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cb1

Cast Iron
Joined
Jul 16, 2015
Hello all,

I buy a lot of old equipment from government auctions, both state and federal. In all cases, I have had them load with a hoist or forklift etc., now I am looking at a piece of equipment and the place it comes from has this disclaimer:

"Buyer Is Responsible To Hire An Approved Rigging Company To Move Asset From Location In Building To Their Truck, No Exceptions."

This pretty much opens up a can of worms trying to get an estimate for something like that to add to the bidding price to buy accordingly.

Anyway, probably not bidding. I understand their theory regards injury, lawsuits the like, but can't we just have a sign off for liability. I can bring my own fork lift, pallet jack or whatever it takes.

I can see showing up to get my machine and the "load" guy changing his price or not showing and missing the removal date. By the way, you pay when you win, so the money is gone already. Not like you are showing up with cash and can leave with it.

Any thoughts on "approved rigging companies"

Another racket in my opinion,

cb1
 
Hello all,

I buy a lot of old equipment from government auctions, both state and federal. In all cases, I have had them load with a hoist or forklift etc., now I am looking at a piece of equipment and the place it comes from has this disclaimer:

"Buyer Is Responsible To Hire An Approved Rigging Company To Move Asset From Location In Building To Their Truck, No Exceptions."

This pretty much opens up a can of worms trying to get an estimate for something like that to add to the bidding price to buy accordingly.

Anyway, probably not bidding. I understand their theory regards injury, lawsuits the like, but can't we just have a sign off for liability. I can bring my own fork lift, pallet jack or whatever it takes.

I can see showing up to get my machine and the "load" guy changing his price or not showing and missing the removal date. By the way, you pay when you win, so the money is gone already. Not like you are showing up with cash and can leave with it.

Any thoughts on "approved rigging companies"

Another racket in my opinion,

cb1

Its all liability control. Somewhere they have to have requirements. This smells like a commercial asset listed on GovLiquidation? A number of companies, Parker Hannifin being one, have been clearing assets via GL.
 
It is on GovLiquidation. I have recently noticed that they are selling a lot of non-government items on there lately.

And, now all or anything with wheels has been shifted to GovPlanet with a large starting bid.

Everything changes, like eBay, used to be a deal now just a game. Too many people have to get their fingers in the pie.

I have won many auctions to include army trucks from Ft McCoy in WI. Just drive in with a trailer and they load with a lift or loader. I'm sure that will change. Can't let a good thing keep going. Someone will scam the gov into a "better" deal. For them, not us, obviously.

cb1
 
Man up or quit bitching. Try the home shop forum.

I suppose everyone on this "Antique Machinery and History" is acquiring old equipment to use in their shop to make stuff for profit. My guess is 99% is going into their garage or basement.

My antique (old) machine purchases are going into a shop for working on antique (old) equipment.

I am not sure what you do, but I'm positive if you used steel and transportation costs were increase 10% that you would just go out an buy a trucking company. I see all the shops doing that. Not.


cb1
 
You're on practical machinist. I know that the antique section gets a lot of leeway, but you are acting like a full on Harry Homeshop cry baby.

Just because you are dicking around in the backyard does not make you a charity case for government auctions. Everyone plays by the same rules. Your options are to play by the rules or take your ball and go home.
 
Sometimes some of the answers seem late enough in the day to be influenced by alcoholic beverages.

I've never bid on any Govt auction for that very reason, you drive 300 miles or more and have to find an "approved" rigger, and it smells of one of those "sweet deals" that turns into a money losing nightmare.
So, here I am in this strange town wanting to bid on an old machine I want to restore for the fun of it, and I have to call around looking for some rigger, you know this outfit will be there anyway but you also know they will want as much $$ as if they drove down there just for you! What makes it even worse is if you look at the place and clearly there is no reason for all that weirdness.

Only in gov't auctions, not normal auctions so much. Your not a whiner, you'd just like to know how much it will cost and how hard it is to find someone who is approved before you take a day off from work to attend. That's also known as a being a wise steward with your assets (Time & money).
 
That's also known as a being a wise steward with your assets (Time & money).

That's also known as being a tight wad dicking around in his hobby home shop. Rigging costs are a fact of life. If you can't be bothered to prove that you have enough insurance to satisfy the auctioneer, you have to hire a rigger who does. Everyone attending the auction plays by those rules.

I carry $2 million in liability insurance, plenty to satisfy any auctioneer. Anything requiring a forklift to move, I hire the riggers. It's built into the cost of the transaction just like a buyers premium or sales tax (which I don't have to pay as a legitimate business).
 
As I've had to point out to you before another time when you were being the same way, I have a commercial shop I've run for 30+ years. You assumed my shop was a hobby shop. I neither know nor care why.

I don't know what kind of shop the OP has, and funny thing, it never occurred to me to figure that out, nor do I know why that is such a big deal for you.

I've been to many auctions and have never had to prove my insurance or pay a rigger. I don't know what you are talking about.

So let's say YOU have a $50 million shop with international sales properties, SO WHAT! I refuse to bow if that's what you think you need.

I just read the guidelines again for this section, it doesn't say you have to make $9 figures per year in a showroom ISO 900000009 shop to ask question or answer them.
 
This clause has been in the bidding contracts with the Government long before Government Liquidations even existed. Normally, there will be a Government forklift around with a willing operator, but the clause simply states that you, the buyer, owns the problem. You just can't bank on it. Also note that on loading day, there will most likely be other folks with the same problem. It is very common that there will be a rigger there that would be very willing to load your stuff as well at minimal cost, as they will be there anyway. Just ask around, you won't be inventing the wheel.

There are other cases when a machine is being sold as is, where is and the buyer will be responsible for de-installation or dismantling as well as loading. That too is not a problem either. You can do that work yourself and in fact, you are better off doing it yourself. You will take more care than a hired service and you will know how it came apart, so it will be easier putting it back together. a few years ago I bid on a large L&S lathe with the same clause. It was installed in the basement of a large warehouse (printing facility). It had to be disassembled and moved to an elevator and then loaded. It was a 3 day job. I did it myself with two friends. The lathe was in like new condition, but nobody bid on the lathe for just that reason. I got it for $200. So there is an up-side to these situations as well.
 
I concur with ewlsey. The auction lists the rules, if you dont like them dont bid. As mentioned, govt auctions requiring riggers is nothing new, hiring them to move equipment has been pretty standard in industry and at govt auction for a couple decades now, and the cost is baked into most folks' auction bids. My father bought&sold govt surplus for 40 years and personally I wouldnt blame DRMO, govliq, etc for requiring riggers in the least after the commonality of accidents caused by the utter stupidity of buyers. I get a chuckle on these threads when folks blame govt employees for mangled lots bc its commonly self-loading buyers from previous sales doing the mangling. If you attend enough of these sales you'll also commonly see local cops filling their ticket quotas sitting outside the facility gates on pickup day writing for illegal vehicles, illegal loads, and in many cases lost loads.

JMO but govt auctions havent been worthwhile aside from the occasional lot in ~20 years, pretty much like ebay. Before the in-person auctions were shut down you could find some pretty nice stuff for a good price but since DRMO went online, then LeviLatham/GovLiq and now others have helped privatize it the quality of most lots has been pretty lousy. Its great for the junk dealers but lousy for most folks and the govt coffers.
 
I am not a rigger. I do know when a spade is a spade.

You don't know me. You don't even have a clue.

But, I pretty much figured you out.

I use this site as a knowledge resource. Not to be belittled by someone sitting in his underwear in his moms basement. I won't even stoop to the Cheetos innuendo.

Good luck and remember,

Life is tough, its tougher if your stupid.

cb1
 
You don't know me. You don't even have a clue.

But, I pretty much figured you out.

I use this site as a knowledge resource. Not to be belittled by someone sitting in his underwear in his moms basement. I won't even stoop to the Cheetos innuendo.

Good luck and remember,

Life is tough, its tougher if your stupid.

cb1

Yeah, you might want to rethink that. Like a lot of us, ewlsey doesn't have the best people skills, but if you look at most of his posts he's been extremely helpful with a lot of folks technical issues when a machine goes down. So don't go getting your dander up when he says something you don't like.

Stupidity is failing to recognize your limitations, or others knowledge.
 
JMO but govt auctions havent been worthwhile aside from the occasional lot in ~20 years, pretty much like ebay.....lousy for most folks and the govt coffers.

A few years back I was watching govliquidation, thought I found a good upcoming deal. It was going to be big, transportation was going to be a big deal, and very expensive... so I was planning accordingly. I put a couple friends together for some extra financial backing, set up an account with them, got the required approval on this type of auction ahead of time and waited on the days for bidding to open.
We were prepared to go to $125,000, and if I felt it was close, I probably would have pushed it to $150,000. We were pretty confident we could make good money at that, probably triple our money in a year.
THAT auction went for $1.2 million!!!
Somebody knew SOMETHING.
 
The auction lists the rules, if you dont like them dont bid.

Which is exactly why I've never bid on anything in them. And if it's such a justified restriction how come normal auctions don't have them? Would you put your money in a bank if they told you you'd have to pay a retrieval fee that no other banks charge?
Would you buy bread from a store that required you to show "bad bread" insurance?
It may be that it is all for show, to cover their butts when some suehappy idiot attends. That would be nice to know, I've wanted to bid many times but haven't entirely and only because of that rigger BS.
 
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