LAPEER COMMUNITY SCHOOLS BUS AUCTION:

lapeer20m · 02-05-2005, 06:44 AM

bus auction coming up february 14th 2005 at lapeer community schools. Lapeer Michigan, 48446. 10 am.

There are buses from lapeer, and oxford schools being auctioned. This is NOT a sealed bid auction, there will be an actual auctioneer on site. Auction starts at 10 am.

I've personally looked at each of the lapeer buses. There are about a dozen buses from lapeer. (The oxford buses have not shown up yet.) These buses are mostly 72 passenger. There are about half ford/ward with 6.6 liter. The other half are international dt360/carpenter. All have the AT545 allison automatic. There are also two short buses. They have the dt360/allison trans/thomas body. One of them has a wheel chair lift. one of the 72 passenger carpenter/dt360's has a bad trans and does not move.

Almost all of these buses have between 200K and 250K miles on them. Some on rebuilt motors, all have had the transmissions replaced at least once. Some have excellent tires, some do not.

I"ll be gathering more data next week as i plan to look over the service records for each bus.

lapeer20m · 02-07-2005, 05:08 PM

I was informed today that the buses from oxford have the DT466 engines. As long as i don't get out bid, i plan to bring home a new bus from next weeks auction.

IT's kind of a drag, since i just spent about $1,000 re-modeling my current bus. It's only money! can't take it with me when i die, might as well spend it all while i'm here !

I'm bad at long term planning.....i'm too spurr of the moment.

lapeer20m · 02-13-2005, 05:01 PM

Tomorrow is the day of the big auction. I finally had a chance to scope out the buses from oxford schools. There are four of them. International 72 pass, air brakes, ~130K miles, AT545 trans. Two of them have the DT466, two have the DT408?. They are really clean buses. I looked over the service records for the buses with the 466's. The mechanic said the last time they got rid of buses they went for over $3,000. Though they are probably worth it, at this point i can't bring myself to spend that much for a skoolie. (not to mention i don't have that much!)

We'll see how things go tomorrow. I'll be armed with about 2 thousand bucks. Hopefully i can bring home the bus i want for about half that. There is a total of about 18 buses being auctioned off.

Wish me luck!

lapeer20m · 02-14-2005, 02:19 PM

EEEEEEK! I'm sad and dejected today. Went to the auction, so did a lot of other people. The junk buses went for more $$ than i paid for my current bus.

The nice dt466's went for over $6,000.00 The auction was done by a professional company that does nothing but skoolie auctions. I think they have quite a following which caused a lot of people to come to todays auction.

Looks like i'm keeping the 6.6 liter for now.

i WANTED A 466!!!

Firearm · 02-14-2005, 09:27 PM

I worked for an auction house at one time and they put bidders in the crowd to bid up the price. They will bid you up and back out at the last minute. If they get stuck with one, they'll just haul it away and sell it at the next auction, as if it was one of the fleet or they have a company lined up to buy it. I once got a waterbed for dirt cheap because the auction house bid it up too much and got stuck with it. They told me to get it out right away and I could have it for next to nothing. They know how to work the system for sure!

lapeer20m · 02-18-2005, 07:42 PM

THE SAGA CONTINUES:

I was at another school district today while at work, and they're in the middle of their sealed bid auction for two buses. They're 1993 72 pass international dta360/at545 with about 200K miles. The big drawback is hydraulic brakes. IF (and it's a big if) i get one, i'll probably take the compressor and tanks off of my current bus and mount them to this one. I still won't have air brakes, but i'll have air for all my auxilliary operations, and it won't cost me a thing.

I swear i'm like a 12 year old kid in a candy store.....I just can't leave well enough alone! I should just be perfectly content with my 6.6 liter, but i'm not. Someone once asked andrew carnage how money is enough......he replied "just a little bit more" That's kind of how i am when it comes to hp in my skoolie. So....I put a bid in on the buses. I should hear from them next tuesday IF I won. Deciding how much to bid was perplexing.....I think i bid more than i should have, but i'm a little gun shy after the last auction i visited.

I am such a tortured sole!

lapeer20m · 04-12-2005, 06:23 PM

When i bid on these two buses a couple months back, i was told by the guy in charge that if i won, i'd recieve a phone call the following monday.

Today is about 2 months later, and i just got a phone call today letting me know i'm the proud new owner of bus number 30.....

Now i have to decide if i want the bus...I've just spend thousands of dollars, and hundreds of hours on my current bus in the past couple months.

I think i'm going to purchase this "new" bus and slowly work at fixing her up while using my current bus. Summer is just around the corner, and bus season is nearly upon us, i don't want to be without a completed bus during the nice weather.

I plan to put my current bus up for auction on ebay when: summer is over, or the new bus is nearly completed and i need the money to finish it.

The new bus is real clean. It's much much nicer than my current bus. Although, I'm quite certian my current bus will make it to burningman and back to michigan again this year.

phillbus914 · 07-12-2005, 11:19 AM

I never had any luck at bus auctions too high priced for me. I went to a couple http://www.422sales.com auctions 1 in PA and 1 in Chicago, and both were packed with Mexicans bringing busses back to Mexico to re-sell, which was driving the final bidding price more then the busses could be bought elseware. Most were between $2-6grand

I got my bus from Woodland International in Grand Rapids, MI There phone number is 616-241-4656 They were also selling 88 internationals with the DT360 for $1,250 but I'm sure their inventory is constantly changing.

Mine was a trade in from a local school (actually the school I graduated from) I think I got a reasonable deal I paid $1,850 for a 91 Blue Bird TC2000 (flat front) 72pass 5.9cummins/auto with 158k miles on it. I really wanted a flatnose because I think they look more like a motorhome.

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