so much for cheap auction prices!

These are close numbers. Going off memory. In central lower michigan.
Jd4320 with 158 loader and duels with bad rubber but held air. Came with a bucket and bale spear. Just rolled over 10k hours. Looked nice. I'd say 8.5/10. $17,000! Was at the sale to buy this, but not at that price.

Jd4320. Similar shape. Just the tractor. 15k

John Deere 2020 gas with 145 loader. LLooked nice. Loader had some weld marks but fixed right. $9,000

John deere b. Didn't run said it did. Looked nice. $1600.

International 766 with a turbo. Looked as good as the rest. While walking away they were trying to get 10k.

All stuff was well cared for and had new paint within the last few years. Were also more farmall tractors I didn't watch. M, smta, h, c, some others I'm forgetting. Owner did very well.

I'm beginning to think that local auctions go high because most potential tractor buyers are so afraid of the high shipping costs to buy from distances. "Here and now" means a lot to quite a few apparently. Non running but free turning JD "B",s in pretty good shape go for $700-$800 but also that much to ship if very far away . Also good timed auction as most farmers either have all their crop $$$$ or at least 3/4 and know what the remaining 1/4 will be. Plenty of cold months to have their new buy in the shop and spiff it up for next spring. "Here and now" and the fact that another couple bidders were willing to give within $100 of his bid gives the false security that one is not paying too much. Friend just bought a White 2-105 ('82 model) with ROPS off second owner who owned it since 1984 in nice shape for $ 3700 !! Shake the bushes and buy from owners if ya want a deal.

I like going to auctions from time to time, and have bid on stuff, but from my experience, prices and bids get out of control at auctions. Not always. Sometimes you can get good deals where the auctioneer is getting tired and throws stuff together in a lot...of often junk, that sometimes get deals on. But it seems to me that the good stuff, tractors, guns, etc end up going for more than they're worth because folks get all caught up in the bidding, and the next thing you know the price on an 8N is up to $6,000 or a well used 12 GA Remington 870 is over $1,000. Still though, auctions can be fun.

Mark

Nick I have not been to any auctions that had items that sold "cheap" lately, if the equipment was in fair to good shape. A lot of fellows are quoting low auctions prices for tractors. I would really like to see the tractors that where selling cheap. I have a feeling they sold cheap for a reason. That reason also could be location too. The cost of shipping some items is more than the item/equipment is worth.

Here tractors that are popular with the horse people and only the most popular older collector tractors are doing OK, Down a little from 6-7 years ago but not much. Larger tractors like the Farmall M and the early 60's to late 70's are going pretty cheap compared to 6-7 years ago. Here in this area were have BTO's running 150 plus HP tractors as chore tractors. I don't know anyone doing any field would with 40 year old tractors besides me. Saw a good running 706 Farmall, good tin, good rubber, Year a round cob with good glass, WFE that sold for 2800. Only thing really wrong that I could tell was it needed paint. Tractor jockey from about 90 miles east bought it. Same auction a similar condition 8N (think horse people) sold at 1800.

Basically it's location. Here and just west of me everyone is using 400 plus HP 4X4 tractors. Local family here is running 4 older Steiger Panther tractors. But they have the family manpower that they hire no outside help. Their small tractors are 185 PTO HP tractors. The small dairy in the area is 40 cows plus 150 head of beef and about 750 acres of owned crop land plus rental, then 80, then several 400 plus. I am or until this summer was the little guy. Some beef and about 120 tillable acres. Here smaller, less than 150 HP tractors just are not selling well unless they are really desirable as a collector until you get into the small, easy to trailer collectables. I know of 2 Farmalls, one M and one H, both about identical in setup, Add on live hydraulics, good rubber, the M had an after market PS unit, good tin and OK paint, both with Corn Husker 3 points and WFE's, both with loaders, mechanical trip on the H and all hydraulic on the M and both with tire chains, the M sold for 1500 and the H for 1200 in the last year. Too many of them in the area and too big for a lot of people to trailer. Literally the only thing either needed for full restoration was a good paint job.

So it's the area plus shipping that makes a difference. Right now smaller beef operations have been pulling in good money and are buying newer used equipment to offset taxes. The dairy guys were just about getting caught up when prices went down and the grain only guys just are not buying much if anything.

Rick

Went to a sale yesterday. A bunch of two cylinder tractors that weren't anything special and few ran. Still they'd have brought a fair bit more ten or twenty years ago.

Collecting is about nostalgia. Older fellows tend to have the money to collect and they're going to collect stuff that reminds them of their youth. Frankly, the guys who grew up on 2 cylinders and farmalls are dying off. Now, collectors are looking for the New Gen and 56 series tractors. That's what they grew up on, after all. The collector pool is going to get smaller and smaller as the group of older fellows that actually grew up on a farm get smaller. There was a huge amount of guys looking for 2 cylinders 30 years ago, there's a fair bit less amount of guys looking for 4020s now(and they're competing with guys like me who still use them), there will be very few collectors looking for 7000 and 8000 series tractors 50 years from now.

Of course, the collectors of tractors are ALWAYS going to go for rare machines of any age.

I've seen some junk sell high this year and some nice tractors sell cheap, prices seem to be all over the place.Also on the farm estate,or 'dead man's auctions) prices usually are a whole lot higher than in a consignment situation.