Tractor Rarity-vs- Value

It is thought only 11 of these model of tractor were made - the White 4 - 325 4 wh drive. I do not have any association with this tractor. It was on the interweb. Five of these units are thought to still exist today. This would be a 1972 or so model year, the end of White Farm Equipment Co. The assembly line was shut down @ 11 units. The tractor in this picture was waiting on some transmission or over-under repair. What would keep keep this tractor from being worth as much as a MM-UDLX. I have heard of auction prices of 160,000 for UDLX's. There are supposedly 40-50 MM-UDLX operating units still existing today and only 5 White 4 - 325's existing today. Does rarity relate to tractor value ?

Yes and no. Yes if the tractor defines a special configuration (like UDLX or steamers) Not so much if the tractor is within a much larger, mult-manufacturer class like articulated 4X4. Though the tractor is limited production, there are thousands of that class and age in use or collections. My opinion, Jim

At times it can. That 4WD may be rare, but it's not small be any means. A UDLX would fit in more garages, shops, etc. than that thing. Don't really think a whole lot of people are going to be beating each other up to buy it. Stranger things have happened though.

It's a White, so it would be a post 1975 tractor. And what plant was it made at? The Oliver plant in Charles City? They closed in '93. Sounds like that tractor may have been made in '92. I recall seeing them at Farm Progress Days, but don't think it was there for more than two shows/years.

Mike

There were only 4 made. 2 with 3406 Cats, 1 that had a cummins and one that supposedly had a Detroit but all 4 ended up with 3406s in the end. Not 1972 either, White 4 wheel drives werent even being built in 1972. The 4-150 and 4-180 didnt come out until 1974. The 325 project took place in the 85-88 time frame and was finally cancelled when tractor production moved from Charles City to Coldwater Ohio and It was decided to leave the 4 wheel drive market. One tractor was dismantled and used for a test sled. 3 tractors were sold with 2 being complete and one being partially disassembled at the liquidation auction in 1993. 2 stayed in Charles City and are still there working on a local farm with the partially disassembled one being put back together with 3306 engine and 4-270 engine frame to get it back operational. The third one in youre picture worked on a farm in Pennsylvania until it had transmission troubles. It sold on auction to a collector supposedly from Nebraska but last the last known actual location of the tractor was a restoration shop somewhere in Virginia.

1972 is closer to the beginning of White Farm Equipment, than the end. And I'm thinking that this machine was made closer to 1988 or so. Others will know better. As far as value, there certainly is a demand for these old beasts, but likely not to the UDLX levels of value. I think the photo you shared is one of the sale photos from the machine that was sold a few years ago for around $50k. And reportedly, they spent $30k on repairing it.

Dang! Now THAT is detail! Many people dont know their own families that well.

I got to go sit in the 2 in Charles city last March and talk to some of the guys that were there when they were built.

Stand corrected on manufactured date. This model must not show a correlation between rarity and value. Due to it's massive size it appears it would be hard to transport to a tractor show. And maybe it is not as old a tractor as a UDLX. Possibly age of the unit has to be a factor along with very low production numbers.

Not necessarily.

A particular model of tractor might be 'rare' because no one wanted to buy it in the first place.

The Tractor Data link below might shed some info on the tractor .... not on the value. Scroll all the way down. I never heard of only 40-50 UDLX's still kicking. I think (not sure) that there were about 130 made.
Untitled URL Link

Does rarity mean value? No. If it did, I'd be sitting on a gold mine with the Oliver 500 Orchard, serial number 3 with a prototype tag. The only one in the world. How many Oliver 600s have you seen? I have one of those too. Fewer made than the Super 44 or 440, but not real desirable or valuable. More of a small cult following, and even then, a collector would wait for the next one to surface before they'd give much for mine.

This post was edited by rrlund on 06/19/2023 at 03:13 pm.

Some people dont want to.

HA!!

Mike

Have heard numbers of 25 fully, cosmetically and mechanically restored UDLX existing and in operating condition. Others claim there are maybe 50 in existence today in varying states of condition. There is a serial number registry kept of UDLX units by a poster from MO or Kans. I think he has between 65 and 85 serial numbers recorded of units with approximate locations. I understood that 125 units were sold and 25 were sent back to the factory since they did not sell in the allotted time. They seem to maintain a very high value.

tractor data states they were only made during the 1984 model year

(quoted from post at 17:35:17 06/19/23) Have heard numbers of 25 fully, cosmetically and mechanically restored UDLX existing and in operating condition. Others claim there are maybe 50 in existence today in varying states of condition. There is a serial number registry kept of UDLX units by a poster from MO or Kans. I think he has between 65 and 85 serial numbers recorded of units with approximate locations. I understood that 125 units were sold and 25 were sent back to the factory since they did not sell in the allotted time. They seem to maintain a very high value.

Click to expand...

1206SWMO has a list of UDLX tractors. Maybe he'll chime in here. Looks like it's been a couple months since he's posted here.

The IH 7288 2+2 is probably a closer example to the White 4-325 only 19 produced. The linked Machinery Pete article has 4 examples listed there. I really have no other dog in this fight. The MM UDLX in my opinion got charmed early on when only a few superb examples had been restored. Now the glorified nostalgia continues. Do not get me wrong they are very unique tractors.
IH 7288 info

For something to have value there has to be more people willing to put out some Buck$ to buy one than there are available to buy.

The rarity alone can fetch extra dollars, yes. But there has got to be the desire out there to own that rarity, for it to bring the real high dollars. This second scenerio here, is what you see going on with the UDLX's. Alot of desire out there to own a factory specimen of the UDLX.

A UDLX is unique, and that uniqueness is noticed by just about anybody out there in the public. You can't really say that about this White tractor. If an average Joe seen this model of a White, he probably wouldn't notice any uniqueness to it, unless he was a 'White' guy, and really up on the production numbers. If the person in question wasn't a guy like that, he probably wouldn't take notice to a tractor like this, and likely not even research it's rarity. So, ... you can kind of see how the 'taking notice' and the 'desire to own one of these' kind of goes down the drain on these so to speak, even though the rarity.

Back to the uniqueness, several makers made big 4WD tractors. Nothing earth shattering to see one in general. Maybe not this model of White. But my point being, how many people are going to take special notice when they see this particular White produced tractor??? I'm guessing not many, without the low production number being brought to thier attention.

There's "rare" and then there's "rare and no one cares."

Unfortunately the White falls into the "rare and no one cares" category. On the other hand you have guys getting in fist fights at auctions to buy a similarly-sized and equally-rare IH 7388, 7588 or 7788.

White lacks the wide market appeal and long heritage that IH has. Yes, White's lineage can be traced back to Oliver blah blah blah, but IH was always IH until it ceased to exist. Oliver collectors collect Olivers, not Whites. My guess is if it were Oliver green it would have a much wider appeal.

This post was edited by BarnyardEngineering on 06/20/2023 at 03:34 am.