Background
Machinery4Golf was set up 17 years ago as part of the OGRO group which includes Golf Features. It’s a niche website which is perfectly suited to helping people trade their used golf and ground care machinery. Over the years tens of thousands of mowers, tractors, buggies, aerators and other vital machinery for running golf courses has been traded on the site. It works very simply: the golf operator, or a machinery dealer, places an advertisement on the site and bids can be made directly by email or via telephone to the large number of people looking to purchase a particular machine.
The site allows plenty of room for photographs of the relevant machine as well as a description of its age, condition and various features. Obviously, the price is included and the contact details of the person selling. Currently there are over 2000 individual machines on the site and it is by far and away the most popular golf equipment resale site.
For the last 15 years the site has been run by Tony Reader and Golf Features caught up with him recently.
Tony Reader
Golf Features: What do you think the success of the site is down to?
Tony Reader:
There are many websites which advertise an individual dealer’s machinery, but Machinery4Golf has thousands of different items always on display so customers can compare prices and value and sellers can find a much wider audience than if they only use their own website. Selling a piece of used golf machinery is not as easy as it may seem as the people wishing to buy such equipment fall into quite a small group. For many years we have had the attention of the golf industry and also for those in amenity contracting, who use very similar equipment in their day-to-day work.
Golf Features: What does it cost to place an individual advertisement?
Tony Reader:
We charge £36.00 for an individual advert but offer discounts for bulk advertising. There is no VAT payable on any adverts and we do not charge commission on sales.
Golf Features: For dealers wishing to advertise a number of items, how does the arrangement vary?
Tony Reader:
We have a special dealer’s rate which can be paid monthly or on an annual basis for UNLIMITED adverts. The current rates are £100.00 per month or £1000.00 for the 12 months (minimum advertising period) saving two months’ payments. We also now offer a ‘live feed’ which downloads adverts direct from the seller’s website and updates each day at 5am. This is available for a further small set up cost but this is soon offset with the saving on staff time manually uploading adverts.
Golf Features: If a machine is also advertised on eBay, how does this work?
Tony Reader:
When people come to sell a piece of golf machinery, they often need to move it on quickly so the temptation to use eBay is strong. We always suggest to those wishing to use alternative places to sell their equipment that they should say that it has been advertised elsewhere. In this way they are not bound by having to wait until the end of an auction or by a price that is not to their liking. Many of our advertisers have tried ebay and other similar platforms but often comment on Machinery4Golf being their website of choice.
Golf Features: With more and more sales going online, how has the website performed over the last few years?
Tony Reader:
We’ve been really pleased with how the site has performed over the last 15 years. We are selling more equipment to an ever-increasing number of people. It’s not surprising that so many equipment dealers are choosing to advertise with us as well as individuals who just want to get rid of one piece of equipment. We used to pay to get to the top of Google rankings but the website has performed so well that we are consistently automatically at the top due to our large click through rate.
Golf Features: What happens if the seller misrepresents the hours or condition of a particular mower or tractor?
Tony Reader:
Our terms and conditions are set out on the website and we do not tolerate ‘clocking’ of hours if brought to our attention. Fortunately, this has only happened on one occasion that we have been made aware of. In this instance we told the advertiser to insert correct readings or we would remove all adverts from the site and ban them from further use until rectified. We know that sometimes the hours meter on a machine malfunctions, in which case they should enter ‘hours unknown’.
Golf Features: What are the strangest things that you have had advertised on the website?
Tony Reader:
We once had a couple of sports cars which don’t tend to run too well on sports fields – the advertiser was pointed towards Autotrader and the adverts removed. Another enquired about putting a speed boat on but that was politely declined.
Golf Features: Why do you not accept advertisements with the price not shown?
Tony Reader:
We actually do now have several adverts with POA (price on application) rather than a price shown – this is since we have started the ‘live feed’ option which of course picks up from the seller’s own website.We find that buyers like to see a price advertised rather than POA but cannot compel everyone to change their own websites.
For more information please visit: