|
The rarest find I got that way was a 1939 FRENCH Massey-Harris Farmers Handy Catalog that was printed so late that the 101JR wasn't included in the catalog but instead there was a loose one page insert showing what had to be a prototype 101JR because it had decals, headlights and headlight brackets, and a battery box like none I've ever seen. The biggest find I ever GOT was an 80 pound box of new Minneapolis Moline literature that I got when buying out an old MM dealer's inventory. The box was covered in trash and was going to be hauled to the dump, but just in case, I went through the garbage, too, and that's what I found. My biggest miss would bring a Massey-Harris fan to his knees in sobs. This old MH dealer was still FULLY stocked with parts, tools, parts catalogs, service manuals, sales literature, clocks, signs, etc...the whole nine yards. I told him whenever he was ready to sell out to call me and I would give him a BIG bunch of money for all that--I didn't want to lose my big chance. I left him my collector card, and told him to put it where he could always find it. Thinking everything was taken care of, I left. I checked back by phone about every 18 months, but, no, he wasn't selling. Then, one fateful day, I caught wind that he had sold the building for a snowmobile dealership. I called him right up, and he told me THEY HAD HAULED IT ALL TO THE DUMP IN THREE DUMP TRUCK LOADS, because "It wasn't worth nothin'". I even asked which dump, but he said it had already been buried for some time. So there went the motherlode.
|
