Fourth-quarter gross equipment sales totaled $124 million, up 29 percent over the same period last year.

“I am very pleased with our performance in 2009 and the significant progress we continue to make in building the world’s largest online marketplace for used equipment,” said Gregory J. Owens, Chairman and CEO of IronPlanet.

“We continue to focus and respond to what is most important to our sellers and buyers: we increased the frequency of our auctions to a weekly level in North America; we launched our marketplace in Europe and expanded in Australia/Southeast Asia conducting monthly auctions in both regions; and we continued to grow our worldwide base of buyers to deliver fair market value for the equipment we sell.”

In 2009, IronPlanet conducted a record 79 auctions across North America, Europe and Australia; an increase of approximately 40pc over 2008.

Through IronPlanet’s marketplace, approximately 30,000 items were sold — up approximately 65pc on 2008.

In order to better serve global equipment consigners, IronPlanet continued to expand its global sales force, reaching 111 sales personnel at year end, an increase of 37 percent over 2008, including new appointments in the Americas, Australia/Southeast Asia, and Europe.

IronPlanet reached a historic milestone in 2009, surpassing more than half a million registered users, and averaging approximately 9000 new registrations a month.

“As we look forward in 2010, I am very encouraged by the marketplace we have built and confident in our continued momentum as the value we deliver to our customers is increasingly compelling. We believe that our ability to bring market leading prices, our weekly global auction schedule, and a lower cost to sell than traditional channels is unmatched in the market. This value and the broadening of our global marketplace footprint is why we are seeing the level of growth we have demonstrated over the past several years,” said Owens.