Thousands of items are added to the rbauction.com website each week. If you’re looking for heavy equipment, chances are you’ll find it at a Ritchie Bros. auction.

Below are some quick steps to get you started before you place your first bid:

1. Find equipment to bid on

Start off by searching for the equipment you are looking for on the rbauction.com homepage.

You can make your search as specific or as general as you like by adding a year range, make, model, serial number, or any keyword. You can also search within a specific region if you’d like to bid locally rather than online.

Once you’ve found what you are looking for you can create a free account to add it to your watchlist.

If you can’t find what you want right away you can always create a saved search to be notified when something matching your criteria comes up.

2. Secure financing

Before you bid you’ll want to know how much money you have to work with. You can get pre-approved auction financing good for up to 90 days through https://www.rbauctionfinance.com/.

Even if you have the cash on hand, the low monthly payments may help to make equipment more affordable in the short term and free up cash that you can use to run your business.

It’s best to go through the finance application process at least a week before auction day to make sure you have time to get pre-approved.

3. Inspect and compare

The best way to check out equipment is always in person where you can kick the tires, do a visual inspection, and even give the machine a quick test run. Check out our list of the top 5 things to look for.

If you can’t make it to the site in person, don’t worry. Ritchie Bros. offers detailed equipment info on thousands of items including dozens of close-up photos, detailed specifications, and results of basic functionality tests.

If you create a free account on rbauction.com you can also get access to past auction results to give you an idea of what similar items have sold for. This can help you to build your bidding strategy in advance and help to anticipate what you’ll need to spend.

Remember: Every item in Ritchie. Bros auctions is sold on an “as-is, where-is” basis.

4. Register to bid

Once you’ve picked the item or items you want to bid on, your next step is to decide how you want to bid.

If the item you want to bid on is being sold at an auction near you then your best bet is to visit the site and register to bid in person. It’s always great to be close to the action and auctions are always a blast.

If you can’t make it to the site in person then you can register to bid online on the rbauction.com website. You’ll be able to hear the auctioneer through your computer’s speakers, follow the bids and asks, and submit your bids - all in real-time.

Finally, if you won’t be available when the auction is taking place you can place a proxy bid by calling the auction site. When you place a proxy bid, Ritchie Bros. bids on your behalf up to and including the amount you specify.

Have any other questions about what to do before you bid? Let us know in the comments below!