Ritchie Bros. to Sell Highest Number of Items in Company's 40-year History

ORLANDO, Fla.--Feb. 22, 2006--Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated (TSX:RBA) -

Over 5,000 Items to be Sold at Giant Florida Auction

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, the world's largest auctioneer of industrial equipment, is selling more items than ever before at its longest unreserved auction in Orlando this week (February 21-25), with over 5,000 equipment items being sold by unreserved auction over the five-day period. Thousands of interested bidders from around the world have traveled to the Ritchie Bros. auction site in Orlando to take part in this ground-breaking event.

"It's the first five-day auction sale our Company has held in over 40 years of business," said Gary Seybold, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers' Regional Manager for Florida. "There's a huge selection of late-model equipment and it will all be sold to the highest bidder. It looks like it's going to be a big auction; we recently expanded our Orlando yard, and it's already completely full."

The Ritchie Bros. Orlando auction site (at the corner of I-4 & US Hwy 27 -- 700 Ritchie Road -- in Davenport, Florida) currently holds the Company's record for largest gross auction sales. A four-day Orlando auction in February 2005 generated over US$79 million in gross auction sales, beating the previous record set in Moerdijk, The Netherlands just months earlier. More than 4,600 people from 62 countries and all 50 American states registered to compete at the February 2005 Orlando auction for nearly 3,600 equipment items and trucks.

In this current, five-day auction, featured equipment items include: 135 wheel loaders, 120 loader backhoes, 200 crawler tractors, 210 hydraulic excavators, 72 articulated dump trucks, two-2003 Cat 627G Auger motor scrapers, three-2003 John Deere 9520 4WD agricultural tractors, 15-2003 Kenworth T2000 T/A truck tractors, 61 service trucks and more. Here is the breakdown of what is selling each day, starting at 8 a.m. local time:

Day One (Feb 21): Forklifts, scissorlifts, agricultural tractors, utility tractors, air compressors, light towers

Day Two (Feb 22): Wheel loaders, motor graders, motor scrapers, articulated dump trucks, loader backhoes

Day Three (Feb 23): Crawler tractors, cranes, compactors, rollers

Day Four (Feb 24): Skid steer loaders, hydraulic and mini excavators, hydraulic hammers, airplane hangars

Day Five (Feb 25, 2006): Truck tractors, dump trucks, water trucks, fuel & lube trucks, service trucks

ATTENTION: MEDIA - An aerial photo showing all the equipment of this giant, five-day auction is available for your use on the CP/AP networks.

About Ritchie Bros.

Ritchie Bros. is the world's largest auctioneer of industrial equipment, operating through over 110 locations in more than 25 countries around the world. Ritchie Bros. sells, through unreserved public auctions, a broad range of used and unused industrial equipment including equipment utilized in the construction, transportation, material handling, mining, forestry, petroleum, marine and agricultural industries. The Company maintains a web site at www.rbauction.com.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated (TSX:RBA)