Wanna buy a cone crusher for a buck? You can never have too many.

OK, chances are the price will run higher during Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers’ heavy equipment sales planned for next week in Dubai, Melbourne, Las Vegas, Denver and Grande Prairie. But the auctioneers unconditionally pledge to accept your lowball bid if no other buyer tops it.

“If you’re the high bidder, you own it. There’s no thought of the auctioneer saying: ‘Sorry, you’re not high enough,’ ”

insisted Bob Armstrong, VP finance and media liaison for the Vancouver-based company (RBA-TSX, RBA-NYSE), which moved $1.56 billion worth of consigned merchandise in 2003.

Bayne Stanley photo, Business Edge
Ritchie Bros. vice-president Bob Armstrong estimates the company is $1.5 billion larger than its next 40 competitors.

“In reality, things don’t sell for a dollar,” confessed Armstrong, who explained that routine crowds of 2,000-odd registered bidders make sure that never happens.

“But if we don’t allow for the possibility, we won’t attract so many people. That’s where the magic is.”

Magic’s not a term you might normally associate with a firesale of pre-owned earth movers. Nevertheless, a full-blown Ritchie Bros. unreserved auction is more fun than a nude tractor pull, particularly for shareholders.

Move over, eBay. According to results released a few weeks ago, the company’s net earnings set a record of $36.6 million US in 2003, up from $28.4 million the previous year.

And shortly after Ritchie generated gross auction sales of more than $42 million US in Rotterdam on March 8, the NYSE share price was resting comfortably, well above $50 US.

So who the heck are these guys?

The folksy mythology that has sprung up around Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers and its three founders – CEO Dave Ritchie, now 68, and his brothers, John and Ken, long since retired – is as elaborate as the legend of Olympian Zeus.

It began in Kelowna, circa the 1950s, with three hustling siblings running their dad’s used-furniture emporium on a shoestring.

“One day, the Royal Bank – they’re still our main banker – called the brothers’ loan and demanded a $2,000 payment,” Armstrong retold the tale.

“They couldn’t raise the money so, in desperation, they ran an auction in a local Boy Scout hall. They made $2,200 – enough to pay the auctioneer, the Scouts and the bank.”

During the Ritchies’ first official auction in ’63, they sold $660,000 worth of construction gear, the equivalent of a year’s sales at the furniture store.

An inexhaustible source of fresh superlatives, the fast-talking Armstrong kept them coming: “We’re now $1.5 billion larger than our next 40 competitors combined and operating in 20 countries worldwide. We really don’t have any global competitors, although we do face stiff competition in our individual markets.”

Last week, more than 2,000 registered bidders experienced the “magic” up close. They visited an Edmonton-area auction yard for a typically hyperactive (1,108 lots) sale in what Armstrong calls “one of our most exciting markets.”

(No argument there. In Nisku last October, 2,800 registrants from 11 countries snapped up 1,900 trucks and pieces of equipment in one fell swoop: Gross proceeds $28 million, of which $2.5 million represented real-time Internet sales.)

Due to the magnitude of the Edmonton sale, Ritchie Bros. was planning to set up a twin-ramp system for rolling stock, with heavy construction and agricultural equipment driving up a south ramp, and oilfield gear and transportation equipment moving down a north ramp.

These guys don’t waste time, moving an average lot in about 45 seconds flat.

“Pace is very important,” Armstrong confirms. “We have great auctioneers and we do keep things moving.”

Meanwhile, Ritchie Bros. has recently moved into smaller-scale farm sales in a big way in Alberta and Saskatchewan, after taking over a couple of regional auction houses.

Armstrong calls it a “wonderful business for us,” while waving off any suggestion that Ritchie Bros. takes advantage of small agricultural operators suffering from cumulative ill effects of the mad-cow blues and perpetual drought conditions.

“Most people who come to us aren’t in financial distress. But when the economy is a bit soft, people may have idle equipment they’d prefer to turn into cash. That’s where we come in. Or instead of buying new, they turn to the aftermarket and buy used equipment at one of our auctions.”

Meanwhile, if you want a testimonial, try the B.C. government.

Last year, BC Ferries asked Ritchie Bros. to sell three PacifiCat fast ferries, after an unsuccessful 30-month search for a buyer.

The auction took place in downtown Vancouver and the vessels sold for $20 million. It took half an hour.