Pricing opinions

OK guys...it's a pet peeve, I get annoyed by stupid prices on photo ads so i will take a poll. Save your "it's his tractor so he can ask whatever he wants," and "do you know what it costs to restore one?" posts, yes he can ask, and having done several of various colors, yes I am aware! So on to the poll: This 1953 Stage 1 SH has new 1/8" over fire crater type pistons, new bearings throughout, crank and cam and rods refurbed, head and block magnafluxed and decked, all new valves and components, new rear 13.6-38 Firestones on the back, 6.50-16 Firestones on the front new, live hydraulic pump, front bolster completely rebuilt, starter, generator, carb rebuilt, new clutch, new brake shafts and pads, and housings machined, refurbed belt pully, new steering wheel, new sliding drawbar, new original style muffler, tanked cleaned and sealed, new radiator, distributer rebuilt, new u joints in steering, new wiring harness, all reworked lights, all sheet metal worked, painted with IH #2150 with hardner, Toyota silver on the rims, was completely disassembled, painted then put back together. If I were going to sell it which I am not, I put the value at about $3500 which is about what's in it: Do you feel I am about right?

Or...is it worth more like $7250 like this one...forgot, mine has the lightbar toolbox and silver cloth seat too, tool box wasn't on yet in the pic.

No doubt it's worth more. Question is; would someone pay more? I don't think I would "pay more" for a Super H. I'd put that money towards a more modern tractor.

Definitely worth it.

OK how about this. How much work will it do in the field. Take a new 35 hp tractor of your choice load them equal then hitch to say a 7 foot disc. The price is one thing but the value will be very different.

Don't get your point...or rather you don.t get mine...I simply stated that I felt my tractor which is comparable to the one below is worth about $3500 in the market...asked if you guys felt my opinion was right, or the guy in the pic below wantin $7250 for essentially the same thing is right.
No question I'd rather have a new 35 HP Kubota if I HAD to do work with it and had the money...that's not the point...the point is: What is the market (Collector I suppose) for a nice well done, thoroughly gone through Super H?

beautiful job on your tractor! 3500? that would be just for parts and no labor right? Im sure the time spent on it would be about another 3500 if not more????

Thanks Lyle...but no I can't treat it like a Muscle car...the market will only bear so much for a Super H...I'm not selling anyway just asking opinions on what's the market price...I never consider my time cuz I never sell 'em, but certain models are worth so much no matter how much ya do to 'em. My thoughts

Asking and receiving are two different things.Looks like you have done a very nice job and having overhauled it I would say it would sell easily for your estimate.By being able to do it yourself you have the pride and feeling of accomplisment that is hard to put a price on.Most decent paint jobs start at $1000 and the real nice ones take at least 40 hours to do it right and cost closer to $2000 or more.I would say you did not fiqure a lot of labor into your tractor as old tired SuperHs still bring around $1500 or more.

dont mean to get off topic but when I fix up some of this old stuff I have people telling me Im wasting my time and money, meanwhile all they do is sit in the coffee shop all day. Makes me wonder who is wasting time??? lol

them's the kinda people that cheer me up on dreary days when I think I may have missed something in life.. Always got a reason for doin nothing.

furgots ta mention, winter is pretty much here now and its getting cold. so next trip a pair of wool socks would be nice..lol

Yeah I did miss your point. You are right the value is what you place on your tractor. The same goes for any other tractor owner, a deal is made when the two agree.

Don't be a cheater Peter!!!!!!!!!! You put real nice and clear pics of yours up and a blurry one of the other guy's :roll: ...

Let him ask, he may find someone that just HAS to have it at any price. No tellin what folks will pay money for....

I mentioned once on a forum that I had replaced the solid sway bars for the 3pt on my little tractor with chains/turnbuckles.. Guy started PMing and emailing me for the solid bars. I already wanted to use them for something else and told him the chains were much more user friendly and would ship cheaper... Nothing doing and he started getting on my nerves. Finally gave him a stupid price with the idea of shutting him up... Couple days later, I have a letter in the mail with the cash + money for shipping. Felt bad then and charged him 20 bucks + shipping (had told him 80) :roll:

There's always a point of diminishing returns. A mediocre restoration job probably has just as much potential for profit as a really good job. There are those who see new paint alone as "like new", and therefore are willing to fork out big bucks. An "expo quality" restoration no doubt makes for a better job, but, unless it's an extremely rare tractor, the cost involved may surpass the market value of the tractor. BTDT.

I've restored a couple family tractors that hopefully will remain with the family. They saw investments close to double the value of the best examples of their respective models. There's no hope of ever recovering what I spent. If I'm doing one to re-sell, there has to be a reasonable limit on cost if there's any hope of breaking even, much less turning a profit.

But...There's always that one buyer out there that just HAS to have what you're selling, regardless of cost.

well its a hard thing to figure while the average nice H is "worth" 3500 on the open market, you would then have to define the term 'nice' is it 25 bucks worth of rattle can paint on a powerwashed original tractor, or is is like you described, and its a probably better than new ground up restoration, with another 60 years of work in it yet, me id pay more for the top H, my problem with old tractors is i always end up using them for what there intended to do, having growed up with a C and a M, a good H with a 2-16 plow on behind it on a warm summer evening, and out under a load, would be full of memories and a real hard thing to have to shut down for me, and the top H would be a safe buy for this purpose, no fears of making it do some work, i have to also admit im the guy with about 6 grand plus invested in a 3500 buck on a good day, ford jubilee BUT i work this tractor, and i mean almost every day here on my place and also i haul it and do paying jobs with it its light weight and easy to trailer and is good up to its hp limit, that being said i dont feel bad with twice the money in the tractor as its worth , priced a new 30 hp tractor these days? granted they can do a little more than my ford will, and there nicer and easier to run, but shoot anybody with money can do that i can look good doing it too lol another thing thats fun for me is to hit town on a summer saturday morning when all the suits are out doing the he-man yard wars on their manly big box store lawn riders or zero turns, i pull up, fire up my 1948 farmall cub with the belly mower, and back it off the trailer and go to work, kind of just breaks up the party as they cant believe the nice cut the old cub can do, no stripes no re mowing the same area 2 or 3 times, no big windrow of cut grass to rake up, just a nice level cut, and it looks old school cool too, and that aint no briggs bellering away, just a nice soft 4 cylinder humming away through a stock ih muffler

3500.00 seems right to me, that's the prices i see for that kinda tractor...

I would have said 4,000 for that tractor with all the work you have done to it. It really looks great and sounds like you have covered all the details. I know it doesn't cover your true costs but that is the nature of tractors.

I personally would not pay that for one. Would rather buy a 1000 dollar tractor and do what you did to it.

A million of them around so no real collector value,the most I have ever seen a H bring was
$3000 for one with a real nice paint job it went that high because of 2 sides of a family didn't want the other to have it.Nothing real practical to do with one anymore as diesel compacts run so much cheaper and are 1000 times more user friendly.

No mater what the others say about value. I will go anouther way. You have reciepts for all the parts you put on, so total them and keep safe. Then did you have or did you purchase it for rebuilding? Document what it orignal cost was and total it up. Then try to come up with a number of hours labor and doucment that as well. Get everything figured up so you know what the total cost was, then get 3 good appraisors that will give you a written appraisel of that figure along with lots of pictures with time imprint date on them. Now you are ready to take all that information to your insurance agent and get it covered. Something is going to happen if you don't. And I think with all that then you should be able to get it insured for the $10,000 value that you will have in it. You have to think what it will cost me to replace it if the barn burns down with it in side. That condition I don't think you could do it for the 10grand.

It would bring that on a farm auction,but privately is a different story.Everyone wants something for nothing.

It's been a few years,but on a farm auction near here,a Super H with a wide front,nice restoration,brought $4400. Left everybody there with their mouth hanging open,but that's what it brought.

with the work youve done ,yes thats a fair price. But finding someone to pay it is the rub. Around here i dont see it bringing that much. To a collector who understands what youve done maybe. To a guy whose going to put it to work,i wouldnt think so,simply because newer larger tractors would be bought here for the same price. To a guy who buys it because dad or or grandad had one, very likely simply because theres no price on sentimental value. MY opinion, if you had to sell it right now for some reason ,no. but if you put it out and advertised it good,and could wait to sell it to the right person,yes . If you put it in a auction side by side with five unrestored one,very likely it would bring that. If it was sitting by itself, probably not here.

I sold an H that had most of what you did to that for $3600, three years ago. Tin and paint was beyond nice.
I only lost 500 dollars, and got zero for labor.
Npw I have SMTA in the shop, done, and I'm in 6800 on that. Might get all that back?

Hi Lyle,
might be up in your neck of the woods picking up a combine soon.... where were you located again, Claremore??
Email is open, Ralph.

All that work you sure you don't have more in it ?

Really sharp looking! With all that work along with all new tires, $3,500 is very reasonable. I would try to sell it at $4,000.

thats not a bad price I have one that has perfic metal , needs rings or rebuilt Im asking 1500 for and I still have it, People have there own opion to do thereself or buy one already finished. nice tractor.

Most of the folks on here who do up a tractor like that do it because they want to, and don't pay no attention to the hours it took to get it there. It's not a business for these folks.

That wasn't part of the discussion-but I imagine that Super H will do a lick of work.

Yes, I would even throw in a load of firewood for the $3500

not to change the subject any, and as much as i like farm type auctions, it always bothers me to see tractors like this in those auctions. very seldom does a tractor like this bring what it should here at auction. mainly i believe because this is simply not row crop country. I always wonder if the folks (most often deceased) would have been better off money wise selling them before their deaths than at a auction put on by the family.

For a realality check the only people that tractor would be worth more than 2K would be to a collector. If you are restoring a Ford N, Farmal A,B,C,H or M to include the Super models and STA's you are going to dump more into it than it's work. These are not the only tractors that fall into this trap but an example. It ain't an investment, you are supposed to make a profit on an investment. It's a hobby. Hobbies cost money.

As of late in my area I think you could maybe pull 2500 for it. AS far as working it.....in the small HP range finding implements for an H/SH that don't require a 3 point is next to impossilbe. That makes it a wagon puller. My 2 8N's get worked hard but my M sits most of the time. It pulls the poo spreader really well. If I were to buy another tractor right now I would want something in the 50-70 HP range with 3 point.

Rick

I saw a regular H sell last week that had the same rebuild and paint as yours. Sold it for $2000. I think around $3,000 in my neck of the woods would be a fair price.

Don't feel bad, I have $8,000 in a JD A that is worth about $3500-$4000 on the market. There is a reason they call it a labor of love.

Hey guys...TY for the replies! I work nights so I"ll try to answer everone at once; we have I believe (rough estimate) about $3500 in the Super H (I"m not being uppity but I don"t use straight Hs as comparison as there is a fairly significant difference) including purchase price, but not including time, we NEVER consider time because of a few reasons: we NEVER sell one when it"s done, We realize that if we added in time we"d have so much more in them then they"d ever be worth we"d choke! The time spent working on them with Dad and occasionally one of my Brothers or nephews is worth way more than any dollar value! When I hook it to a sled, or spend a day in the seat plowing at a plow day, or Dad shows it or parades it, or someone in the family uses it for a tractor ride, it feels so much better knowing we did the work.
Every tractor we have gets "used"; for the affore mentioned, or a lil "hoggin, or yanking some firewood or logs around...IF we HAD to use a tractor to earn a living or make some money we are well aware that a new compact 4x4 dsl hydrostat is much more efficient and handy (I used to sell Kubotas full time and still play at it occasionally on the side) but we don"t have anything that we could justify that expense for...we need traction for big stuff we get the JD 70 out, we need a loader we mount the #45 loader on the 70. For hoggin usually the JD A or the Super C, genetal chores the JD B, the JD 420 or one of the Ns gets the nod and yes we have too much in every tractor I have just mentioned! LOL ...and even more waiting to get splurged on.
Won"t even think about how much is in the Super M that is being done now!
We usually get a tractor that need some work fairly reasonable, peck at the basic mechanicals until we get them running enough to use for a while and really get it sorted out, then when it"s that tractor"s turn we have a handle on what needs to be done parts and work wise, tear it down do what we need to get it cleaned, primed, and painted the back together. Like everyone else, we sometimes win: never have to do much except beautify, bit others need the full monty!
My point for the original past was that people are starting to treat antique tractors like muscle cars: put a lot in "em, add up your time the tack on some profit and advertise them for stupid money. I was pointing out by using a Super H as an example that unless you have some real rare bird of a tractor, each model kinda has an upper limit what ya could expect it to sell for...my experience is that a well tended nice Super H is gonna be worth closer to $3500 than it is $7250 no matter what"s been done to it! I could have grabbed a pic of one of those New Hampshire tractors that get put on here periodically (the $7000 JD 70 for instance) and compared that to ours, or one of the "Expo Quality" late As or Bs that guys are asking $5000 plus for and compared them to one of ours, or that $5500 Super C that was on here a lil bit ago.
And it"s not just on here or craigslist or Ebay: I noticed an 8N with no sheet metal or radiator sitting out for sale down the road the other day...older fading red paint, steering box looser than a goose, side distributer, but older skinny 19" style front wheels with ok tires, one dried out cracked rear tire and another unmatched dried out but not cracked tire on the other side both on good looking "hat" style rims. No dash, lift held up with a pc of 2x4. So I called the number: "Runs good, lft and tranny work good...well they did before the fire so I guess it all works now, the tins, fenders and radiator all got singed pretty bad and are in the garage...bot it"s a side distributer! I need $2000!" well considering that on it"s BEST restored, beautiful completely working day it"s a $2500 tractor (maybe a tad more now as new rubber is so damned expensive ya"d have to compensate a lil when the rubber went on) that seemed a lil much....so there it sits right where it has all summer...but I"ms sure come spring it"ll still be a $2000 tractor!

I think you are a little high, but not that far off the mark. I will have 6K in my 2.5K Massey Harris 44. I have no intention of selling it, love it and do not want to lose that much money.

There aren't a "million" Super H's around. Easy to tell from this discussion who knows his onions and who doesn't. There's a significant difference between an H and a Super H. H's are so plentiful around here that you have to practically kick them out of the way just to walk around and then pick the one you want for $1500.00-$2,000.00.

The problem is you will never convince the guy buying a "restorable" one for $1500 (real deal,right?) that he will have more into it than you are asking for one all;ready done! If you could find that guy and talk some sense into him, them you could get $4000 for it. It's easily worth that. The ones that won't pay it are still in denial and a dream world as to what "THEY" can do with the fix-er-upper they are looking at. If it ain't worth $4000 then they aren't serious about a tractor.RB

Seems reasonable. Maybe priced a little low. Weights all around and correct lights and ask $4500.

Seems reasonable. Maybe priced a little low. Weights all around and correct lights and ask $4500.

Yep, I see it too Pete.
I have more into some of mine than they are worth.
Truth is, what a guy has into it has nothing to do with what it's worth.
On the flip side of that coin are ones like my JD.
I'm not a huge JD fan, but it was my dad's.
It's "worth" a lot to me.
Of course, it won't be sold either so I don't have to set a price.

Compared to truly rare models of tractors there are plenty of Super H's I've seen dozens over my liftime only seen 5 or 6 Cockshutt 570 Supers for comparsion.

Agreed. But we were talking about H's and Super H's and how some of these guys were lumping them all into one group. I wasn't saying that Super H's are super rare; just pointing out that there sure weren't as many out there as regular H's.

Farmall H's were the second most produced tractor behind Ford N's. Super H numbers were far less.

I would pay 3500 in an instant.Its in the bank.Most of these titewads dont understand the hard work that goes in to a tractor like that.