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They still bring $25k in north Texas. Probably heard of the sale barn in Howe, Texas. Southwest Auction Co., Inc. Lots of tractors from the midwest come down here, (Hunted down like wild dogs by tractor grabbers from here. OTR truckers make regular runs up there to get them). Now about cost. 1980 was 25 years ago. I just checked my Social Security pay summary for 1980 and 2003 and the difference is 3.4 to 1 for the doing the same job. So at least 2.5 to 3 x of that was inflation so that $25k 4440 is now equivalently priced at $75k in today's dollars new. So if your new "electronic" tractor is only $55 to 60k I'd say you got yourself a deal. Watched a local hayin with his electronic tractor and new baler. Never looked back. Was running about 20 mph (clocked him in my p/u driving down the road beside him). Started the roll, rolled it up and kicked it out and never looked back.....beautiful bale too. Now iffin you can put 35,000 hours on a tractor (44XX) and have it look as good as I saw one look on "photo ads" speaks well of the machine's construction and engineering. Around here all colors (dealerships) disappeared except blue and green. Look at the blue lot and it is mostly yellow. Look at the green lot and it is mostly green. So that says that the big boys that know their stuff prefer green. Now with all that said, since some members of this board don't want to sell their freshly restored 2440 (snicker snicker) do you know of anyone that has a 4440 they want to sell? One last comment; on electronic tractors. I'd bet similar things are on auto's. Count the # of auto's and trucks, including the OTR trucks whose engines are now electronically controlled (millions) and all the annual miles driven, and think about the last time you saw ONE dead on the side of the road. Nuf said. Mark
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