Ritchie Bros. held its largest-ever two-day U.S. auction in Columbus, OH, selling more than 3,400 equipment items for more than $76 million from September 28 to September 29.

As the pipeline construction event of the year, with 175 crawler pipelayers and other equipment up for sale, more than 3,600 bidders from 52 countries registered to bid in the auction, including more than 2,500 online, surpassing the previous Columbus attendance record by 36%.

Approximately 91% of the equipment was purchased by U.S. buyers, including 21% purchased by Ohio buyers. International buyers purchased approximately 9% of the equipment from such countries as Singapore, South Africa and The Netherlands.

“This was a truly unique event—it’s not often you sell $31+ million in pipelayers in a single auction,” said Terry Dolan, President (U.S. and Latin America), Ritchie Bros. “This week we showcased our ability to build and market a successful pipeline event and reach the right buyers from around the world, even with the current state of the oil and gas market. This wasn’t just a Columbus auction; this was a global event. We attracted equipment from consignors across the United States, marketed it to the world, generated strong demand and pricing, and achieved record results.”

Beside the massive selection of pipelayers, the auction also featured 135 excavators, 110 dozers, 235 truck tractors and 210 trailers,

“We’ve been selling and renting equipment to pipeline contractors for 35 years,” said John James, president of Cross Country Pipeline Supply. “We were looking to liquidate some of our surplus equipment. We talked to Ritchie Bros. and their competition, but felt Ritchie Bros. was the best route because of their expertise in marketing to people in our industry. Turnout at the auction was great and overall we ended up with better results than we expected.”