Sometimes the ugliest machine in the yard is the one making the most money. Walk into an earthmoving yard and you'll quickly notice something. Everybody loves shiny. The newer the excavator, the better. Fresh paint. Clean cab. Low hours. Fancy electronics. The latest model. The sort of machine that looks good parked outside the office while the owner explains to everyone how "this one is brand new." Nothing wrong with that. But here's an uncomfortable question: Does a new exc

Why buying newer isn't always the same thing as buying better. There's something strange about the earthmoving industry. Put two excavators next to each other. One is brand new. It gleams. The paint is perfect. The cab smells like a new car. The display hasn't got a scratch on it. The other machine is 12 years old. The paint is faded. There are a few dents in the panels. The seat has seen better days. It looks like it's been around the block. And yet... the older machine migh

There is a point in every excavator's life when someone asks the question: “Is this machine still worth repairing?” It's a fair question. The machine is old. The paint is tired. The cab has seen better days. The hour meter has a number on it that makes the accountant nervous. And then something expensive fails. A final drive. A hydraulic pump. A slew motor. An engine. A valve bank. Suddenly someone says: “Maybe we should just replace the machine.” And sometimes, they're right

It looked like a bargain. The excavator was advertised at R500,000. The machine looked reasonably good. The seller was motivated. The buyer had been looking for a machine for weeks. So he bought it. Six months later, he had spent nearly another R500,000 keeping it alive. Suddenly, his R500,000 excavator had become a R1 million excavator. And here's the uncomfortable truth: It wasn't necessarily a bad purchase. The problem was that he had only calculated the purchase price. He

Entering the brokerage business in the earthmoving and yellow metal industry requires a proactive approach to develop a strong client...