Neil from Messick’s here. Today is Three-Minute Thursday. For today's short conversation, we're going to draw a little bit of attention to some of the demand and pricing issues that we continue to see happening out there in the equipment market.
If you're attuned at all to the supply and demand issues that are out there with construction equipment and vehicles and farm machinery, you're probably aware that there are some places where supply and demand continued to be completely upside down. There continues to be a couple of places where demand still really outstripped supply and times that we're still seeing some pricing for some of this equipment on the used market and also specifically, on auctions where it's bringing far more money than what it should. If you see this one screenshot here of a unit that I found recently for this SCL 1000, at nearly $45,000 for a used machine, you should know that the list price for this unit, when it's brand new today is $38,896. Here is a used one being priced at $6,000 over list price.
Now, I don't begrudge anybody for getting what they can get when they're selling equipment like this, but what does cause me concern is that when you as a consumer see something like this and maybe get fleeced a little bit. If you need a machine for your business, by all means, sometimes you're going to pay what you got to pay in order to be able to get out and get a job done. But if you're looking for used machinery, take a minute and check out the pricing for what a new one goes for. At least be informed to that extent that if you're going to overpay for something, understand why you're doing it, because sometimes it is necessary, but I don't like seeing people overpaying for something when they think they're getting a deal.
While there still is a problem with certain kinds of equipment, the supply side of selling machinery is actually starting to improve a little bit. Months ago, we had been at the point that about 60% to 80% of the machinery that was dropped off here on a given day was already spoken for. That is dropping now here. Now the last several days, I've been seeing numbers more in the 20% to 30% of our deliveries are spoken for already. That isn't concerning to us because our inventory level is so low that 70% chunk of the daily deliveries now go over into stock. We have things in stock again, with a little bit more machinery sitting outside on the yard.
That doesn't mean that there's not a lead time for things. We still do have a lot of backups on things like skid steers and compact track loaders, loaders for tractors. Anything with a hydraulic cylinder can still be challenging for us to find, but we are definitely see that baseline inventory level for attachments and tractors starting to creep back up again. It is a long way off from pre-pandemic levels. That's going to take us several months to get back to that point again, but we are no longer digging the hole deeper as it's felt like we've been doing for a long, long time.
In closing, don't get scammed. If you're going to overpay for a piece of equipment, I know there's reasons to do that, but my goodness, be an informed consumer. If you're looking at something and it seems just a little too pricey, make a phone call and check and see what a new one costs and what that lead time is, because things are improving in that regard a little bit every day. Shopping for a piece of equipment and we can help, or if you've got parts or service needs for machine you've already got, give us a call at Messick’s. We're available at 800-222-3373 or online at messick.com.
