Press Release

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (TSX:RBA)(NYSE:RBA) held its largest ever North American auction week December 4-10, 2005 with gross auction sales of more than US$105 million. Two-day unreserved auctions were held in Montreal, Quebec; Olympia, Washington; Fort Worth, Texas; and Sacramento, California, with one-day unreserved auctions held in Kansas City, Missouri; Statesville, North Carolina; and Vancouver, British Columbia. Previously, the one-week North American gross auction sales record for the Company was over US$96 million.
The Sacramento, CA unreserved public auction broke a record for being the largest auction ever held by Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers in the western United States, with gross auction sales of more than US$30 million. Over 2,000 people from 16 countries and 44 U.S. states registered to bid on over 1,550 lots in the December 9 and 10 auction. More than 530 internet bidders, using the Company’s real-time bidding service, rbauctionBid-Live, purchased over US$4.5 million worth of trucks and equipment items. The internet participants were buyers or runner-up bidders on 37% of the lots available for online bidding.
“It was a really large sale,” said Steve Simpson, Ritchie Bros. Vice President - South West Division. “We had a great selection of equipment and interested buyers came to our sale from as far away as Australia, Ethiopia, Hong Kong and Italy. One of the highlights of the sale was when eight late-model, low-hour motor scrapers sold for over US$1.3 million each in just a few minutes. The scrapers went to two end-users, located in Arizona and Southern California.”
The Fort Worth, TX unreserved public auction was another large auction during the week with gross auction sales of over US$27 million. Over 2,400 people from 32 countries and 46 U.S. states registered to bid in the December 8 and 9 auction. Internet bidders purchased 17% of the sale, using the Company’s real-time bidding service, rbauctionBid-Live, and were buyers or runner up bidders on 33% of the lots offered for online bidding.
Seven unreserved auctions are on the Ritchie Bros. calendar this week including Las Vegas, Nevada; Toronto, Ontario (2-day); Los Angeles, California (2-day); North East, Maryland (2-day); Edmonton, Alberta; Phoenix, Arizona; and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Details on all upcoming Ritchie Bros. auctions, including equipment listings, are available on www.rbauction.com.

Posted: 12|13|05 at 10:32 am. Filed under: US News.