the one that got away

Ever go to an auction and regret not buying something?Heres one that sticks in my dusty mind.There was an auction near Tamaqua PA,It was at Charles Snyder Ford,a very reputable Ford dealer.Every once in a while he had a sale of all the stuff he took in on trade.He let it go,,no matter what it brought.The way he did the tractors was really nice.You looked at them earlier,,then you sat up in chairs they provided on sort of a hill behind the dealership.Down lower was a spot where the auctioneer was.Workers from the dealership would drive the tractors into the auction ring.They would shut off the tractor.Charles Snyder would tell what he knew about the tractors,sometimes they did work on them,sometimes he would say they didnt,and what was wrong with them etc.He seemed very honest,,and whatever the tractors brought,,they would be sold. I went to one of year with an older friend of mine,,just for something to do,to get my friend out and have a good time.We looked at all the tractors.There was a Ford row crop,,gas 3 cyd motor.I dont remember the model number,but it was pretty new at the time,,the blue and white model.It was in really nice shape. I looked at it,,said to myself,,there is no reason I would need or at he time use a tall row crop tractor.Still I looked it all over,sat on it,started it,,etc.Now it comes into the ring. the driver turns it off.Charles Snyder says,,we took this tractor on trade for a small compact tractor,It has 2000 original hours and there is nothing wrong with it,It doesnt even have a scratch on it,,it was always kept in a shed from new,,it was bought here from me new,,its a one owner tractor,,etc,,ect..The auctioneer tried hard,wasnt getting a starting bid.Charles Snyder said,,come on guys your sleeping here,I just sold a beat up 8 n for less then this?All this time I was fighting pulling my hand out of my pocket,I Had enough cash in my pocket to start bidding,maybe enough to buy it,,and had an approved check to boot...One voice in my head said buy it polish it up,ride it around,have fun.One voice said,,you dont meed it ,you wont use it,,keep your hand in your pocket.Well,it sold for the very first low bid,no contenders,All the way home I regreted not at least trying to bid.As I type this story,I think of how I could have kept that tractor polished and in the shed so I Could drive it around and take pictures of it for the tractor site,,,lol ///You guys and gals have any stories of something you let go at the auction?

I forgot to mention,the tractor was not a slecto speed,and did have power steering and a three pt.

Sounds a lot like a tractor I wish I had bid on a few times last Spring,the sale was just down the from Kieth Jones' tractor museum South of Richmond.It was a
Ford 4000 Narrow front row crop with SOS low hour and everything worked perfect and great looking tractor bought $3250 wish I'd of bid a few licks on that one. Guess its better to not bid and go home with your money for the next sale than buy something you wish you hadn't.

Nice remembrance. I have not regretted buying anything at auction, but regretted NOT buying something many times. Auctions can be a terrible time waster, get there early enough to size things up, look them over only to have the item your most interested in sell towards the very end. Then have it sell higher than your hoped for price. Go home then with a few trickets from the hayrack. gobble

Larry, if you would sort this out to small paragraphs, one could follow it without a ruler and probably enjoy the contents. As is it gets scanned over.

Had a chance to buy a MM G6 diesel about 20 years ago for cheap compared to what they're worth nowadays. Had the big fenders, pretty straight, ran and drove good. Got talked out of making the acquisition by different folks, not my lovely by the way. Nobody ever bought it or did anything with it for that matter till the guy that owned the fencerow it was sitting in wanted it gone. He goes down to haul it out but it doesn't fit on his trailer, so he busted it up into pieces small enough to make it fit and it went to scrap. Sad thing was, that happened about 3 weeks before I asked uncle Jim about maybe taking it home. He was still mad and I was just about sick. DP

your right,,sorry my mistake,,I didnt realize my story was going to be so long when I started typing it.

I agree.

Nice story. And I had no problem following it. Maybe my brain is scrambled too so can read it perfectly

Seems easy to follow to me too,don't see a problem.

Larry ...... I read your post and re-read it ..... one thing missing from a great story. What did it sell for?

I don't know. There was an Oliver Super 77 gas on a sale last fall,ran but the manifold was cracked. If I had bought it though,I wouldn't have bought the 500 orchard,so I guess it all worked out.

If I'm not mistaken,wasn't Charles Snyder a Sheppard Diesel dealer back in the day?

It sold for under 2000 dollars,dont remember exactly how much.

(quoted from post at 08:06:44 03/04/18) It sold for under 2000 dollars,dont remember exactly how much.

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The price may have drastically changed if two people were voting so don't kick yourself to hard. I was trying to buy a 1900 Oliver. It needed a lot of work.
It started out real cheap. I was the first one in. Another kid started bidding against me so I ran the bid up about $500 more than I planned. I didn't get it but I made the kid pay for it. I guess that wasn't very nice of me.

You're too much like me. I only think of buying things I want to keep. In a situation like your story, maybe be like the American Pickers and "flip it".

Heck Larry I kick myself at just about once each week when I see what some things brought. LOL Sad thing is some times the selling side goes the same way.

Is there one that sticks in your mind,,when you were at the sale? Sometimes maybe talking to a friend or neighbor and not paying attention?There must be one that sticks in your mind? lol

Been there, done that. Just a week ago, I was at a farm sale that had a 1969 Dodge 500 grain truck. Seen plenty of F500 Fords, seen plenty of C50 Chevies, never seen a Dodge 500. This one had a V8 engine, hoist, good tires, and they even threw in an extra rear end for it, JUST IN CASE YOU EVER NEED IT. (Don't know the story behind it...) No rust on the thing, good wooden bed, the truck had been shedded it's whole life, paint was original, just slightly faded. They had the thing idling for about an hour before they sold it. The engine purred, the only issue the truck had was an alternator that was screaming, easily fixed with a couple of small bearings and brushes.
The really neat thing about this truck was the engine access. The hood tilted back like a normal truck, but the two fenders had hinges on them on each side of the radiator so that the fenders swung away from the truck, and when swung away, both headlights faced each other. Both of these swinging fenders worked great and the release levers could be pushed in with your pinky finger. IMO, Dodge had a wonderful idea back then.
I guess the problem is that I'm not a Dodge man. I don't hate them, I just don't have much love for them. So with that stuck in my head, I didn't bid on it.
The auctioneer had a hard time getting $1,000 for it. Geesh, a set of new tires could eat that up in no time. I feel I could have held on to this truck for a few months and sold it during wheat or grain harvest and tripled or doubled my money.
Somebody got a good truck.

Larry, not one that got away from me, but another. Collect wagon wheel lights and there was one that was really nice. Bidding started and there was only one other bidder. I ended up with it and then this woman came out of nowhere complaining that she did not get to bid on it and if she would have she would now own it. Auctioneer asked if I would sell it to her and I said yes for xxx amount of dollars. You can guess where that went. Remember the old saying about He77 has no fury.

A horse farm about 1/2 mile up the road from me changed hands. There was JD L, painted orange, a hole in one rim but overall not too bad. I tried to start it before the auction started and it lit up so I decided to go after it. My dad just built a new house on 4 acres and thought it would be good for him. Figured I'd to $450. When the auctioneer got to it it wouldn't start. After his lecture on how somebody would find a working item like a TV, cut one wire then buy it cheap, the bidding started. Went back and forth with some old guy and he quit just as it put my max bid. Damned auctioneer kept on and on, 475?...475?.. I'm thinking "OK, it's mine already" but he kept at it till the old guy finally bid 475. The assistant turned to me and said "500?" "Not now pr..." I said. I was pi..ed. What happened to once..twice...SOLD? Long time ago but still sticks in my craw. I still go to some auctions but rarely bring anything home.

I don't regret not buying but I regret selling at an auction. Took a trailer load of tractor parts,auctioner wanted to sell all at once but I said no so he sold about half and they did fair then he sold all rest for 10.00 I have regretted that ever since. I should have brought them back.

One of mine wasn't at an auction, but at a small used tractor dealership about 20 years ago. Had an Allis Chalmers G with a belly mower. It set there quite a while with a flat rear tire. One day on a whim I stopped in and asked. He said a guy had bought it a couple hours earlier, and was coming to get it the next day. I asked what he got for it, and he said $300.00. I later talked to the previous owner, who said he had overhauled it a couple years earlier, and hadn't used it much since. Day late and a dollar short....

The most recent was a JD 4420 combine that was selling up by Guttenberg. I did not need/want it but it was a good machine. I had several people asked me questions about the combine before and during the auction. The combine only had around 3000 hours. I was away from it when they were selling it. It should have taken care of itself. I walked up just as they knocked it off for $2500. Guys over your way see them sell for $10-12K all of the time in good shape.

aRE YOU ON THE iSLAND???????????????Beaver Island

There was a John Deere 330 that sat on a used car lot for a good while which I didn't know about,a guy kept trying to buy it cheap the man at the lot wanted like $2500 for it which for a JD 330 was a steal.So the owner put it in a local private sale and I found out it was to be sold.The guy that was trying to buy it cheap got a surprise when I started bidding got it for
$2750 which was still way cheap,made a good pay day at that auction.

1960,Ford around a F-750,it had two inches of dirt from sitting it the shed,started and ran fine,with bed and hoist brought $100.00. Tow motor at a small engine shop,it took for ever to get a $50.00 dollar bid,I thing it went for $300.00.