auction results

they had my wife's family auction last Saturday. I had posted a question on value of her Grandfather's 444 IH tractor (surprisingly no replies). I had guessed it would probably go between $3000-4000 based on others i've seen posted with some in the $5000 asking price range.

I ended up getting it for $2800 which I thought was decent and we're keeping it in the family. there was a guy behind me talking before they started on the tractor saying he thought it would go for $1500 which i thought was nuts.

its a gaser, 1 owner bought new. 97% of its life stored inside. Serial # 6709 which places it as a 1969 model. tach broke at 1700ish hours. . I'm guessing it has 4-5000 hours as her Grandpa used it for everything and only used the 686 he had for tillage and picking corn. the family had sold off about 1/3-1/2 of the equipment already so there wasn't a big equipment crowd. some antiques they had (same family on this farm since 1890) went crazy like a broken tin piano brought $400. a pile of old cotton Salt bags sold for $200 and so forth.

some other equipement prices
-IH 444 tractor described above $2800
-VERY nice IH 12 ft disk (probably late 1970s/pre CaseIH time) $850 (stole)
-old 4 row JD corn planter. fert boxes semi rusted $100
-2 frame type hay mow hay elevators $400-500
-2 row ford 3pt cultivator $125
-Hay wagon (wood so-so) on NICE IH 315 running gear $750
-Kilbros 350 bushel gravity box on old Sears running gear converted to rubber tires (all tires bad) $300
-JD/Van brunt 13 hole grain drill in pretty good shape but bad tires $60
-dual chain hay/grain elevator only used for ear corn $150 I should have bought to resell
-IH sickle-bar mower. later model in good shape $700ish
-old Pa-pac silo filler supposedly only used 1 year according to Grandpa $250 (amish bought)
-misc horse gear harnesses, trees ect that had been hanging on the barn wall for 70+ years brought $1 to 10. Mostly amish buyers
-6 ft 3pt scraper blade (I should have bought) $100
-6 ft 3Pt off brand brush hog with bent 3pt and slice out of deck $310ish
-old wood farm wago i suspect was a weber that had been rebuilt with side extensions from the dealer that sold it (name on them) no running gear brought $350ish
-very old rusty gutter cleaner $25 probably for scrap. didn't think they were going to sell that. hope the scrappers don't use torches inside the barn taking it out.

only a couple tools as he was no mechanic and didn't have much and what little he had was stolen from the machine shed years ago.
household stuff sold low as expected. we picked up a few pieces of furniture cheap.

Also have an IH heat/house for the 444 (I think, maybe he had it on the 686??) had to buy back the top link for the tractor.

need to find a manual for the tractor as well as my FIL cannot find it.

Family tractors are always nice to have. You got a good little tractor that will still be very useful at a reasonable price. Tom

You did good on tractor beings as you know the history on tractor. Hard to get bidders on small lots of equipment . But overall I would be happy with results

Glad you got to keep the tractor in the family.

Thanks for posting the results. I think you did good on the tractor and am glad you got it . Did this auction have the buyers premium added on? Getting so its pretty common for most auctionners here in NY except on livestock at the sale barns.

no buyer premium and they did NOT take credit cards at all my wife wrote the check and they asked her to make it out to cash which i thought was weird and in hindsight i would have said no.. that seems shady

at the end of they day they kept about 22% which i think is high. that counts about $700 in labor and $600 for advertising and $85 for portapotty

they didn't help with anything in the house and didn't provide any tables and that $600 in advertising was poor at best. 2 papers and auction zip and a homemade auction sign in the front yard nothing down at the ends of the road.

they didn't even haul the furniture out of the house. when only 5-6 bidders go in the house to buy the furniture you don't get much of a price out of it. luckliy my daughter bought a VERY VERY nice pristine dining room hutch/buffet for $45.. so at least its staying in the family and she got a good deal.

I imagine no credit cards didn't help get people out either. there wasn't much of a crowd in my opinion.

he was good with the antiques and looked over each piece before selling. 36ish crystal stemware glasses sold for $3. luckily my wife's grandmother can't see or hear very well which was ok so she didn't hear how bad they were giving her stuff away.

Peaceful creek has 2 parts manuals and 1 engine service manual. $75 for the 3 of them. Without going to dealership it's the where I got the ones for my Case 580. Good on you for keeping it in the family.
Peaceful creek