At least twice a month, Jones leaves his home on Hilton Head, S.C., and goes to an auction somewhere in the Carolinas. He looks for farm equipment to tend to his three farms, where he grows with watermelons, corn and soybeans.

Jones figures he has close to 50 acres filled with equipment he has bought at auctions over the past several years. At one such auction, in Four Oaks, Jones left with two truckloads of equipment. “I bought one of the oaks,” he joked. “Now, they call it Three Oaks.”

On Saturday, Jones and his longtime friend, Jack Beasley, attended an auction at Olive Farm Supply. It didn’t take long for them to buy rakes and pitchforks. Jones got his hands on two plows before a copper scale caught his eye. He stepped up to the auctioneer as two other men vied for the item. Jones raised his hand every few seconds until his bid of $220 went unchallenged.

“It’s a sickness,’ Jones said. “You can’t get over it unless you die.”

Beasley, who owns a small farm in Four Oaks, enjoys going to farm-equipment auctions. “I like it,” he said. “You can get all that you want here.”

Hundreds of people, from young to old, trampled through the muddy grounds to attend the auction. Olive Farm Supply, which opened decades ago, sold off some of the farm equipment that was no longer in demand. Dozens of tractors, plows, mowers and tools were strewn across the property on U.S. 70 Business.

Some farmers, including Brad Coley and Ed Denton, were curious about the deals they could find at the auction. Coley, of Creedmoor, normally attends auctions every other Saturday to hunt for tilling equipment. At the end of the day, he has normally saved a few bucks.

“It’s pretty good,” Coley said of the auction at Olive Farm Supply. “Sure, a lot of the equipment is old and out of shape, but it’s in good condition. If it fits the size of your operation, then you can get it for a decent deal.”

Denton, who lives in Centerville, saw a few items that caught his eye Saturday. But he had not decided if they were worth bidding on.

“It is just a matter of if someone wants it better than I do,” he said.

Auctions are not just for people who want to buy. John Fulghum, service manager at JFS Outdoor Power Equipment, was trying to sell two Snapper Pro mowers. New Snapper Pro mowers sell for nearly $7,000, but Fulghum was hoping to get at least $4,400 for both of the used mowers.

“It is a good way to move our used inventory,” Fulghum said. “You have got a lot of folks looking for deals.”

Nola Olive, 77, has owned Olive Farm Supply for years. Her son, Jody Olive, is taking over the day-to-day operations of the store. Although the final numbers have not been tallied, Jody Olive said most of the items up for bid were sold at the auction.

“We had a good turnout,” he said. “We had another auction here back in the early 1970s. I believe there were more people here than the first one, but we had nicer weather back then. We wouldn’t have stopped this auction for nothing — not rain, sleet or snow.”