Size really didn't matter in Wednesday's auction of heavy equipment, most of it belonging to Golden Hill Ventures and one of its financing companies.

The largest loader on the block, big enough to move a house in one lift, went for $2,000 – that's $2,000. Albeit, it was almost 20 years old.

But as one man at the auction pointed out, it will probably cost $50,000 or more to move, once it's broken down by heavy duty mechanics into the five or six truck loads required to haul it away – cranes required.

And with something so big, one would definitely have to have a specific job for it, said another auction participant.

Ditto for the Hitachi 1100 excavator, which took a group of mechanics some four days to put together on site. It went for $10,000.

On the flip side, the Hitachi mini-excavator, which would almost fit inside the 1100's bucket, sold for $16,500.

Beaver Creek contractor Charlie Eikland came down to bid specifically on the mini.

"I did a lot of research into it to find out what it was worth,” he said in an interview at the auction. "I talked to the previous owner, and figured out how much I was willing to pay.

"I came here and found out four of my buddies wanted it too,” he said. "I was going to go close to $20,000 and they said the same thing.”

But he didn't have to.

All 160-plus items sold in Golden Hill's yard, off the Alaska Highway just north of Crestview.

There were 320 bidders registered for the auction managed by rbRitchie Bros. Auctioneers, 180 of whom were onsite and another 140 who participated through the internet.

Equipment was sold as far away as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Colombia.

"We were really happy with the sale for our first showing in 18 years here,” auction manager Dean Lowry said afterwards.

"We had a good turnout, a good crowd and the prices were where we expected them to be. Some were up, some were down, but overall they were right where we expected them to be.”

As a matter of policy, rbRitchie does not release the total amount of revenue generated from the auction.

As a result of what has been described in Yukon Supreme Court as something of a perfect financial storm that hit Golden Hill Ventures during the recession in 2008/2009, one of the territory's largest construction companies fell into dire straits.

Wednesday's sale was held to satisfy one of the company's creditors, though Golden Hill is still very much alive and still working, company president Jon Rudolph emphasized in a recent interview.

Pelly Construction president Keith Byram paid the most for a single item with his $475,000 purchase of a rebuilt D-11 Caterpillar bulldozer.

It runs about $1.8 million new.

"I knew about the D-11's history when Jon first bought it,” said Byram, whose Whitehorse company is also among the largest construction companies in the Yukon, if not the largest.

"He bought it at an auction in Edmonton and I know pretty much what's been done to it since.”

Bryam also picked up a D-10 dozer for $82,500 but whether it'll be used for parts or put to work hasn't been determined yet.

His only other purchase was a water wagon for $7,000.

"That was the steal.”

The circumstances, said Byram, were kind of sad.

"But the stuff was put up for sale, and I'm sure he was pleased to see me come and spend some money.”

Not only potential buyers tucked into Golden Hill's maintenance garage. The auction attracted many who were there just to see the show.

Among the crew of 20 employees rbRitchie Bros. brought to town to run the sale were two veteran auctioneers who really did speak a million words a minute while staff scanned the crowd for a flick of the head, or a flash of the bid card.

Everything sold in just under five hours – bulldozers, rock trucks, pressure washers, highway transport trucks and trailers, right down to spare parts.

Buyers have up until Nov. 15 to move the gear out of the yard – after they've paid in full.

Placer miner Tara Christie estimates anywhere from 20 to 30 people from the industry were in Whitehorse for the auction.

It was a good sign, she said of her fellow placer miners willing to explore new investments in equipment after tightening the purse strings in recent years amid high fuel prices while watching where the price of gold was heading.

She herself made several purchases, from spare parts to a 1974 Kenworth dump truck for $3,250 and a 1990 Komatsu loader for $22,000.

"The loader was our big purchase,” Christie said. "We run mostly Komatsus.”