For sale: 902 Farmtrac tractors at a great price. That's one of the options offered to the public by a liquidation Web site late Monday.

The online clearance Web site comes nearly three months after financially embattled tractor manufacturer Farmtrac North America (FNA) closed its doors to employees to reorganize. It is also more than 180 days behind on its debt of more than $14 million to Atlanta, Ga.-based Textron Financial.

Attorney Jim Marrow of Tarboro, who assumed duty Feb. 27 as the Edgecombe County court-appointed receiver, was asked about the online offering.

Marrow said that rapidly selling the tractors at "fire sale prices" is "an unenviable and last option," and that efforts are in place to shape up the company's books, inventory and hardware enough to attract a buyer.

"That is ultimately is the best solution to maximize value," he said.

The function of a receiver is to ensure payment of debt to creditors. In the case of six-decade old Farmtrac, it is also to repair the company's reputation and prevent it from perishing.

"In essence, I am now the owner of Farmtrac," Marrow explained. "I'm aware many people are hurt in this ... and that we've got to act quickly."

Marrow claimed he had no knowledge about a liquidation site operated by LewPack International of metro Atlanta prior to faxes and e-mails from Farmtrac retailers across the country with Web site information, a page hosting 19 different models of Farmtrac tractors.

There are approximately 700 partly-assembled and 250 completed tractors on Farmtrac locations in Tarboro.

In further conversation, the receiver attributed the online sale attempt to a "miscommunication" between two undisclosed parties. "They were contacted (Tuesday) and the Web page is no longer in service," Marrow said.

LewPack's Farmtrac sales page, lewpackinternational.com/tractors.html continued to be in full operation at the time today's newspaper had gone to press.

In addition, a Middle Eastern competitor Web site, Vivastreet.co.in, is also offering the multitude of Farmtrac products for sale. The listing was posted on Sunday by co-owner of LewPack International, Bobby Pack.

In conversations with Pack, he offered tractors at rates thousands of dollars less than dealer cost. "It's a close out for a U.S. distributor," Pack said. "We're liquidating all of it."

Since late February, Marrow has appointed a barebones management and administrative staff back on duty at its headquarters building on 111 Fairview St. to wade though a sea of backdated paperwork and "get a good picture of what's here."

Disheveled bookkeeping and a lack of hardware inventory are issues that Doug Gurkins of Washington, N.C., a veteran property and land evaluator, has reported to Marrow.