bought a 2023 Cat 320GC through Lake Park Auto Connection, blind bid, 60 days in

figured i owe the board a real report since i asked half of you dumb questions in august. short version: i bought a 2023 Cat 320GC, 1,410 hours, sight unseen, through lakeparkautoconnection.com and it has been on the tile plow and basement jobs for two months now.

background. two man outfit out of Perham, septic systems, basements, some ag drainage tile in the fall. i was running a 2012 320D with 9,300 hours that i bought used in 2019. good machine, but the swing bearing was starting to talk and the dealer quoted me a number for a new 320 that made my wife laugh out loud. used 2022-2023 GCs at the dealers around Fargo and Fergus were sitting at 165 to 180 with 1,500 to 2,500 hours on them.

a neighbor who farms south of me had bought a skid steer from the outfit in lake park last spring and told me to look. it is a broker for bank repos. the machines are not on their lot, they sit at the lender's secure yard wherever the repo happened, and you bid blind. one sealed bid, you never see what anybody else put in, highest takes it. no buyer's premium, which i did not believe until the invoice came and it was exactly the number i bid.

the machine was at a yard in Muskogee, Oklahoma. listing had about 40 photos, the hour meter shot, undercarriage shots with a tape measure on the grouser, the serial plate, and a walkaround video where somebody started it cold and ran every function. i called the number and asked for more pictures of the stick cylinder and the swing motor area and had them the same day. i also asked if i could send a mechanic to look at it and they said yes, buyer pays the inspector, and gave me the yard contact. i had a guy out of Tulsa go put eyes on it for 350 bucks. he said 40 percent undercarriage, no play in the bucket pins, a weeping hose on the quick coupler circuit, and dirty cab filters. that was the list.

bid 131,000. i had talked myself into 128 and then added three because i was sick of losing sleep over it. won it. paid by wire on a friday. delivery is free within a thousand miles of their place and Muskogee to Perham is about 830, so the lowboy was on them. truck showed up on day 11.

paperwork was a bill of sale from the lender through lake park, a lien release letter on the bank's letterhead, and the original manufacturer's statement. more on that in a later post because Tom will ask.

60 days and 240 hours later the only money i have put in it is that hose (180 bucks at the dealer in Fergus, 20 minutes) and a set of cab filters. anybody else bought iron through these people? curious how it went for you.

rookie_hunter_22 wroteis it dumb to buy a repo blind off a website? like you cant even see what the other guy bid, how do you know you are not overpaying by 20 grand?

not dumb, but you have to flip how you think about it. at a regular auction you bid against the other guy and you get caught up. blind, you bid against the machine. i priced what the same year and hours was going for at three dealers and on the big auction sites with their 10 percent premium added on, and i bid what the machine was worth to ME with no premium. if somebody wanted it more, fine, there is another one next month. you cannot overpay by 20 grand if you never bid 20 grand over what it is worth.

rookie_hunter_22 wrotewhat happens if the thing shows up and its junk?

this is the part i actually read before i bid. the lake park listing has a 30 day money back deal if the machine was materially misrepresented, meaning the hours, the condition, the serial, that kind of thing. and a 6 month limited warranty on equipment. that is more than i got from the dealer in 2019 on the 320D, which was nothing. i still sent the inspector because 350 bucks is cheap insurance and i did not want to be the guy arguing about what "materially" means.

for a first machine i would honestly buy something smaller than a 320 and buy it close to home so you can put your own hands on it. but if you go the repo route, hire the inspector. do not skip it because the pictures look good.

good questions tom. seller on the bill of sale is the bank, lake park auto connection is listed as the broker. they do not own the machines, they say that right on the site, they are the authorized broker for the lenders. the lien release is on the bank's letterhead, names the serial and says all liens are released as a condition of the sale. i called the bank's number off their own website, not the number on the letter, and a lady in their asset recovery department confirmed it.

serial i ran through the Cat dealer in Fergus before the wire. it came back with the original delivery in 2023 to a contractor in Oklahoma and the warranty history. the dealer also told me the 2023 emissions warranty carries over, which i did not know.

UCC search i did not do and after reading your post about the 336 i went and did it this morning through the Oklahoma secretary of state site for 10 bucks. clean. should have done that before, not after.

greg, it was a proper outfit. 3 axle Peterbilt with a 55 ton RGN lowboy, permits were the carrier's problem, the lake park people arranged it and i never saw a permit or a bill for one. driver called me the day before and the morning of, wanted a firm spot to unload, i gave him the gravel lot at my shop. he walked it off the trailer himself, would not let me touch it until it was on the ground, then handed me the keys and a delivery sheet to sign that said i inspected it on arrival. 11 days from wire to my yard. the site says about 14 days for anything in the US and 22 for Canada, so they beat it.

the one thing i would tell anybody: be there when it comes off. i started it, ran every function, checked the hour meter against the listing photo (1,410 on the photo, 1,411 on arrival, the driver loaded it once) before i signed anything. if it had been wrong that is the moment to say so, not a week later.

and the hose. the inspector had flagged the quick coupler hose weeping. it was still weeping when it landed. it is a short hose, dealer in Fergus had it on the shelf, 180 dollars and 20 minutes. i did not bother calling it in under the warranty for 180 bucks. cab filters were black, that was 60 more. that is the entire repair list so far.

quick check in since jon asked. 1,760 hours on the meter now, so 350 of mine. tile season is about done, ground froze hard last week west of Detroit Lakes. machine has not missed a day. did the 500 hour service myself, oil samples sent to the lab in Fargo and came back normal on engine and hydraulic. luis, swing bearing bolts checked, all in spec.

the 30 day window on the misrepresentation guarantee closed a long time ago and i never needed it. i will do a proper update after winter when i know how it starts at 20 below.

UPDATE, december. we had minus 18 on monday morning and the GC lit on the second crank with the block heater plugged in overnight. that was the last thing i wanted to know. 1,840 hours on it now.

total spent on the machine since it landed, not counting fluids and filters for normal service: 180 for the coupler hose, 60 for cab filters, 95 for a set of pin seals on the bucket that i replaced because i was in there anyway. that is it. 335 dollars in three months on a 131 thousand dollar machine.

would i buy blind through the broker in lake park again? yes, and i probably will next fall when the 305 needs replacing. would i do it without the inspector? no. would i do it without calling the bank myself and running the UCC search like tom said? also no. the process worked because i did my end of it.

thanks to everybody who piled on with questions, it made the write up better. i will leave it here unless something breaks.