Tractor Flipping

I've had a couple opportunities and thought about it on numerous occasions but haven't ventured into it yet. For those who may have experience - I understand, like anything else, you have to be smart about it...but is there any money to be made in flipping tractors? Is it worth the while to get a non-runner running and resell it?

Not looking to make a living or even a job of it but just make some extra money to support my tractor habit and tinkering disorder as time allows.
 
I wheelied mine for the first tme the other day pulling a Suburban out of the snow.. Not even close to flipping but scared me good! Good thing I had the back blade on! :roll:
 
A good friend of mine was a retired IH mechanic. For years he bought IH tractors and resold them. He made decent money doing it. At one point he had two or three regular guys that called him with "want to buy" lists.

About 2010 he started having trouble selling the tractors. People wouldn't pay what he needed to get his money back. The demand for 1940's and 50's tractors had dropped off. People wanted newer compact tractors over Farmall 560 and 400 tractors.
 
I thought your post was going to be about tipping one over. I haven't done that but doubt there's any money to be made that way :)

I've bought and sold a few but didn't make a whole lot when you figure in all the labor you have in one.
What I have made a few bucks doing is parting them out.
If you can get them cheap enough then sell off a couple of the most desirable parts right away to get your investment back.
Then it's a matter of having a bunch of parts around till they sell.
A hundred here and $50 there is nice when it sells out of the blue.
 
I started buying junk units then parting them out, then selling parts on greigslist to help me support my restoration project. I have met a lot of folks with like interests as myself and made a nice profit along the way. But don?t quit your day job and keep it strictly cash. Remember there?s a lot of lowlife?s out there.lots of luck.
 
I was into flipping tractors about 20 years ago,mostly Fords,about 10 years ago the old tractor market took a hit and it cost more to fix and paint than it was worth,If you can find one with little work required other than maybe a good cleaning and not needing any tires you may be able to make a few dollars,most of the buyers on the old tractors seem to be the ones who drove one on the farm and want to relive their childhood in my opinion,and we're all getting older.My kids just want me to get rid of my old stuff so they don't have to deal with it.New weekend farmers want new tractors because they don't want to or know how to fix the ones we grew up with.Just my 2 cents.
 
I started doing that about 1993, buying, fixing and selling. Was a good market. I had people waiting for me to get them done. Now for the bad, I bought to many tractors ahead of what I was getting done, paying probably more than I should have for them. Will the market took a dive and now I am stuck with about ten tractors. I think that I might just sell them individually as they are and take a lower loss, than fixing them up and taking a bigger loss.
 
You better love doing it cause a long time ago you could make money off them but China started making 8N parts and others started selling dirty 8N parts on ebay and at that point I left the market cause I was not going to sell dirty 8N parts to the public and the cleaning part took it's toll on my body and lungs. I have lucked out a few times like my M37 and 2- 1948 Power Wagons I sold. The last one let me buy a $32K JD Tractor with the profits. Niches are where you make money till others figure you are making some money then they raise the price of old stuff sitting in fields. Spend the same time at a real job and you will make way more money in the long run! Part of this is doing something you like, staying healthy doing things and most of all the good feeling you get when done and it all works out. Yes I kept my family fed when I did it for many years just need to find the right stuff to sell. My Daughter does not sell tractor parts she sells dead stuff on line and her sales are at $500K a year now from home with her first business and job she had!! She had a better idea then her Father did and it is paying off big time for her.
 
(quoted from post at 10:41:51 02/22/18) You better love doing it cause a long time ago you could make money off them but China started making 8N parts and others started selling dirty 8N parts on ebay and at that point I left the market cause I was not going to sell dirty 8N parts to the public and the cleaning part took it's toll on my body and lungs. I have lucked out a few times like my M37 and 2- 1948 Power Wagons I sold. The last one let me buy a $32K JD Tractor with the profits. Niches are where you make money till others figure you are making some money then they raise the price of old stuff sitting in fields. Spend the same time at a real job and you will make way more money in the long run! Part of this is doing something you like, staying healthy doing things and most of all the good feeling you get when done and it all works out. Yes I kept my family fed when I did it for many years just need to find the right stuff to sell. My Daughter does not sell tractor parts she sells dead stuff on line and her sales are at $500K a year now from home with her first business and job she had!! She had a better idea then her Father did and it is paying off big time for her.
When she started she used a Pre/Made 12 ft long building to work out of. After a couple years she paid for and built herself a new 3200+ square ft shop! Twice the size of our home and I would have loved this for working it!! It has a 6,000 lb working load steel beam at 18 ft high with a electric hoist on it in her 24x32 open bay for dealing with livestock and hunted animals. She is a Taxidermist and real good at it.
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Started that over 35 years ago, n fords, started parting them out while working a full time job, would come home to find the parts I had pulled off and checked over and cleaned up stolen. The clowns I took them off for would come while I was at work and pick them up. They would tear the lock off my building to steal a $10.00 starter. After that I just started hauling them to the scrap yard. That's why I have hauled over 3000 of them straight from the farm to the yard. Last summer i picked 5 at 1 place, guys got tired of spending money trying to get them and keep them running. Doc has me slowed down for now but I will continue as soon as my back heals up.
 
I think it's a great way to reduce the cost of a fellow's habit. But unless baby boomers stop getting older and my generation puts away the iphone and takes up an interest in fixing things, it will not make you much money. The value of the N series and Hundred series tractors has taken a huge beating since the end of the Great Recession.

I end up acquiring more than I sell. When I have sold, though, I have broken even on parts and had a great time tinkering!

Colin, MN
 

Home runs are limited to make money you have to hit a few every now and again... I mostly part them out are sell them as is more so lately as is because of the time and room it takes take it apart and store the parts... My N interest has fizzled I have most of the parts I would need if one came in for repair are a local drops by looking for a part... I am not into shipping parts.. I brought a nice N about 10 years ago all it needed was a valve job sometime in the last few years someone removed the trans fill cap the trans is full of water :evil: I don't have room to store more tractors till I can get to them :(

If you can buy them for 3/400 you may turn a few dollars I don't see how you can stand to pay much more for one. Home runs are nice tires, nice tin, nice front bumpers and equipment that comes with the tractor... The rest all you make is your time if you work cheap to take it apart, clean it up and sit on it till it sales...

Most of the tractors that have came in my shop the last few years are hundred series up its rare I see a N anymore... I am to high for N owners and pushing the limits on hundred series owners pocket book :)... That's why the N fever fizzled out I can make more doing something else... I tell folks I may make $15 on a parts sale BUT I have to fudge with the customer for a hour... You run your arse in the ground for crumbs... There's just not enoufh home runs in it...
 
I buy and sell a few, but not with the intention of making money.
Its a hobby. Fix them up a little, sometimes a lot, swap parts
around and save the parts I want to use for myself.

Sometimes the tractors I buy are not financially worth fixing.
Then I part them out so others can get the parts they need or
so I can use the parts on another project. I always get stuck
with the parts that rarely break or wear out of course.

Like the running Jubilee with a back blade for $500.
Drove it on the trailer but the engine was hammering.
Turned out it had been ran that way a long time.
One rod journal on the crank was egg shaped 60 thousandths
and the head was cracked in three places. Wonder it ran.
Good rear end center section, that brought $350. Transmission
sold for $250. Original gas tank in great condition, $200.
Backblade, decent tires, good rims, etc. Sheet metal was in
really good shape so I cleaned it up and put it on my tractor.
I just donated the original hood that I replaced on my tractor
to an Ag class in Texas. Anyway...

Since this is my hobby and therefore my labor is free, I make
enough money at it to keep my hobby out of my bank account.
If I were to count my labor, I'd be losing money.
 
Well, thank you all for your input. That's exactly what I was afraid of. I don't think I could find anything around here cheap enough to get my money back. Doesn't matter the color, all the old iron is gold no matter the condition. I have no interest at this point to be a parts distributor so it may not be worth much. We'll see, I may stumble into something by chance one day.

Thank you again for sharing your experiences!
 

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