate what that is. And they can determine whether they want to bid on it or not. So, what you do a lot of times as you take that local market and you turn it into a nationwide market or a worldwide market in that, in that instance, then you make, local bidders compete.”
Companies like Purple Wave emphasize that the process is streamlined: they handle marketing, buyer communication, and secure payment. For farmers and agribusinesses, that means less time managing the sale and more time focusing on the operation. And as the farm economy continues to rely more on digital tools, online auctions are becoming a key part of the equipment lifecycle—offering speed, simplicity, and nationwide reach.
“Before you kind of just lined everything up, hope people would show up, you know, hope that you had the right audience. And we don’t do that. We’re very targeted marketing. We make sure that we, the people that are looking for combines, we make sure to have that item in front of them. And we do a lot of specific targeted marketing for those specific industries. And so we know, hey, who’s been in the business that’s been bidding on them, who’s bought one in the past who owns this type of product. We utilize a lot of data and technology to kind of figure all that out,” Mehner continued.
For producers looking to turn unused iron into income, the click of a mouse may now be the most powerful tool in the shed.
