Trading Value?

I put my Farmall H for sale a few weeks ago, and a guy wants to trade me straight across for a late styled JD A.

The H has great tires all around, wide front, working belly pump, gas engine, and X6 trans, nice tractor.

The A is a narrow front, and it looks like both the front tires are flat. He says that both rears are good, and they appear to be 14.9'd I would guess?

Kind of thinking my H might be a little more valueable than his A? What do you guys think?

why does he want to trade?

I wouldn't trade. If you were keeping one, I would rather have the H. If you are selling, the A doesn't sound like it would be as easy a sale as the H.

THAT is a good question!

Why go through the fuss of trading one good tractor for another "good" tractor.....

H's are ultra common and not as many guys are buying them for work tractors versus a generation ago. Which is to say supply is overtaking demand. I don't know about other parts of the US but A's are not laying around like they were 10, 20, 30 years ago or more. I've seen probably a couple dozen H's at random farm auctions over the last five to seven years (non-collectors) and have not seen a single A in the same time span. Neither are hard to find with any kind of deliberate effort but going into the future the A has a better chance of being relatively more scarce hence valuable. If you are asking which is more handy to run on an everyday basis in my mind that would be the H. Also, as others have stated the H is a tractor you now know versus the A being an unknown to you.

After having a narrow front John Deere B, I wouldn't have another narrow one. Don't trade.

You've had some excellent responses (except I prefer narrow fronts).

If you are a savvy salesman you'll find there are more gullible buyers looking for 2 cylinder JD's than for Farmalls. You might be able to sell the A easier but until you've looked at it and see all the defects like rusted out rims you're only guessing.

I've got a flock of Farmalls so I'm biased. But I do have some JD's: A (2), B, D, H just so people won't think I don't know any better.

I'm not sure about value, I think it has a little to do with location. That being said, I wouldn't trade my A John Deere for 3 H Farmalls

To trade one bad tractor for a decent one I suspect.

i think your right, but those john deere's are over priced. i like the wide front and they are worth more to the collector. i wont have a narrow front. i have MD wide front, 2 M wide fronts and an H wide front. in reality both are good and it depends what the person prefers. the ih is a better shifting tractor also. BUT...pull that flywheel cover off that A and make sure it has no loose flywheel issues, and clutch spline issues also. have seen those problems.
if your serious about the deal.

If it's truly a late A with the battery under the seat it's more tractor that your H. It's also going to be a tad more expensive to fix than an H as John Deere parts tend to be more John Deere only and big and heavy because 2 cylinder John Deere were big heavy and slow in their design. Before the John Deere folks get upset a late John Deere A is 321 cubic inches with a max RPM of about 975 verses the super M being 264 cubic inches and running at 1450 RPM. I have to wonder why he wants to trade. In the peak of our farming operation we ran a Super M Farmall (stage 1), a John Deere late A ( with a New Idea Big Horn front loader)and a Farmall H. When we had all 3 tractors working the A used about 1/2 the total fuel. When I left for the Air Force Dad starting shutting down the farm our Super M and H went to a neighbor to replace a played out John Deere 60 and a JD B, our neighbor had borrowed the H a few times over the years and was always amazed he could rake hay with the H and use 1/2 the fuel his JD B did.

Around here it would take a lot for an H with wide front to break 2,000 to 2,250 dollars. An A could be a bit more common and still hit that price zone. The H with WFE is not the big deal it was 25 years ago even if you had paperwork showing it came that way from the factory. As far as Bryce's proposition we would need to know more about both tractors. One guy's idea of excellent may not be the same as another's and visa-versa.

Well, kiddo - too bad you live over the mountains and far away... we're looking for an H. LOL

I wouldn't want either to keep and use but I'd take the A as I could get more for it than the H

Having had both........I much prefer an H Farmall. Just my opinion though.

He knows that yours is going to work for a living and the reason the tires are poor on his is that it does notwork for a living. If you want to risk trying to make money on the JD's mystique, do it. I own Hs. Jim

Old Popper. I respect your opinion and liking your John Deere. I ended up working at a Deere dealer for the last four years before I retired. Spent 37 years on IH before that. So, I went from working on the latest and greatest as they say, to working on older model Deere tractors. Worked on a few 720 and 30's, gas and Diesel plus some A's and B's. Even figured out it was the camshaft on the diesel that was worn out not opening the injection pump to full stroke. Others had already had their try on it . But, even though they treated me great at the Deere dealer and like sh&t last four years at IH, I never got to liking any of the green.

Now, don't get me wrong, I know they made and still make a lot of good machines but it just never got into my blood. The shop foreman at Deere happened to be the fellow who was just out of high school and worked under me for four years at IH Dealer. We got along great. We still do. He never liked Red and I never liked Green and we both knew it. BUT, when working on Red he did his best and when I worked on Green I did my best. You do what you are paid to do and keep personal opinions to your self.

Now, as far as that H and A, WELL, I would not trade either of my H Farmalls for three of those A Deere's even though I realize you could easily get more for a good A over a good H around here.

You would be the one "buying" that A so-to-speak, so it's trading value is whatever that A is worth to you at this moment. If you can use the A as-is, you are looking for a project A in that condition and at that price, or you know two or more potential buyers who are ready to pay enough for you to make a good profit on the A, then an even trade may be a good deal.

If you are selling your H because you need cash to make some other payments, it's only worth what you can resell it for quickly before the end of the month get here. If you can not use that tractor right now, only offer salvage value for it, less your hauling costs. If the buyer wants your tractor he will likely sell his tractor on his own for more than it is worth to you and then make a cash deal for your H.

I would take the two flat front tires on the H as a warning sign that either: it has not been well maintained; or the owner does not want a potential buyer to drive it. If you can't drive it, price it as non-running.

My guess would be because he has not been able to sell his.

I wouldn't trade for the JD. Usually the only trades I do when selling is for a stack of "Franklins". If he really wants your H he will come up with the cash.

The late A would compair to the Farmall M, not an H in size and for some jobs would prefer the A (had one and loved it) but others would prefer the Farmall M. Same way with the Farmall H to the Late John Deere B. Again I have had both and one will be so much better than the other for certain jobs but then the next job it will be the other way around. Also had the early John Deere B that powerwise would compair the the Farmall B, not an H and an unstyled A that power was equal to the Farmall H. And where some say one will do the job for half the fuel the other uses NOT if they are both in good shape. And the reason he would want to trade is because he sees something that is ready to work for him where he has let his go to the point it is ready for the parts yard and thinks you would be stuppid enough to trade something good for something that should be going to the parts yard. He just thinks he can take a he thinks inexperienced young kid for a pile of money. He is trying to be a scam artist. You take that Deere with the roll-a-matic front end and go out and disk down first time over a rough plowed field and the Deere will be like night and day better than the Farmall but you put that tractor on a loader and it is just the opposite the Farmall will be better. As of now I would like to have both a B & H and a A & M.