Ritchie Bros.’ December 11 to 13 auction in Ft. Worth, TX, generated gross auction sales exceeding $32 million, with a record breaking $5.5 million selling over the Internet, via the company’s rbauctionBid-Live service.

More than 2,400 people registered to participate in the auction from 46 states and 24 countries. Included in the total were a record number of registered online bidders (509).

Successful Internet buyers came from as far away as Hong Kong and Italy, and were among the Internet bidders from 44 states and 12 countries. Buyers from outside the state of Texas accounted for more than 60 percent of the sales.

"This auction enjoyed a particularly high level of interest from bidders all over the world in part due to the asphalt equipment we were offering; and that interest translated into strong prices," said David Hobbs, regional manager of Ritchie Bros. There was a large number of unused asphalt and concrete equipment items, including the major components of two unused 400 TPH portable asphalt plants. One of the plants sold for $985,000 to an onsite bidder and the other sold to an Internet bidder for $775,000 – the highest value lot purchased to date by an rbauctionBid-Live bidder.