Where to List Used Heavy Equipment for Sale Online (2026): Options Compared

If you run a used equipment yard, you already know the problem. There are more places to list a machine than you have hours in the week, and every one of them says it brings buyers. Some charge a monthly subscription, some take a cut of the sale, some charge the buyer instead, and a few are free but bury your ad in a pile of lawn mowers.

This guide compares where to sell used heavy equipment online in 2026: the big paid listing marketplaces, online auction sites, Facebook, Craigslist, your own website with Google, and Heavy Listing, the Pennsylvania marketplace we run. For each one we cover how it charges, who it suits, and what to watch for. Where a site publishes its fees on an official page, we quote them with the link. Where it quotes only on request, we say so instead of guessing.

Equipment listing sites compared at a glance

Channel	How it charges	Best for	Who sets the price
Paid listing marketplaces (Machinery Trader and the Sandhills family, Equipment Trader, MachineryPete)	Dealer subscriptions or paid ads; pricing on request	Dealers with ongoing inventory, national reach	You (asking price)
Online auction marketplaces (IronPlanet, Purple Wave, Proxibid, EquipmentFacts)	Seller fees, buyer’s premiums or both, set in each contract	Machines that must sell by a date; fleet dispersals	Bidders
Facebook Marketplace and groups	Posting a local listing is free; ads cost extra	Compact equipment, local buyers, small yards	You
Craigslist	$5 per post in for-sale by-dealer categories; most by-owner posts free	Cheap local exposure, older and lower-priced machines	You
Your own website + Google	Website and hosting cost; Google Business Profile free; ads optional	Every dealer, as the home base	You
Heavy Listing	Flat monthly dealer plan, no commission, no buyer fees	Pennsylvania dealers and auctioneers	You

The Craigslist figure comes from its posting fees page. The rest of this guide goes channel by channel.

Big paid listing marketplaces

These are the sites most contractors picture when they think of buying a used machine online. The model is simple: you pay to show your inventory, the buyer calls or emails you, and you close the deal yourself. No one takes a cut of the sale.

Machinery Trader and the Sandhills family

Sandhills Global runs a group of trade sites: Machinery Trader for construction equipment, TractorHouse for farm machinery, Truck Paper for trucks and trailers, and others. They are among the longest-running names in the trade, and many established dealers list on them. Dealer advertising is sold by a sales rep, and we could not open a public price page, so we treat pricing as on request. Ask the rep how the price scales with your number of units and which sites in the group are included.

Equipment Trader

Equipment Trader covers construction, farm, trailers and lawn equipment in one marketplace. Dealers buy an advertising package. Its pricing page did not load for us, so ask for a quote.

MachineryPete (farm equipment)

MachineryPete is built around farm machinery and auction results, which makes it a natural fit if your yard sells tractors, combines and hay equipment. Dealer and seller advertising is quoted through the site; we did not find public prices.

• Pros: buyers come there ready to buy; you keep the full sale price; you control pricing and how you negotiate.
• Cons: a fixed monthly cost whether or not anything sells; you compete on the same page with every other dealer’s version of your machine; packages can be hard to compare without a quote.
• Best for: dealers with steady inventory who sell outside their county.

Online auction marketplaces

Auction sites turn the price question over to the bidders. You get a sale date and a sure result (unless a reserve is not met), and you give up control over the final number.

IronPlanet and Ritchie Bros.

IronPlanet, owned by Ritchie Bros., runs online equipment auctions and lists several selling formats on its home page: online auctions, Buy Now, Make an Offer, sealed auctions and on-site auctions. Seller fees depend on the format and the agreement, so ask for the contract and read every fee line before you sign.

Purple Wave

Purple Wave runs online, no-reserve auctions of farm and construction equipment. Its terms and conditions set a 10% buyer’s premium on top of the winning bid. That matters to you as a seller even though the buyer pays it: bidders know about the extra 10% and bid lower to cover it. Our guide to the buyer’s premium walks through the math.

Proxibid and EquipmentFacts

These are bidding platforms more than auction companies. Many local auctioneers, including several in Pennsylvania, run their sales through them so buyers can bid online. If you consign with a PA auctioneer, your machine may well end up on one of these platforms. Some auctioneers add a fee for bids placed online, so check the sale terms.

• Pros: a firm sale date; you reach bidders far from your yard; good for clearing aged units, trade-ins you do not want on the lot, or a whole fleet.
• Cons: you do not set the price; seller fees, buyer’s premiums and online fees all come out of what bidders will pay; hauling, cleaning and inspection add up before the sale.
• Best for: machines that must turn into cash, and owners who would rather not handle calls.

If you are an owner weighing auction against a dealer offer, our guide on how to sell used heavy equipment compares what you take home each way.

Facebook Marketplace and equipment groups

Facebook is where many small contractors, landscapers and farmers scroll at night. Posting a local listing on Marketplace costs nothing, and buy-and-sell groups for equipment in your area can reach exactly the buyers who will drive over to look at a machine.

• Pros: free to post; fast replies; great for skid steers, mini excavators, trailers and attachments.
• Cons: lots of “is this available?” messages that go nowhere; scam attempts; listings drop out of view in days; no real spec fields for hours, serial or attachments.
• Best for: compact equipment and anything priced for a local buyer.

Example:

❌ Wrong: “Bobcat for sale, runs good, message me.”

✅ Right: “2019 Bobcat T770, 2,140 hours, enclosed cab with heat and AC, high flow, 70% tracks. Service records. Yard in York County, call 717-…”

The second ad answers the first five questions every buyer asks, so the messages you get are from people who can actually buy.

Craigslist

Craigslist still works for some sellers, mostly for older and cheaper machines and for buyers who do not use Facebook. Its posting fees page lists $5 for every post in a for-sale by-dealer category in the US. Most by-owner posts are free; the by-owner fee on that page applies to cars and trucks, RVs and motorcycles.

For five dollars it is hard to lose much. The catch is the format: fewer photos than an equipment site, no spec fields, and a steady stream of scam replies. We would use it for low-priced units, attachments and parts machines, not for a late-model excavator.

Your own website and Google

Every other channel on this list is rented. Your website and your Google Business Profile are the two places you own. When a buyer sees your machine on any marketplace, the next thing they often do is search your yard’s name. If that search shows a current website, real photos of the lot, a phone number and reviews, you look like a dealer they can trust.

• Google Business Profile: free to set up. Add your hours, photos of the yard, and the categories you sell.
• Inventory on your site: each machine on its own page, with price, hours, serial, photos and a phone number. A PDF stock list does not rank in Google.
• Google Ads: optional. They can send buyers searching for a specific make and model straight to your listing, but only if the page they land on is good.

Pros: no one else’s rules; every lead is yours; the pages keep working as long as the site is up. Cons: the site costs money and someone has to keep the inventory current. A sold machine still showing on your site costs you trust.

Heavy Listing: a new marketplace for Pennsylvania

Heavy Listing is the marketplace that publishes this guide, so read this section with that in mind. It is new, and it is focused on Pennsylvania: dealers across the state and the auctions buyers here actually go to. We are not going to tell you it has the reach of the sites that have been around for decades. What we can tell you is how it charges, because it is all on the pricing page:

• Dealers pay a flat monthly plan: Small $149 a month for up to 25 machines, Medium $299 for up to 100, Large $499 unlimited. Medium and Large include the auction plan.
• No commission and no buyer fees. Buyers browse and contact you for free, by phone or email, directly.
• Same features in every plan: full listings with all photos, specs and video, your own dealer page, part of the plan spent on Google ads for your machines, and we load your inventory for you.
• A monthly report with views, calls and clicks, so you can judge it like any other channel.
• First month free, no card. Monthly invoice paid by ACH, month to month, cancel anytime.

Auctioneers can put a sale on our Pennsylvania auction calendar for free, or pay $199 a month to feature it. Details are on the list your auction page. Owners with one machine do not list on the site; they use the sell your equipment form, and we pass the machine to PA dealers and auctioneers.

Best for: Pennsylvania dealers who want an extra channel at a fixed cost they can measure month to month. Not for: a dealer whose buyers are mostly out of state, or anyone who needs a national audience today.

Where to start: if you are X, start with Y

If you are…	Start with	Then add
A dealer with 25+ machines and buyers in several states	One national paid marketplace	Your website + Google Business Profile
A Pennsylvania dealer selling mostly within a few hours’ drive	Website + Google Business Profile	A regional marketplace such as Heavy Listing, and Facebook for compact units
A small yard with mostly compact equipment	Facebook Marketplace and local groups	Google Business Profile, then one paid channel once you have steady stock
A farm equipment dealer	A farm-focused site such as TractorHouse or MachineryPete	Facebook groups and the farm sales on the PA farm auction calendar
A dealer with aged units or a fleet to clear	An online auction or a consignment sale	Ask about reserves and fees before you sign
An owner selling one machine	A dealer offer and an auctioneer’s estimate	Facebook if you have time for calls and showings
An auctioneer	Your own site + the platform you bid on	Free listings on calendars like ours

What to compare before you pay for a listing site

1. The real cost per machine: divide the monthly price by the machines you actually keep listed, not by the plan limit.
2. Who pays fees: a buyer’s premium or a commission does not show on your invoice, but it comes off what buyers are willing to pay you.
3. Where the lead goes: does the buyer get your phone number, or a form that the site controls? Can the site show your machine next to a competitor’s?
4. Contract terms: monthly or annual, how you cancel, and what happens to your listings if you stop.
5. Proof: will they show you views, calls and emails for your own machines, every month?
6. Your buyer’s location: a national audience is worth less if your buyers are within 100 miles of the yard.

Common mistakes when listing used equipment online

1. Listing everywhere and tracking nothing

Five sites at once feels like reach. Without a way to tell which one rang the phone, you will keep paying for all five.

2. Thin listings

Three photos and “call for details” lose to a competitor with thirty photos, hours, serial and a cold-start video. On every site, the listing with the most information gets the call.

3. Stale inventory

A machine sold two months ago and still listed wastes the buyer’s time, and they remember your name for the wrong reason. Pull sold units the same day.

4. Ignoring fees the buyer pays

A 10% buyer’s premium is the buyer’s line item, but bidders subtract it from what they would otherwise pay. Count it when you compare auction against a listing.

5. Signing a long contract to try a new channel

Test any new site month to month if you can. Three months of tracked calls tell you more than a sales pitch.

6. Pricing high “to leave room”

Online buyers filter by price before they read a word. A machine listed $8,000 over the market never shows up in their search, so there is no negotiation to leave room for. Check what similar units are listed for, like the dealer prices in our used skid steer price guide, and price to be found.

How dealers usually put it together

Most yards that sell well online do not pick one site. They keep a solid website and Google Business Profile as the base, pay for one or two marketplaces whose buyers match their stock, use Facebook for compact equipment, and send aged units to auction. What separates them is that they know which channel paid for itself last quarter (our dealer playbook has a weekly routine for that), and that their listings are complete wherever they appear: see how to write a listing that sells. If you sell in Pennsylvania, you can find other dealers and their stock in our dealer directory and see how listings look on Heavy Listing before you decide anything.