MORE than 2000 buyers and sellers flocked to Aberdeen and Northern Marts' collective sale of plant, machinery and equipment at Thainstone, which produced a clearance rate of 86% – the highest rate of any collective sale held at at the centre this year.

Trade peaked at £26,000 for a 10-year-old John Deere 7530 tractor, while a similar aged JCB 3CX Sitemaster digger made £25,000 and a 2011 Doosan DX225LC tracked excavtor sold for £24,000.

Other highlights saw a two-year-old Land Rover Evoque SE Tech TDi top the 4x4 and light vehicle section at £23,000, while a five-year-old Land Rover Defender 110 County TDi, followed at £11,600.

A 2013 Iveco Eurocargo 180 c/w Hi-Ab from the heavy commercial section sold for £12,500, followed by a seven-year-old MAN 26 340 6x4 at £11,000.

A Macauley 14-tonne dump cart topped the farm machinery and equipment section, at £6450.

Mark Barrack, head of Thainstone Specialist Auctions, said: “Achieving this ambitious sales rate points to the popularity of this event and the advantages that the price-discovery method of an auction of this scale offers – sellers benefit from access to a strong market of buyers onsite and online, in addition to the expertise of our professional auctioneers on the day. We hope to build on the outstanding success generated into our next collective auction in January 2019.

“We continue to see a great turnout of local buyers attend, as well as many buyers who join us from as far North as Shetland down to Portsmouth, and from western Ireland all the way east to Warsaw, Poland.”

LEADING prices:

Tractor and plant – 2008 John Deere 7530 tractor, £26,000; 2008 JCB 3CX sitemaster digger, £25,000; 2011 Doosan DX225LC tracked excavator, £24,000; 2013 JCB 8055 RTS excavator, £16,500.

Light commercials and 4x4s – 2016 Land Rover Evoque SE Tech TDi, £23,000; 2013 Land Rover Defender 110 County TDi, £11,600;

2015 Ford Ranger XLT TDCi double cab pickup, £11,500; 2012 Volkswagen transporter shuttle SE minibus, £11,000.

Heavy commercials – 2013 Iveco Eurocargo 180 c/w Hi-Ab flat lorry, £12,500; 2011 MAN 26 340 6x4 cement mixer, £11,000; 2012 Scania R480 6x2 artic lorry, £10,800; 1992 Simon Gloster Fire Tender, £10,000.

Trailers, caravans and containers – Wilcox step-frame bulker trailer, £3900; Neville charrold bulker trailer, £2800; Brian James triple – axle, beaver tail trailer, £2450; 10 x 8 toilet cabin, £2050.

Farm machinery and equipment – Macauley 14t dump cart, £6450; KV ES 95 vari width five-furrow plough, £6000; Herron 24t low loader trailer, £5800; Vixen sandblasting cabinet, £2450.