The Pike County Cattlemen Association’s Annual Equipment Auction is set for April 8 at Cattlemen Park. The auction will get underway at 8 a.m. and will end when all the items have been “sold to the highest bidder.”

B.B. Palmer, Cattlemen president, said the auction is billed as an equipment auction and that’s what it is– but not all that it is.

“Anybody can bring most anything except tires,” he said. “We don’t take them. We try to stay away from junk items but, as the saying goes, ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.’ So, if you have items you think might be a treasure to someone else. We’ll auction them off.”

The annual equipment auction is one of the Pike County Cattlemen’s largest fundraisers. The Cattlemen receive 10 percent of the sales.

Palmer said the Pike County Cattlemen’s Equipment Auction is what might be called an “absolute auction.”

“We sell it all,” he said. “If sellers don’t get the bids they want, they can reserve the right to buy their items back at the highest bid, plus 3 percent. Everybody leaves happy.”

Palmer said the auction always has a large number of vehicles, from cars, pickup trucks to fire trucks.

“Those who have vehicles to sell must have the titles,” he said. “We won’t auction a vehicle without a title.”

The vehicle auction begins at 11 a.m. and will continue until all vehicles are sold.

“We’ll keep auctioning the other items at the same time,” Palmer said. “We don’t take a break.”

The Pike County Cattlemen will begin accepting auction items from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 1.

“We won’t take items on Sunday but we’ll start accepting items again from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, April 3 through 6,” Palmer said. “We’ll be getting ready for the auction on Friday so we won’t accept items on April 7.”

Palmer said the Cattlemen are expecting a large number of items for bid and a large number of bidders.

“We’ve had good auctions, with around a thousand items. The bidding is friendly, but competitive,” he said. “We expect another successful auction because folks go home with good deals.”

Registration for bidders will be at the Cattlemen building from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.  April 3 through 7 and beginning at 7 a.m. on auction day, April 8.

“We invite everybody to participate by putting items in the auction or bidding or doing both,” Palmers said. “The Cattlemen’s auction is a good way to get money for items that you no longer need and you support the Cattlemen at the same time and we appreciate it.”