Source: EquipmentWatch

Even as the average price for a skid-steer loader lost 4% annually in fall 2012, Deere was the fastest-growing brand.

A new report of fall auction data performed by EquipmentWatch shows which brands sold the most units and commanded the highest price premiums and which ones have room for improvement.

Caterpillar earned a whopping 23% share of the auction market between September and November of last year; not surprisingly, the company is the price leader in many categories, including skid-steer loaders, loader-backhoes and crawler excavators. In second place was Deere, with a 6% share of overall auction sales.

Also in the lead are earthmoving equipment makers Komatsu and Volvo, each at 4%, and Bobcat, with about 3% market share. Ford, Case, JCB, JLG and Genie rounded out the top 10.

Deere Gains Ground

Dig deeper into machinery categories, however, and the results indicate that while Cat was the price leader, some brands made significant headway.

For example, even as the $12,000 average price for a skid-steer loader lost 4% in fall 2012 since the same period in 2011, Deere was the fastest-growing brand, with prices averaging about $13,200, a 9% jump. Bobcat rose to $11,300, a 2% hike. Meanwhile, average prices for Case and Cat units respectively declined to $10,500, a 12% drop, and $14,800, down 11%.

EquipmentWatch, a unit of Penton, plans to release more free reports, which are built from its LastBid auction database. The reports promote the company's shift from books, which contain auction data, to a web-based dashboard, which also captures private sales' asking prices. An online subscription costs $600 a year.

"We think there is an appetite for what is happening in the heavy-equipment industry," says Garrett Schemmel, director of brand management for EquipmentWatch. "We aspire to be the Kelley Blue Book in our space and are taking a giant leap in that regard."