Tractor dealers and old tractors

mkirsch

Well-known Member
Do your dealers want to deal on old tractors, or just give it to ya with no grease?

Local dealer has an IH Super C on the lot priced at $3000. There's no way it's worth $3000. It's a $1500 tractor on a good day.

The dealer's bottom line on the tractor is $2800. He will not budge from that number, no way, no how. Dealer's having an auction tomorrow. We'll see what it's worth, and if he lets it go.

I see threads on here where people ask what some tractor a dealer has is worth. You guys send them off to the dealer with some Pollyanna number in their heads and the idea that the dealer is going to gladly accept that number.

In some 30+ years of tractor shopping I have never once seen a dealer with a reasonably priced old tractor, or one that would even budge more than 5% or so on that price. They must be waiting for some fool with too much money to come along and fall in love with the "pwetty old twaktor."

Do you have dealers that will deal or is it like this pretty much everywhere?
 
Those guys can afford to deal that way, they sell tractors in the hundred thousand range with tens of thousdands in profit and that old IHC isnt pocket chump change to them so they wait for some sucker who will pay the price, if not why should they care about pocket change.

I was a used tractor dealer for years but of course back then the tractors werent antiques, they were work units.

John T
 
Back when I was gunsmithing and dealing in
quality Winchesters on a small scale we had a name
for certain examples, "gun show junkers" Which was
not a knock on gun shows but a generic term for
worn out, beat up guns that people thought were
worth to the 90 or 100% price in the Blue Book.
99% of the time when I see what appears to be a
decent tractor on a new equipment dealers lot the
closer I get the worse it looks, most are worn out
junk with a can of paint dumped over it and the
price is what you would expect to pay for a real
nice original at a well attended auction,, I call
them "tractor show junkers?? LOL, again not a
knock on tractor shows. Around here get they go to
the winter consignment sale circuit when the
dealer gets tired of mowing around them only to be
bid back in and to where from there? who knows?
Maybe they go out your way?
 
John T where are you located??? Just about every salesman that I know around here in Iowa would love to make "tens of thousands in profit" in profit on those 200 K tractors. The truth here, is that they are not making that kind of profit. The margins have been steadily shrinking for years. The volume on the back end has been cut way down too.

Just talked to a good friend that just sold a new JD 8295R straight out, no trade. He made $3500 on the front side and will get 1.5% on the back side(that is on dealer invoice not sales or list price) So that will be about $2750 in volume. So he made $6250 or about 3.5% on the deal.

There was a time when the dealers made $3000 dollars on selling a JD 4430 new for $15,000. Those days did not last very long.

It is getting harder to make much on the front side with the larger guys taking bids from all over a state for their new stuff and then wanting the local dealer to handle all of the warranty work. Which is usually a break even for the shop at the best.


As for the dealer asking high prices for old tractors. Well I see it and usually they will get that from someone. There are any number of guys that want a tractor that have zero knowledge of anything about them but can write a check for one that is over priced easier than messing with it him self.

I had one guy that wanted a old tractor collection. He had less than zero mechanical knowledge. He would pay the dealership to come and change his oil on his old JD two cylinders. If they needed a set of points he would have them come and haul it to the dealership an have the shop do the work then haul it back. I saw one of the shop tickets where he had almost $600 in an oil change and tune up.

I asked him about it one time. We are pretty good friends. He told me he was very good at his job. He was not good with the mechanical stuff. Plus he did not like getting greasy/dirty doing it. So he said he could go and earn his SEVEN figure income doing what he liked an was good at and hire guys that where good at what they did. It just is a whole different world for some of these guys.
 
Im in southern Indiana, BUT what I was talking about was indeed years ago when I was a used dealer........

John T
 
local jd dealer went out of buisness after years and years of excellent service when the old owner died. on his lot was about five nearly new combines that he had rented to folks to finish getting their crops in. some one year old with just ten or twenty hours. family wouldnt discount these one penny so folks simply bought the latest model.and these sat, when the auction took place they brought 20-30000 less than they should have. which was a really good deal, but they could have made a lot more money by knocking 10k off the new price and selling them and doing a deal before the auction.
 
I see them ask high prices and many times they can get it.

Be careful at that dealer sell off auction as you most likely will be bidding against yourself up to a set reserve figure. One around here I seen where they had writtin a figure backwards trying to disguise it in sharpie where the auctioneer could see it.
 
Dealer be it car or truck or tractor or any machine they always ask to much but then they have a lot of over head so they have to make that up some how. 99% of the time I do my best not to deal wit a dealer. Ya not good for them but also not as hard on my back pocket either
 
I can't believe I posted this to tool talk... Not having a great day. Could be worse, but still not all that good.
 
I was naive when I stopped at a dealer's lot looking for a used round baler several years ago. The white shirt guy pointed me to a line of balers and said he had one for $4000. I can't remember the model number, but when I got back there - there were two sitting side by side. One was in pieces, chain and bars all wadded up inside, and the other one was intact, although well worn with welds and hammer marks and holes worn through. I could see that the "good" one was worth no more than $1000, and when the guy walked up, I told him so. He looked kinda embarrassed, then said the $4000 baler was the other one. It struck me funny, and I guess when I laughed it insulted him, because he ducked his head and walked off to the building. I got in the truck and left - no sense fooling around at that place.
 
I used to be A Belarus tractor dealer back in the 90's we made more selling those new than JD dealers did on their new ones. I know that was fact because A good friend that ran a green dealership told me.
Regards Robert
 

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