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Ritchie Bros. auctioneers has published five “Top 5″ lists to its website ^[2] that provide a pretty interesting look at equipment trends in 2012.

Hydraulic excavators were popular among Ritchie Bros. customers this past year, coming in as the no. 1 type of construction equipment sold and the no. 1 search query at rbauctions.com at 1.1 million searches. Wheel loaders came in at no. 2 on that list of top searches, followed by truck tractors, dozers and pickup trucks.

Hydraulic excavators also finsished as the no. 3 overall equipment type sold in 2012 behind pickups at no. 1 and truck tractors.

Behind hydraulic excavators on the top 5 construction equipment types sold were walk behind compactors at no. 2, wheel loaders at no. 3, crawler tractors at no. 4 and loader backhoes at no. 5.

Caterpillar topped the auctioneer’s list of most-sold manufacturers. John Deere was at no. 2, followed by Volvo, Kensworth and Komatsu.