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Where are all the collectors going???

J

JD Seller

Well-known Member
There was an earlier post about how that poster thought that the attendance was low at his area shows. Others posted similar thoughts on their shows.

Here is my question and observation. Where are there many younger fellows collecting anything??? What I mean by this is there are very few people under 50 collecting tractors or just about any other stuff. I have friends that are into antique cars. They talk about how the market and attendance is dead at their shows. Just some of the very rare stuff seems to have much value holding in either hobby. So hot rod shows seem to still have a younger following but not much else. The local go cart track has not has not had a full season in several years. Used to have races Saturday and Wed. night. Stock car races have half empty stands, used to be standing room only.

I think that there is one common issue that could be causing this. It is the simple fact that the average working guy these days does not have the expendable income to have a hobby collecting anything. Also the work week is longer now than it used to be. Many have to work much more than a 40 hour week. Many places have MANDATORY overtime. So the two coupled together is hurting many things. This includes community groups too.

The Jaycees in Dyersville disbanded a few years ago. Just not enough interest from men under 40 years old to keep the group going.

My sons are working as many hours as I did at their ages but I was able to build a much better standard of living/assets than they are doing. The simple cost of living is WAY higher than it used to be. We do have things we did not have when I was younger like cell phones and cable TV. The cost of these is peanuts compared to the higher cost of other things.

Several examples of this higher cost:
1) Health insurance. I always carried it for the whole family. I dug out some of my insurance bills from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s. I paid an average of $250 per month for a Blue Cross and Blue shield policy. A family plan can easily cost $1000 plus each month.

2) The cost of utilities. A $200-300 electric bills are common now. Mine used to never run over $75 for the whole farm.

3) Fuel prices. Gas is 3-4 times as high as it was then. Even with inflation figured in.

4)Cost of a new car or truck. Compared to the average annual income has doubled in price.

So all of this is adding up to the fact that many younger fellows would like to have a hobby but they do not have the time or money to be able to enjoy one.
 
Very true words JD.....But, I have made a bit of an observation when attending your shows in America..... Nothing happens! Too many chairs and older people sitting about and the tractors are too large for a young person to handle.
In the British Isles we have a big percentage of young people at our shows. many of them on their wee Fergusons.These are a great entry level tractor for a young person....they are cheap to buy , light to handle, light to work on and real basic mechanical parts. Unfortunately your country is not flooded out with them like over here, so they tend to be quite expensive....but they do bring in the youth. I think it is because they can have fun on them. We have many kids over here with a small paddock, maybe only 1/2 acre and they just love to play with their Fergies. Also we have working days and plough days to let them rip on their wee tractors. Once they get to about 18 they progress to something larger or maybe even a girl-friend!.... but many come back sometimes with a wife and a baby buggy ....and a tractor!. That was the first impression I had of American tractor shows at Mt Pleasant Iowa about 8 years ago. I mentioned it to the FENA people and we got talking....I introduced the Ferguson tractor building the following year in Lanesville....We had a 13 year old boy who came up to us and asked if he could build....immediately there was a rush to say no! But I said "Yes of course you can build" I think he took them all by surprise! That lad went home with a head the size of a base-ball....I bet he is still doing tractor stuff.
I would love to see this type of thing expanded....Jeffoh who owns the tractor has taken it to a correctional centre for young city kids...they loved it...he told me one young girl has since started training to be a mechanic . so at least one life has been improved! We all need to encourage our kids and grand children to attend plough days and tractor parades and... let them drive.
As I said earlier I would like to expand the tractor building thing, but I cannot do it in your country as I don't live there! What I would like to see is it introduced into 4H games...have teams of 4H members competing against each other to see who can build the fastest....introduce it to County shows, schools etc
And maybe even try doing it with other brands of tractor?????
But some of your clubs will have to take the initiative and the responsibility to lend a tractor and look sponsorship to haul it around the various places?
It doesn't have to be tractor building....We also do a see-saw. The tractor driver has to drive up onto a plate which has a pivot of about 4 inches under the centre, someone times them once they hit balance....all a bit of fun and friendly compitition the young ones love it!.... Even tractor reversing around a course against the stop-watch....Our young Farmers/4H clubs even take this to National level with fierce compitition (and loads of young girls there to cheer them on!)
All something to think about??
Sam
 
Well from what I"ve seen when it comes to having activities at shows, the idea is usually met with hand wringing over possible lawsuits if something goes wrong. It"s bad enough for show participants and heaven forbid you would want the general public involved.
Our local plow-day has disbanded because no property owner wants the liability of someone coming out to their farm and making a couple rounds with their pride and joy they fixed up.
That being said, It"s their land and they can do as they please but it doesn"t help to foster much excitement in the hobby if you know that all you will be able to do with your project when finished is sit in a chair and look at it.
 
JD, good post, but you are missing one very important issue. The Federal Reserve's money policies of printing or just creating money out of thin air is the main reason for this price and cost inflation which is having the effect of destroying the middle class. I think that lots of people are having a hard time making ends meet.
 
SNOBBERY! Here in Florida the elite[they think],mostly JD collectors really have screwed up getting the youth involved. I have three boys that tried to get involved but the JD crowd turned up there noses at the other brand tractors they had. They moved into other hobbies and Despise the individuals that put down there efforts. I live near the Florida Flywheeler park and enjoy the other brands but do not look at or photograph the shiny JD's,only the ones in their working clothes. I've used most brands and love them all.
 
As far as attendance, the American thresherman's show at Pinckneyville, IL. had a record attendance last year and gets bigger every year. This is the 54th year for the show. They usually have over 1000 tractors. Very good show, but they're running out of room. Show is next weekend August 15-18
 
I agree with your assesment, but would like to add one more factor. I think The electrinic age that we now all live in has created a generation of young people with limited "face to face" type social skills. Before facebook, text messaging and everyone having a cell phone, the young people would choke the main street of our local "big city" (20,000) every weekend night. they would cram the movie theater and walk the sidewalks. the guys with the hot cars would cruse. they were well behaved and there was very little trouble. Now, they sit at home and chat on social media sites, twit, text and do random "hookups" and would mostly much rather do vurtural farming on farmville than get out and do the real thing. The internet has brought us a lot of information, but I fear the direction it"s taking some of our young.
 
I agree with your assessment 100%. One thing I really enjoy now is the tractor drives. Rockville IN Covered bridge tour is a good one. This past June was there 11th year, I made every one but the first. All makes in all condition, and they feed you good too. Had one in Ohio 2 weeks ago also. Would like to attend more, but this thing called a job comes first.
 
If the younger set does have any extra money,it looks to me that most are spending it on tattoos,body pierceings and electronics. I worked at john Deere d.m. works until retirement ,when they started hiring a lot of young people in early 2000s many had more invested in tattoos than what they were driving to work.
 

I think that there are plenty of "millenials" who would really like to have an old tractor but their parents tell them that they can't have a tractor in their basement.
 
Agreed.

The standard of living in this countryhas been trending down for over two decades and the dedline has accelerated lately.

To avoid having this thread poofed, I"ll avoid discussing the reasons.

Dean
 
I bet over 50% of people have filed bankrupt in the past 4 yrs.in arkansas and how many familys own nothing at all and have it all paid for,even than its hard to get buy.Ins, tax,electric ,water, gas bills, cost you 20,000 a year just to live, even if your home and car is paid for.
 
You don't see under 50yr olds at farm shows because they have no connection to farming.
Very few under 50's even went to their Grandparent's farm let alone grew up on a farm.
Collectors are still out there. They are just into anything that was a big deal when they were a kid. And now 20-40 years later they are being nostalgic about a car, truck, motorcycle from the 1960's to 1980's. Even the 80's vintage home computers.
Where are boys raised by single mothers in an apartment going to have nostalgic memories of any machinery. Computers,TV, smoking dope and wild women were/are the entertainment.
 
i see that too , my take is its caused by several things first people under 30 or even 40 for some reason were raised different, basicly our age people grew up working our fannys off even as kids, we had chores and certain resopnsibilities that were expected to be taken care of, the younger set grew up sitting on theirs,playing electronic games, second is the reduction of quarter section family farms after our time you had to farm big or farm as a hobby thus the younger set didnt spend the time with these now old, but then fairly recent tractors like we did, today that transfers to these younger folks would rather spend money for a big screen tv to play a blue and gray game on that will fail within a year, than spend quality time out in the garadge or backyard rebuilding a robust old tractor that is so well built that when done it will be around to hand down to their grandkids as well as teach them about basic mechanics, hydraulic systems, ect
its a shame, as there is much more value in that old iron and the era it represents than will ever be obtained from cheap electronic toys
 
Absolutely. By this time in my life I had hoped to have my beloved Oliver Fleetline and/or Massey 100 series. We've spent the last 5 years winnowing down our debt, haven't bought anything large that wasn't necessary, etc. and still have less disposable income than when we started.
I suspect many people are going to take the "wait and see" approach before letting go of money on hobby purchases.
 
America has become fat, dumb, lazy and poor. Who wants to go to a tractor show out in the hot sun or rain when you can window shop at the air conditioned mall or sit in your living room sucking down beer watching "reality" tv with it's scripted dialogue.

Out local tractor club used to have a field day with the local draft horse club. The snobs from the tractor club didn't want the horses around and that was that. Now the tractor club has it's own show and the horse club it's own show and both are half what they used to be.

As far as the money end, I don't know how anyone these days can go much of anywhere. Our taxes are obscene and unemployment keeps inching up here, which requires more taxes to fund the welfare state. Meanwhile our beloved gov't is buying another 69K acres of land "for the state" which will never, ever be used or likely even step foot on.

Yup, it's a wonderful life.
 
As far as collecting trends go.... Times change
You and me have different interest than our grandfathers had and our grandkids will have different interest than us.

But for the cost of living.... Who is really to blame???
1) Sure health insurance is way up. But the type of treatment we can get today and the amount of law suits against doctors is also way up. We demand the best of care and when it does not work out as planed we sue.

2) What is the true difference. In other words compare KW used to KW used. Yes the cost of a KW has gone up but we also run a lot more things that use more KW's. Around here A/C is a big one. My grandfather did not have A/C but let the electricity go off for a few days and it makes the 6 o clock news about how slow the electricity company is working to repair the problem and how dang hot it is with no A/C.

3) Yes fuel cost are up. But do we do anything to change it. We drive cars like we stole them and then complain how much a fill up cost.

4) Again compare apples to apples. A pickup my grandfather had just got you from one place to another. It had a motor; trans; 4 wheels; and half a$$ working vacuum wipers. Today a pickup that will not pull a house; have heated seats; and a GPS so you can find your way home will not sell.
 
What I noticed at the show is that I may be about the youngest that is involved and that has and enjoys these tractors, I'm 40. No one else is coming along
 
Pretty much boils down to no money....Irregardless of what the government says the economy is still in the toilet. As you said, cost of living have risen dramatically. States and local municipalities are scrambling to come up with funding for schools, road repairs etc.They are raising taxes,creatively coming up with new fees. In Maryland our wonderful Governor doubled the DMV fees,tolls, added 4 cents to the gas tax this year, and will continue to add 1 cent a year, probably for perpetuity.
Prices... years ago to get in the hobby, you could by a Deere A or B,Farmall H or M in fair shape running for $5-700.less if it was stuck or needed alot of work. Spend a couple hundred on it,fix it up and paint it, use it around the place and take it to the shows and show off your pride and joy. Now the same tractor will run you $1500 to 2K, plus another $1500 to 2 K to get it in to shape.
The "elitist attitude" by alot of the exhibitors at shows now.and this is carrying over from the classic car side. Unless the tractor is sitting on all brand new tires, has arrow straight sheet metal,automotive show quality paint, every decal correct and not 1/10,000 of an inch out of place, the tractor is a POS, And they will be happy to pick your tractor apart,pointing out every defect,chip in the paint,decal wrong or out of place. and God forbid you put an alternator on instead of the "correct am25603 generator,painted the correct Ditzler 2349 qr satin black"
Basically the hobby isn't fun anymore.......
 
(quoted from post at 06:43:25 08/11/13) As far as collecting trends go.... Times change
You and me have different interest than our grandfathers had and our grandkids will have different interest than us.

But for the cost of living.... Who is really to blame???
1) Sure health insurance is way up. But the type of treatment we can get today and the amount of law suits against doctors is also way up. We demand the best of care and when it does not work out as planed we sue.

2) What is the true difference. In other words compare KW used to KW used. Yes the cost of a KW has gone up but we also run a lot more things that use more KW's. Around here A/C is a big one. My grandfather did not have A/C but let the electricity go off for a few days and it makes the 6 o clock news about how slow the electricity company is working to repair the problem and how dang hot it is with no A/C.

3) Yes fuel cost are up. But do we do anything to change it. We drive cars like we stole them and then complain how much a fill up cost.

4) Again compare apples to apples. A pickup my grandfather had just got you from one place to another. It had a motor; trans; 4 wheels; and half a$$ working vacuum wipers. Today a pickup that will not pull a house; have heated seats; and a GPS so you can find your way home will not sell.
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See, I have to disagree. We pay a lot for our HI. We don't use it much though. A check up every 6 months if we remember. The rest is the usual kids with ear infections, allergy meds and my wifes "lady stuff". Other than that we aren't even making use of it. God forbid we really do need it, but we're paying a lot for the hypochondriacs and welfare class that brings those suits to court for botched bo ob jobs!

We don't have AC, other than one window unit that we run for maybe a week or 2, at night, during the hottest part of summer. I suppose the electric drier is our biggest power hog, but the weather doesn't co-operate for drying on the line every day.

We don't go anywhere we don't have to, we're driving mostly 10-15 year old cars and trucks (2 95's, a 97, a 01, 04, 07) and we pinch pennies to save up for trips to see relatives. Most of my driving is in a 95 Jeep Wrangler with a 4 cyl, 5 speed, no air, darn poor heat and I can see the road through the floor. My other ride is a 95 Burb w 200K on it. Bought it for $1K when I couldn't find a decent pickup. No heated seats or GPS, although it does have a nice AM/FM/Cassette/CD. Oldest boy drives a clapped out Nissan that eats a quart of oil every other day, oldest girl drives a Chevy Trailblazer that eats front wheel bearings and needs an exhaust system and SWMBO has an 07 Explorer with 150K on it she has to use for work. Only the Trailblazer and Explorer have working AC.

The point is not everyone is living like a king running the AC night and day, buying $50K cars and taking vacations to Aruba 3x a year in between ski trips to Aspen. What we do is pay a heck of a lot in taxes. Over 20% of my income goes to income, land and school taxes. I could make good use of that money. Instead the gov't uses it to support their own interests of creating a permanent welfare class that will become the largest voting block in the nation.
 
I kind of knew someone would come back and say we do not live like this but still have to pinch pennies.

Yes that is true.
But how cheap would your health insurance be if you did not have to pay for those that do sue and only covered illness that could be cured in say 1940.

We as a whole pay more for everything because the most want to have the best.

You are preaching to the choir talking about taxes to me.
I am a pay as you go guy and think using one form of income to pay for another service is wrong.
In other words fuel tax should go to fix roads ONLY.
You got a kid in school pay for it.
My S.S. is mine not some foreign aid.
A bail out or subsidy is wrong. Build a business that pays for itself or go out of business.
 
John in La- "My S.S. is mine not some foreign aid."

John, I too, have paid in S.S for 30+ years. I am 53 and won't likely live to reach the age to draw on the S.S. that I have paid into my entire working career (cancer). I would love for the money that I have paid into this fund to go to my family but it won't. Guess where it goes? My S.S. funds go to pay S.S. for those that live longer and draw out more than they ever put in (plus interest).

You know what John?, I don't have a problem with that. That is how the system was designed and I sure as heck am glad it is there to help someone with their S.S. monthly stipends.
 
JD Seller,

Agree with you that lack of time can be an issue...
We skipped our show this year (never missed it in the past - ever), but have been working a lot of OT. So even on that Sunday, we just did not feel going to the show.

Another is lack of interest or interest in other hobbies. While someday our son may buy a tractor, or end up with one of ours... his current interest is his "Mud-truck", a little higher "YEEHAW" factor there than in tractor collecting/exhibiting.

And the money, or rather lack thereof, is another factor. We are going to have way more invested in our Regular than it is even worth by the time it is running - but we intend to keep it, so we are ok with that. It just seems that many folks in their 20's and 30's don't have much for "play-money" due to the high cost of living now days.
 
A thoughtful reply.

Today even the poorest American has 3 dozen cheap Chinese tee shirts with stupid sayings, and every imaginable cheap imported electronic gadget so they can sit home and play games.

No auto manufacturer could give away the bare bones vehicles we grew up with. Today the options beyond basic transportation cost more than the vehicle.

The young people have no memory of little old tractors, so they have no nostalgia for them.
My Dads generation collected Model T fords and Reo's which I found boring when I was a kid.
 
Ten and twenty years ago antique tractor shows and antique tractor pulls were money making attractions. Today many don't charge a gate fee anymore and attendence is still dropping in central Minnesota. Hot rod truck and tractor pulls can still charge $20 per seat and will fill the grandstands. The really big shows like Rollag and Butterfield are doing well too.

Money and interest are the big factors. I'll add another factor: the ability to repair, own, and show the equipment that you dreamed of as a kid.

I'm in my late 50's, I grew up in the 1960's. As a kid, I didn't enjoy running older tractors that were much made before I was born and I sure don't want to own one now. People under 40 grew up in the 1980's when big iron was the normal on the farms that survived. The few people under 40 who grew up an a working farm mostly drove bigger, newer tractors.

By the late 1960's and early 1970's most new tractors were getting larger, heavier, more expensive and more complicated. Functions that were mechanical on older tractors were now controlled by hydraulics: steering; brakes; shifting; 3 point hitch/draft control and PTO. Diesel engines replaced simpler distillet and gasoline engines. Transmissions that were simple 3 to 6 speeds grew to become 8 to 18 speeds with synchronized gears and hydraulic shift on the go. Bare tractor weights increased from 3000 to 6000 pounds to 8,000 to 16,000 pounds. Cabs became common with noise isolation, heat and air conditioning.

The older pre-1960 tractors like JD A's and IH M's were relatively inexpensive and simple to repair, shed and haul around to shows. Newer post-1970 tractors like JD 4430's and IH 1066's are much larger, more complex and much more expensive to repair, shelter and transport to shows. A large truck and heavy trailer are needed to move a single big tractor. Many of those tractors are either still working and are still expensive to buy or they are completely worn out and ready to be scrapped. The $15,000 to $25,000 cost to buy and restore a big tractor limits how many big iron tractors a person can restore, if they even have the ability to do the work themselves.

Younger people will still collect the things they dreamed of as kids, just like we did. They just didn't dream of the older tractors.
 
JD I agree with most of it, Antique engines are dead, Grange halls are giving up charters, Farm Bureau is declining in many states. Does not seem like prices are down old tractors just don't sell. AM HOPEING IT LEAVES MORE FOR ME!!!
 
Locally, I see younger people with no disposable income. Good high-paying jobs are very scarce and if you have one you are riding it out for all it is worth. Underemployment will only get worse as time goes forward.
Snobs have certainly dampened enthusiasm. All clubs have them and they all have issues with people not of "their" social-economic class locally. One local club that I will not name is made up of well-to-do farmers and nobody else. The club I belonged to imploded because certain people in it just did not know how to get along with others and frankly did not care. I would join another but we do not run a couple thousand acres with new equipment so the other local clubs would not give me the time of day.
 
Well I don't have much use for these perverts that put an alternator on an antique tractor, take it to an antique show and call it restored.
 
B&D, those are pretty strong words.

There were numerous changes made by the manufacturers as time went by. Some of us use our antiques as working tractors, so adjustments are made.
 
Social media. The young are spending nearly every free moment on Face Book, or now the hot thing, Twitter. Many believe any time they have a thought, it should be shared with the whole world. Becoming too costly is the nemesis for the older generations which has frequently been mentioned.
 
I think there are 2 factors: Lack of income - I retired from GM. From 1980 to 2008, when I retired, we did not hire a single person from the street. As we had openings, they were filled with folks from plants that had closed down. In the production unit, the lowest senority employee had 1974 senority for that entire time. We might never see a time when folks with a modest education and the willingness to work can get a job in the private sector, that can reasonably support a family.

Size of farms: There are very few small farms anymore. Even folks who have 2 or 300 hundred acres are simply renting it out. In our county, there are maybe 12 families, maybe less, that are making a living farming. One example I know of milks 2,500 cows and farms 12,000 acres. To get started farming here would take a couple of million. Obviously, this means fewer folks farming.
 
I'd like to agree with all your reasons but I think its just a sign of the era or whatever you call it. Interests are changing and not many are "farm" raised. Money is part of the issue but I can tell you that I live in one of the most depressed cities in Mich. but every restaurant is full and everyone has a new car. I don't believe its money...entirely, although my situation became that. I haven't had a tractor to a show in more than 5 yrs. I'm busy working and not making enough to support such an expensive hobby. (Oh, and a side note to anyone young and starting a career if you're thinking of a job that doesn't pay good but you have "passion for it". You won't be showing tractors either because you'll be working that day or broke!)
That being said, just look at all the auctions in the tractor mags. Its millionaires that have been buying up all the antique tractors and now they're dying off. Small farms are disappearing and with that barns and sheds to store old iron. Mr. suburbia has his shed full of boats and Harleys and his midlife crisis corvette, not tractors. Gate fees went up too which weeded out the little shows with not much to offer. I surely enjoy them but I'm a person that like to walk and look. Folks had to choose a little show or a bigger regional show with the same fee or a little more with more attractions. Kinda survival of the fittest.
 
You guys should go take a look at youtube. Look at what these "youngsters" today think of as excitement. Riding wheelies down the road at 60plus MPH, the trick biking, snow boarding, skiing, sky diving, bungee jumping, mud trucks, lawn mower racing and so on and so forth. At the typical tractor show you got a bunch of old guys sitting around with (to the untrained eye) 100 identical JD A's, IH H's, AC WD's and Ford N's talking about the good ole days or who died last week. You think most these kids today want to spend 6K on an old tractor or on a crotch rocket? 40 years from now they will be setting around with a fully restored bike, just like 100 other identical bikes, talking about the good ole days and who died last week. Wanna save the hobby? Gotta find something to draw the younger people that THEY will find entertaining and or exciting.

Rick
 
oldtanker- you said it perfectly. I have been trying to think of a response to this situation. I feel you have iterated the crux of the problem.
 

As I said in the other topic I am 30, almost 31, been in the hobby since I was 14 or so but always had a thing for tractors. Up to a few years ago I was pushing 30 tractors in various sizes and conditions. Drove all over Indiana. I mostly focus on Cockshutts. One reason is if you show up with a Cockshutt 40 to a show there are fewer of them than a JD B (which I have 3 of).

Then I started working more, money got less and less. Other bills were popping up. (be paying off Purdue for a many more years) Sold a few tractors because I had more than I knew what to do with. Then I got married. She likes going to shows but its not her top favorite thing to do. Then it seemed every weekend there was a show a friend of hers was getting married or there was a family event or I was working.

And from the looks of things more tractors will be sold in the near future. I will keep some and hope to get to shows in the future.

Also being a younger guy the older generation sure liked to work me to death then complain if I did something wrong. Sure zaps the fun out of it real fast. I don't mind helping out in a club but one pays the bills and one doesn't.
 
(quoted from post at 17:16:32 08/11/13) oldtanker- you said it perfectly. I have been trying to think of a response to this situation. I feel you have iterated the crux of the problem.
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Not even close to it. I will admit to being a 64 year old adrenaline junkie. I don't do half the fast and dangerous things that I used to, but I still do more than many guys twenty years younger, but I am still into tractors. I like working on them, restoring them, finding them, and working with them. I still farm and I love pulling competition. Even though it is only nine MPH, feeling that tractor digging under you on your way to a full pull is an adrenaline rush. Being into fast toys doesn't exclude tractors.
 
Blue collar wages have not been keeping up with inflation for many, many years now. We have lost so many of our good paying manufacturing jobs thanks to both parties infatuation(can you say corporate payoffs?) with "free" trade. I"ve been a conservative all my life, and this statement would be balked on in conservative circles, but the fact remains that the rich are getting richer and everyone else is falling by the wayside.

On the upside, there are some younger collectors out there. I actually know quite a few. The hobby may not be the same as it has been, but I believe it does have a future.
 
(quoted from post at 17:31:04 08/11/13)
(quoted from post at 17:16:32 08/11/13) oldtanker- you said it perfectly. I have been trying to think of a response to this situation. I feel you have iterated the crux of the problem.
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Not even close to it. I will admit to being a 64 year old adrenaline junkie. I don't do half the fast and dangerous things that I used to, but I still do more than many guys twenty years younger, but I am still into tractors. I like working on them, restoring them, finding them, and working with them. I still farm and I love pulling competition. Even though it is only nine MPH, feeling that tractor digging under you on your way to a full pull is an adrenaline rush. Being into fast toys doesn't exclude tractors.
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To you maybe, not to these youngsters. I'm 58, love fast things. Each to his own. The very idea of a tractor pull bores the heck out of me. I played on tanks for 20 years. Show a tractor that will out pull an 70 ton M1A1 tank and I can still outshoot that tractor! But if pulling is your thing there is nothing wrong with that. But don't expect some speed junkie bullet bike riding 20 something year old to even be interested in trying. Now give em a chance to run one of the big guns pulling and they just may like that. I've got 4 sons between 29 and 40. The oldest would restore an R JD because he has fond memories of spending time on it with my dad. He wouldn't show it because he'd be bored at a show. #2 is not interested at all. #3 would only be interested in the big gun pullers and that wouldn't last because they are not exotic sports cars. #4 would do it to please me. He would stop the second I was gone. He isn't kissing up. He just likes doing things with me but would rather spend time shooting or reloading with me. Right now only #2 son could afford it. #1 made some poor career choices, #3 is getting married Friday and has spent his money for the next couple of years getting ready for the wedding. #4 is a student. He did 4 years in the Navy and is now Army National Guard. He tried working after he was done with active duty and decided to take a 2 years gun smith program. So even kids with experience around tractors may not be interested.

Rick
 

My buddy's son is about thirty, and used to be one of those kids going 90 miles an hour on his super bike standing on the back fender with the front wheel high in the air. For about four years he has been into tractor pulling with his dad. They are just finishing up a D-21 Allis that I used to beat now and then when it was only 250HP. Now it will be 350 so I won't be n the same league any more.
 
(quoted from post at 02:52:26 08/12/13)
My buddy's son is about thirty, and used to be one of those kids going 90 miles an hour on his super bike standing on the back fender with the front wheel high in the air. For about four years he has been into tractor pulling with his dad. They are just finishing up a D-21 Allis that I used to beat now and then when it was only 250HP. Now it will be 350 so I won't be n the same league any more.
Click to expand...

That's cool, some of em do grow up. My oldest boy would most likely get stomped on at a show too. In the evenings when they have people playing country and bluegrass he be there telling anyone who would listen of just how much that music sucks (he'd use his major in music to try to establish the fact that he thinks he is the expert) and how only stupid people like that type of music. Can't convince him he can't tell people what to like and that he isn't the leading expert. To my #2 son, like I say no interest. He takes his boys to a show every now and again because they like tractors. I do have to potential tractor nut grandkids. #2 sons youngest. He's 5 and just loves tractor and trains. With the proper grooming he may be a collector/puller and my #1 daughters youngest. His dad is ruining him though, he's into the mud truck thing.

Now me and #3&4 sons have picked up an old CJ3 jeep we are going to try to save. Both of them would be much happier at a car show.

Rick
 
Most of you older folks, if your parents were still alive to see you "wasting so much time and money on old JUNK," they'd bet you senseless with a willow switch!

Preserving the past was not a priority in their day. Most of their waking hours were spent working to keep a roof over your head, food in your stomachs, and shoes on your feet.

This tractor collecting deal was created by your generation. Expecting future generations to continue with the same zeal that you've had may simply be unrealistic.

Then again, it's not dead yet. I was at the big Steam Pageant in Canandaigua last Saturday. First time. There was more stuff there than one person could look at in a day. Row after row of tractors, engines, parts... There were people of all ages everywhere.
 
I'm 35 and have three children 11, 8, and 6. I am trying to get them involved by doing things I would have liked to do at their age. So this year for the show in Albert City IA, International was the feature tractor, I fixed up 2 "Spirit of 76" lawn tractors and let them ride them in the parade at the show. Next year is John Deere and have a small 70 and 110 round fender that I may fix for them next year. Got to keep them interested in small ways. Big things will come later on.
 

I'm wondering too if anyone is collecting things anymore. Don't know about tractors per se, but in the areas where we were collecting we've had to stop or slow way down due to higher cost of living and paltry to no wage increases. We just don't have the spare funds anymore. I think because folks are hurting they aren't parting with things we might like to collect for a price I would consider reasonable, they certainly aren't desperate to sell it seems. We still have friends in the antique selling biz and they've said their business is down and they can't buy at prices that they can resell at in a down market because of the high price people paid in the '90s and early 2000s, they think it's still worth that. Untill the economy gets booming again (if ever) I don't think things will change much.
 

Well I just read through 4 pages of youth bashing, socioeconomic slamming, technological advancement hammering, which degraded into accusing owners of machines with an alternator or wrong exhaust of being a prevert.

I'm not real sure, but I think perhaps I might have a thought developing in my head as to why today's youth might not want to go wander through a grass/mud field in the hot sun or rain, looking at row after row of curmudgeons who park their trailer queen and plop their butts down in a lawn chair next to it, telling folks not to touch their baby.

I'll tell ya, we have a good assortment of antique tractors, they all work, they're all in work clothes, and they have the changes made to make them work well and reliably. With all that connection to the craft, I don't quite understand the collectors or their attitudes any better than the smart phone generation that we're cussin here.
 
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