I've been thinking about going to a Taylor & Martin auction, any input?

I have known of several people who have gotten good buys at auctions. My niece and her husband buy equipment regularly for their business. A few months ago he bought an extendable for a very good price. It needs some work, but he can do it himself and the trailer is solid. Nothing major needs to be done. I met an owner operator who has bought several tractors at auctions. He may spend around $8M and drives it until it dies and then goes and gets another. He primarily runs Texas and Oklahoma. Taylor & Martin, Richie Brothers and some of the Adesa auctions are pretty good. If you are in Atlanta, they have a truck auction at their facility off I-85 South. You should be able to find the dates on the Internet.

This past summer I bought my first truck and picked it up at an auction. Something to look for is work orders posted in the cab. Although you can't guarantee the truck will be any good, at least the previous owner might be being up front about trouble he's had in the past. The truck I bought apparently had a cooling problem and had $7000CDN spent on the engine. So far it's been a good buy for me.

Congrats on your first truck. I'm thinking of going to buy from an auction soon.

they`ve got some good buys, I picked up a couple rebuildables from them for a song as well as my current truck, I almost had a 05 379x for 43k but my wife in her infinite wisdom stopped me before I made an impulse purchase.

What type of repairs did you make to the rebuildables? What did the 05 379 go for?

one was an 02 w900 that needed a sleeper, a hood and some misc other parts like a mirrior or a tank strap, I paid 9k for that one and it cost another 6 to flip, same auction I bought an 04 379 that needed a right side fender, a fuel tank, two rims and a tires, a drive hub and a steer hub and some other little stuff, 8600 for the truck and about 10k in repairs.


this isn`t to say there isn`t plenty of good running trucks for sale there, I bought those trucks with the sole intention of repairing and selling.

that 379x went for 43k like I posted, my wife asked me what the hell I was doing bidding on a truck I didnt need at 41k :cry:

The wives always bring us to "their" senses dont they? I thought you meant 43k miles, my bad. Do you do paint and body work yourself?
Right now I'm looking for trucks that I can put to work right away, but would like to try my hand at rebuilding one. My first truck looked like hell when I bought it for $5500, tinkered with it for a month and got a lot of compliments on the old truck. I ran it myself for 4 months and grossed $68000 without working too hard in a million miler. Put a driver in it, it lasted about 3 months. Lesson learned. Sent it to the junk yard for $2500.

yes I do my own paint and body work and welding and metal fab and drivetrain work and if I have enough beer I may even do some wiring.


theres plenty of good running trucks at their auctions, I mean i`ve been to repo company auctions with a couple hundred trucks on the block and some of taylor and martins auctions put them to shame, the only downside is their usually a good bit of miles away from me but they usually have equipment around to load vehicles onto trailers.

Beer and wiring, dont fry anything!!! Who are some repo companies that have auctions in the midwest?