You Would Have Liked My Tractor Price List From 1985

1206SWMO

Well-known Member
I ran across this list this morning... We left full time farming in 1985 because I lost all of my rented land so I had to sell off my collection of old tractors...This list is only part of the collection..Times were hard on the farm back then and it was mostly farmers that collected so money was scarce..You could barely get people to come and look and I had to take less for most everything..It took 3-4 years to sell some of them..I think that I hauled 10-12 of these to Springfield,MO..I would love to buy tractors for these prices today..I had 7 or 8 W,WA,WD,and WK-40 McCormicks and they had already been sold..My UDLX went to Washington and a GT MM went to New York..Several went to Ohio and Pennsylvania..The 10-20 Mogul went to a huge wheat farmer in SE Montana,
a247918.jpg
 
Heres some of the tractors on the list....The 2nd picture was probably the most perfect 27-44 Twin City in existence..It had never done any drawbar work and had spent part of its life in a museum..It took me 3 years to sell the 25-45 Case and I only got $2500 for it..10 years later a man called about and asked if I still had it...When I told him what it sold for he asked me why I sold it so cheap...I'd said that times were hard and thats all that anyone would pay..
a247932.jpg

a247933.jpg

a247934.jpg

a247935.jpg

a247936.jpg
 
Lance,heres a picture of the Gibson "I"..I paid $300 for it right west of Wichita,KS.....I had to beg to get $450 for it and it ran...It needed a water pump seal..What would it be worth today?Heres some more pictures of the tractors on that list..I had sold off 30-40 tractors before I made this list..The GT MM in the snow was ready to head to New York state..We loaded it a couple of minutes after this picture was taken..
a248065.jpg

a248067.jpg

a248068.jpg

a248069.jpg

a248070.jpg
 
Last one that sold here brought 1600-1800 junk tires had a v8 stuck in it and the grill was all cut up.I've got one located but haven't got them convinced to sell. I wish I would have been around back in the day to chase this stuff.
 
Collecting in the 1970's was fun...Old stuff was everywhere and the price was right..I remember driving in to the Dodge,City KS junkyard around 1977 and they probably had 500-600 tractors but were wrecking them...They'd just broke up a WK-40 McCormick and I saved the motor for $30..There were red grill U and other MM's everywhere....The tractors were all sorted by makes..There were more 15-30,22-36,W-30 McCormicks than one can imagine...They were so common back then that people passed them by..I was at Medford,OK and there was a pile of busted up L Cases 20 ft high..There were still lots left sitting on farms.

I'm guessing a restored Gibson I would be worth 10K,maybe more?
 
It's a small world, a friend of mine bought your G and hauled it back here to NY, he has passed on now but he resold that tractor probably 15-20 years ago and I lost track of where it went,but I drove that G once, not many G's in NY, I got lucky and found a 39 G about 50 miles from home that was bought new by a thresherman, love seeing the pictures thanks for your time putting them up.
 

Thats a really fun (and sad - that you had to sell them in hard times) list to see, Blaine!!

Thanks for posting all the pics. You sure had a big set of super interesting old iron!!

I know what you mean about how common they were - there used to be a string of 20 or so D John Deeres on a neighbors place, where they had accumulated as one thing or another had happened to them. The scrapper got them all.

I was helping a friend clean up his old farmstead a few years ago - and I found a whole pile of 8-10 control lever assemblies from D John Deeres. They were from the front D JDs where they had paired up 2 together to pull as one unit - and they would replace the front tractors controls with ties to the rear.

The place I rented had an old farmstead on it from back in the 20s. One the old neighbors remembers the fellow up there getting a UDLX to farm with. The neighbor (as a kid) was jealous of that guy having a cab on his tractor... ha

As a kid, there were two old LA Cases partly buried in sand dunes on the edge of the road near one of Dad's fields. As I recall, they still had small one-ways tied on behind.

Here is a pic from a neat old farmstead (every last tractor was a Case - but there were about 6-8 different brands of threshers & combines out of 6-8 different units there, which I thought was very interesting):

<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank">
DSC_6538.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo DSC_6538.jpg
</a>




Howard




Howard
 
Neat picture Howard..You need to put that on the Case forum on here..Scenes like that used to be real common in wheat country..Heres some more pictures from my collection..If I had every old tractor back plus the ones I now have the total would be over 150....It would make for quite an auction..
a248424.jpg

a248425.jpg

a248426.jpg

a248427.jpg

a248428.jpg

a248429.jpg

a248430.jpg

a248431.jpg

a248432.jpg

a248433.jpg

a248435.jpg
 
I can't remember his name but it seemed like he worked at a lumber yard...He borrowed his employers 2 ton truck to haul the tractor...He and his girlfriend practically drove non stop here and back..It was in Dec 1985..
 
Yes,its a 18-35 Rock Island that I got in 1975....My uncle lived at Pratt,KS and went to church with
the owner...He had 2-3 more Rock Islands and acres and acres more of old tractors and machinery..
I don't know what ever happened to all of it..He sold the Rock Island by the pound which came out
to around $400..
 
Thanks for the reply. We had 4 Rock Island at one time. I am only about 70 miles from the factory. My dad sold some Rock Island machinery. Still have a catalog and brochures. I have two tractors left. My grandfather's F on full steel and dad's G2. Thanks again.
MMDEL
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top