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Tractor Talk Discussion Forum

A call to arms !!

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Kestrel in CT

04-09-2008 05:02:47




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I just read this alarming piece in today's Wall Street Journal.

Could this be the beginning of the end and death blow for the average collector of old iron ?

It appears to be coming a lot sooner than I thought, thanks to articles like these.

What do we do now ???

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Frontranger

04-09-2008 08:42:13




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Kestrel in CT, 04-09-2008 05:02:47  
Heads up here guys and gals: FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL LINK ABOVE>>> The result is a rise in prices that longtime enthusiasts say is making it harder for them to continue collecting. Some European collectors "are blowing us out of the water," says Duane Ver Ploeg, a restorer in Sully, Iowa, WHO JUST RETURNED FROM A BIG AUCTION IN NEBRASKA WHERE AN UNUSUAL NUMBER OF OVERSEAS COLLECTORS WERE BIDDING VIA THE INTERNET.

Today's collectors pay a premium for rare models, like high-crop machines with raised axles that allow crop cultivation after the plants have grown a few feet high. Other sought-after types include "orchard" tractors like the John Deere that sold for $57,000. They have striking-looking fenders that protect delicate orchard trees and winery vines from the tractor's wheels. "We had a John Deere 3020 Orchard model sell for $160,000 recently," says Brian Zehring, a spokesman for auction company DENNIS POLK EQUIPMENT IN NEW PARIS, INDIANA, the company that auctioned the rare John Deeres last month. Extremely rare machines can fetch $300,000 to $400,000...

This would likely be the same Dennis Polk Equipment outfit that has been rumored to be in the background of the Phillips estate auction at Bridgeport. Some much info still under wraps in this cluster*$&%! Distance from Auburn, IN (Kruse Auctioneer's HQ) to New Paris, IN = 46 miles.

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MN Rick

04-09-2008 07:20:22




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Kestrel in CT, 04-09-2008 05:02:47  
I've been buying, selling and collecting for 35 years now and I'm of the opinion that the prices of common tractors has fallen and will continue to fall. The only thing that could possibly help the supply and demand chain would be if enough of them got sold for parts or scrap to bring the supply down. The real rare ones that the average couldnt afford 10 years ago will continue to rise. I havent paid close attention to the Kruse auction, but the bits and pieces I've heard seem to bolster the opinion. In my area, there have been close to a dozen auctions of collectors that have either passed away of lost interest. In each case, prices have been dissapointing when a person compares to assets you have at home. I tend to concentrate on IH's from Super H to the 656 range and I can tell you that finding and buying them at a price I think I can make a buck at is the easiest it has been in 15 years. I used to have to really search to buy and now I'd say about 50% of my tractors have come and found me. Just my take from central Minnesota.

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LenND

04-09-2008 13:24:22




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to MN Rick, 04-09-2008 07:20:22  
Have a fellow here that has restored probable a hundred ? tractors. All torn done and completely checked and then repainted. He was trying to sell some at a local auction sale. An IHC A that had been restored was only going for about $2500 and he bid it back and didn't sell it. He has sold fifty some of his tractors to Europe. He said the A would bring at least twice that and they pay for all shipping costs.

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Jeff-oh

04-09-2008 06:49:27




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Kestrel in CT, 04-09-2008 05:02:47  
With antique car prices too high for the average guy... Here is the next thing.



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fergienewbee

04-09-2008 06:39:03




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Kestrel in CT, 04-09-2008 05:02:47  
Working the land, like hunting, has little to do with profit or birds in the bag. I lived on a farm my first seven years, then moved to a small town. Luckily, I had friends in high school who lived in the country and I got to haul hay (at $1.00 an hour) and helped clean a few gutters.

Currently, I'm "playing" with my TO 30 and a disk, shopping the auction ads for planters. There's just something relaxing and rewarding about "playing in the dirt." I'm just doing food plots and fire lines, don't know if I'd feel the same facing a few hundred acres, but I'm tied very strongly to our land that we bought from my mother-in-law. I'll do my best to keep it from developers as long as I'm alive.

Larry

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Dick L

04-09-2008 06:28:11




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Kestrel in CT, 04-09-2008 05:02:47  
A snap shot view into a subject the writer knows nothing about and an opinion is formed. What stories like these prove to me is that this person has an opinion, knows how to type, and has a venue to express it to more people than we can on these boards. There I just expressed my opinion. Which proves I have one, I can type, and I have Internet access.



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old fashioned farmer

04-09-2008 06:17:47




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Kestrel in CT, 04-09-2008 05:02:47  
Howdy,

My question is where do you find people willing to pay the restoration costs they listed. I could be doing pretty well getting 40,000 for a 400 hour restoration. Heck, I've already got 200 hours in the farmall C that I'm restoring. I'd already be 20,000 ahead. I guess the 30 an hour I charge just isn't enough. God bless.

--old fashioned farmer



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Paul from MN

04-09-2008 06:10:30




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Kestrel in CT, 04-09-2008 05:02:47  
It does not bother me. They can bid all they want on rare or unusual tractors. My interest is in run of the mill. Being on a John Deere A or B, Farmall H or M, or an Allis WD brings back memories. I'd never seen an orchard tractor, or a high crop as a boy. I congratulate someone lucky enough to be able to sell one for $160,000.

I suppose if the dime a dozen machinery that I like so much ever sells for $160,000 I'll have a choice to make.

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Howard H.

04-09-2008 07:15:33




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Paul from MN, 04-09-2008 06:10:30  

Hey Paul -

I'm the same way - who cares about high-crops, etc? I guess just the "investors".

I like the "meat-and-potatoes" models that the average working farmer relied on day in and day out...

Besides that, I watched a LOT of the tractors sell at Bridgeport and most of them were not out of reason. A lot of G's brought $1500-2800...

Most authors in that writers position are trying to show the "spiciest" aspects and only point out the most glamorous prices...

I bought a real nice little JT Twin Cities tractor for $350... And a very nice little F12 Farmall for $440, so the common tractors prices were pretty reasonable...


Howard

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coloken

04-09-2008 05:50:36




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Kestrel in CT, 04-09-2008 05:02:47  
So he is talking about collector tractors, not some old piece of iron that some one has sprayed with a a spray can in the wrong color.



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Mike M

04-09-2008 05:44:32




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Kestrel in CT, 04-09-2008 05:02:47  
I'd like to find some of those "well heeled" buyers ! Send them over and I'll liquidate !!!



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NC Wayne

04-09-2008 05:44:15




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Kestrel in CT, 04-09-2008 05:02:47  
It might make the prices of some machines higher but I don"t think it"ll effect the "average" collector too much. Most of the average guys are looking for something to play with and drive around, and even use on occasion, not a perfect numbers matching machine to put up in a garage and do nothing but look at. I think eventually it"ll actually make restoring the older tractors alot easier for everybody since the need for reproduction parts will develop a larger market for them just like it has in cars. For instance you can just about build a brand new "55-"57 Chevy soley from reproduction parts because there is just about everything available to do it now from the frame to full steel bodies along with everything in between. The worst it can do,the way I see it, is make it more of a lucrative hobby for those that are interested in actually doing the restoration themselves and then selling the machine. In years past you could easily sink more into a machine than it was worth but with the prices getting a little higher for restored machines it can make it a lucrative business as well as a hobby.

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Tradititonal Farmer

04-09-2008 05:34:52




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Kestrel in CT, 04-09-2008 05:02:47  
So whats bad about that?



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Kestrel in CT

04-09-2008 06:24:03




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 Re: A call to arms !! in reply to Tradititonal Farmer, 04-09-2008 05:34:52  
Nothing..... if you already own a bunch of "high value" machines and are of average means.

The Lanses of the world might eventually have problems though, if this trend extends down to the run of the mill models.

I still find it hard to accept that people that never had the connection with the land or even worked up a sweat in the seat of these old tractors yet ultimately end up buying and selling them as investment vehicles and for bragging rights.

I know.....money dominates everything. But I still don't like it.

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